Graham, AB; (2018) Jamaican legislation and the transatlantic constitution, 1664-1838. The Historical Journal , 61 (2) pp. 327-355. 10.1017/S0018246X1700022X.

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Abstract

Between 1664 and the end of enslaved labour in 1838, the volume of legislation passed by the house of assembly in Jamaica increased exponentially. This reflected its growing legislative capacity and political power, in relation to the metropole, but also the enormous demand for laws and law-making among interest groups in colonial society. The process very closely resembled parallel developments in the British Isles and North America before 1783, where legislatures of all types saw sustained rises in the scale and scope of their output. Jamaica and its assembly were therefore part of a wider process of political development in which colonial legislative power helped to lay the groundwork for responsible government and popular sovereignty, and within the framework of the ‘transatlantic constitution’ rejected by the mainland colonies in 1783. The process amounted to transatlantic legislative revolution.

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