Fire is a material and social process that is different in different periods and places. This article examines the fires set during the largest, and last, uprising of the enslaved in Jamaica, which occurred in the island's western parishes after Christmas 1831. It argues that different sorts of fire were central to processes of production and everyday life under plantation slavery, and examines what the burnings of 1831–32 reveal about the fight against enslavement in the early nineteenth century. A close reading of the records of the trials that followed the uprising details the methods used to burn plantations; the decisions over what to burn and what to save; and the contested social and political relations involved in encouraging or extinguishing the flames. This demonstrates that fire was a material means of creative destruction for the rebels that turned the everyday practices of commodity production and coerced social reproduction against the plantation infrastructure; that destroying buildings by fire both denied and made claims on the land, and sought to remake the Jamaican landscape for other forms of inhabitation; and that the collectivities forged through fire were inevitably shaped by both shared endeavors and tensions within and between groups of plantation inhabitants facing an uncertain future. Overall, it seeks to understand the use of fire in the 1831–32 uprising to fight for freedom as part of a “politics of habitation.”

中文翻译：

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 牙买加火灾，1831–32


火是一种物质和社会过程，在不同的时期和地点有所不同。本文考察了 1831 年圣诞节后发生在牙买加西部教区的最大规模、也是最后一次奴隶起义期间所发生的火灾。文章认为，不同类型的火灾对于种植园奴隶制下的生产和日常生活过程至关重要，并考察了 1831-32 年的焚烧事件揭示了 19 世纪初反对奴隶制的斗争。仔细阅读起义后的审判记录，可以详细了解烧毁种植园的方法；决定烧掉什么和保存什么；以及涉及鼓励或扑灭火焰的有争议的社会和政治关系。这表明，对于叛乱分子来说，火灾是一种创造性破坏的物质手段，他们将商品生产的日常做法和强制社会再生产转向种植园基础设施；用火烧毁建筑物既否认又声称拥有这片土地，并试图重塑牙买加的景观以适应其他形式的居住；经过烈火锻造而成的集体不可避免地受到面临不确定未来的种植园居民群体内部和之间的共同努力和紧张关系的影响。总体而言，它试图了解 1831-32 年起义中使用火来争取自由的情况，作为“居住政治”的一部分。