Comment to Dr Jenny Bulstrode’s paper ‘Black metallurgists and the making of the industrial revolution’, History and Technology (2023). A review of the technology used during the operation of Reeders Pen at Morant Bay Jamaica 1772 to 1783.

Abstract

In her paper, Dr Bulstrode’s disclaims the traditional view that the rolling of iron was discovered by Henry Cort. Rather she attributes this to the enslaved working in a Jamaican foundry based on their experiences of crushing sugar cane. 
Whilst there is no evidence of rolling here, there are documentary exchanges between the Jamaican and British Governments which show evidence for the introduction of the making of malleable iron based on English practices developing at much the same time as the establishment of the Jamaican foundry at Reeders Pen.
As a result of a feared invasion in the 1780s the foundry was demolished and its reestablishment ignored.  It is the resulting correspondence for recompense from the British Government that forms the bulk of discussion. When compared with the developing iron technology at the time there is common ground for assuming that this was exported to Jamaica by 1783.