James Hakewill (1778–1843) was an English architect renowned for his illustrated publications. A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica presents various views of towns, bridges, landscapes, and plantation estates. Of the 21 illustrations, nine depict plantations, each accompanied by a descriptive narrative.

This image offers a general view of the Whitney Estate in Clarendon, Jamaica. Researchers have identified as enslaved people houses those visible on the right. Originally owned by Mary Lady Viscountess Dudley and Ward (née Carver, d. 1782), the estate passed to her grandson, John William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1781-1833). Through the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which stated that “reasonable Compensation should be made available to the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves,” his trustees were paid £5,480 13s 1d (equivalent to approximately £547,373.21 in 2024) for the enslaved individuals on his three Jamaican estates—Whitney and Rymesbury in Clarendon, and New Yarmouth in Vere—in November, 1835.

Hakewill describes Whitney as comprising “3,243 acres; of which 160 are in canes. (…) The average crops are 250 hogsheads.” In 1825, the year Hakewill’s book was published, the number of enslaved people on the estate was 271. At its peak in 1811, the number of enslaved people on the estate was 640.

Edward Long (1734–1813), in hisHistory of Jamaica, published in 1774, identifies Whitney as one of the most fertile estates in Jamaica, producing “invariably three hundred hogsheads of sugar per annum, with so little labour upon it, that they [enslaved people] multiply sufficiently to keep up their stock, without having recourse to African recruits.” In the same sanitized manner as Long’s words, the artist depicts several Black men and women at work within an idyllic landscape, seemingly making no effort. This portrayal follows the convention of the time, where plantations were often depicted in a favorable light to appeal to a British white audience.