Propaganda in 17th-century pamphlets on Jamaica : A corpus-assisted discourse study (1655-1700)

This paper examines features of propaganda discourse in a corpus of 17th-century English pamphlets about the settlement in Jamaica (PonJ_corpus) from 1655 to 1700. Drawing upon Taylor’s definition of propaganda as “the deliberate attempt to persuade people to think or behave in a desired way” (2003: 12), the study investigates how pamphlets were crafted to encourage migration to the new colony. By analysing discourse strategies that highlight the colony’s economic potential, this paper combines corpus-based methods with discourse analysis, interpreting quantitative data within the socio-political context of the time. The findings demonstrate how collocational patterns surrounding key terms contribute to the ‘spin’ of the message, aiming to shape readers’ perceptions and behaviours toward migration.