Thomas Thistlewood (16 March 1721 ‒ 30 November 1786) was an English planter in colonial Jamaica. Thistlewood migrated to the western end of the Colony of Jamaica where he became a plantation overseer, plantation owner and slaver. His lengthy and detailed diary is an important historical document chronicling the history of Jamaica and slavery there during the 18th century. The diary includes a detailed account of the brutal treatments of his slaves, including his torture and rape of enslaved women. Thistlewood routinely punished his slaves with fierce floggings and other cruel and gruesome punishments. Known as 'The Diary of Thomas Thistlewood', the 14,000-page diary provides a detailed record of his behaviour and deep insight into plantation life and owner-slave relations. In 1751, he became overseer of a sugar plantation called Egypt; within days he began raping the enslaved women. His diary chronicles 3,852 acts of rape with 138 black women. He systematically raped enslaved girls and women; those that ran away were whipped and put in chains, collars, or placed in field gangs. He sometimes raped more than one woman in a night, after which he would give them some coins "for their troubles". In 1753, Thistlewood received a runaway slave's head, and he put it on a pole on the road near his home. Thistlewood invented a form of torture called Derby's dose, which entailed flogging the slave, rubbing lime juice on their wounds, and having a fellow slave defecate into their mouth. In 1767, Thistlewood purchased a 160-acre plantation called Breadnut Island Pen; by 1779 he had 32 enslaved people rearing livestock and growing provisions. All of his slaves were branded with his initials, "TiTy", on their right shoulders. At Breadnut Pen, Thistlewood made attempts to "match" his male and female slaves; despite this he continued to rape the women. By 1781, Thistlewood was becoming regularly ill with syphilis and his sexual abuse declined as a result. For most of the 1780s, Thistlewood's slaves suffered with malnutrition while growing produce for the island's white population. If they were caught eating the produce, they were brutally flogged. While his slaves complained of hunger and starvation, Thistlewood entertained guests with lavish meals. He never married but he had a long term partner, an enslaved woman called Phibbah, with whom he had a son. In 1784, he became so ill that he had difficulty writing in his diary, and died at