Thomas Atwood (judge)

Although there are no records of the biographical details of Atwood's life, he wrote the first complete account of Dominica from both a historical and general perspective, The History of the Island of Dominica. In it he explained his belief that Dominica was able to be the best colony that the English held in the West Indies, due to its high proportion of fertile and uncultivated land.

From a historical perspective, he explained that the island had flourished due to the free port of Roseau between 1770 and 1775, however due to mismanagement and "disadvantages" under the French rule after invasion of Dominica in 1778 until their surrender in 1783. However, he expressed his opinion that the island could be turned around with additional cattle and an increase of enslaved Africans for the sugar plantations. The history was published in 1791, and he also published a pamphlet - Observations on the true method of treatment and usage of the Negro slaves in the British West India Islands in which he defended slavery, claiming that the slaves were treated better than English workers back home.{{cite ODNB |last1=O'Shaughnessy |first1=Andrew J. |title=Atwood, Thomas (d. 1793) |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-883 |accessdate=5 May 2020 |date=3 January 2008|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/883 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}

Atwood's description of Dominica during the American Revolution was directly incorporated by Bryan Edwards into his 1793 The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies.{{cite book|last=Craton|first=Michael|title=Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qP2jDoiqy3wC&pg=PA361|year=2009|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-7528-3|page=361}}{{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Bryan|last2=M'Kinnen|first2=Daniel|title=The history, civil and commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xIWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA371|volume=2|year=1806|location=London, England|publisher=James Humphreys|page=128|chapter=Book III}}

Atwood died in the King's Bench prison "at an advanced age, broken down with misfortunes, on 27 May 1793."{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Atwood, Thomas}}

The extinct Dominican green-and-yellow macaw is named Ara atwoodi in honour of his description of it in his 1791 The History of the Island of Dominica.{{cite journal |last1=Ridgway |first1=Robert |title=The Birds of North and Middle America |url=http://www.repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/21333/1/USNMB-50_7_1916_132.pdf |series=Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 50 |date=5 May 1916 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |volume=7 |page=121}}

• {{cite book |last1=Atwood |first1=Thomas |title=The History of the Island of Dominica |year=1791 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofislando00atwo |location=London, England |publisher=J. Johnson |via=Internet Archive}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atwood |first1=Thomas |title=Observations on the True Methods of Treatment & Usage of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands |year=1789 |url=http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?c=1&stp=Author&ste=11&af=BN&ae=N010072&tiPG=1&dd=0&dc=flc&docNum=CW104373470&vrsn=1.0&srchtp=a&d4=0.33&n=10&SU=0LRL+OR+0LRI&locID=nla |location=London, England |publisher=John Mott |via=ECCO |url-access=subscription }}{{cite book|title=The Scots Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Du4RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA132|volume=52|date=1790|publisher=Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran|location=Edinburgh, Scotland|page=132}}

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Category:1793 deaths

Category:Dominica male writers

Category:Dominica historians

Category:British Dominica judges

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:Colony of the Bahamas judges

Category:18th-century historians

Category:18th-century male writers

Category:18th-century judges