A Brief History
The earliest signs of people on Jamaica are the remains of
the Arawak, an Amerindian society that originated on the north coast of
South America. Arawak peoples migrated to various Caribbean islands,
arriving in Jamaica by the beginning of the eighth century. They were
peaceful and lived by “slash-and-burn” farming. For meat, they bred
pigs and ate iguana, both native to the island. They were highly
skilled in such manual activities as thatching and weaving. In fact,
the hammock was an Amerindian invention that remains with us today; it
is an object which, more than any other, evokes an image of a warm
sunny day on a tropical isle. The Arawak left a legacy of paintings in
places such as Runaway Caves near Discovery Bay, and shards of pottery
found at their settlements near Nueva Sevilla and Spanish Town have
added a little to our knowledge about them. Over 200 Arawak sites have
been identified, and it is said that when the Spanish arrived in
Jamaica there were approximately 100,000 Arawak living on the island.
They called Jamaica “Xaymaca” (“land of wood and water”).
Columbus and the Arrival of Europeans
Columbus first arrived in Jamaica on 5 May 1494 at Discovery
Bay, where there is now a small park in his honor. He stayed for only a
few days but returned in 1502, landing here when the ships of his fleet
became unserviceable; he waited at St. Ann’s Bay for help to arrive
from Cuba. After the death of Columbus in 1505, Jamaica became the
property of his son Diego, who dispatched Don Juan de Esquivel to the
island as Governor.
Esquivel arrived in 1510 and created a base called Nueva
Sevilla near St. Ann’s Bay, from which he hoped to colonize the rest of
the island. The Spanish immediately began subjugating the Arawak
population, many of whom died under the yoke of oppression and of
diseases carried by the Europeans. A number of them committed suicide
rather than live the life created for them by the Spanish.
The site of Nueva Sevilla proved to be unhealthy and
mosquito-ridden, and in 1534 the Spanish founded Villa de la Vega,
today known as Spanish Town. Pig breeding was the main occupation of
these early settlers, but they also planted sugar cane and other crops
that required large numbers of laborers. The number of Arawak had
already fallen dramatically, so the Spanish began to import slaves from
Africa to work the land; the first Africans arrived in 1517.
The opportunities that the island had to offer were never
really exploited by the Spanish. They were much more interested in the
gold and other treasures to be found in South America. However, they
had to protect the shipping lanes in order to get their treasure home,
and this meant keeping hold of as much of the Caribbean (or the
“Spanish Main,” as it was then known) as possible. They fortified the
more strategic islands, but Jamaica was deemed less important than Cuba
or Puerto Rico and, consequently, was poorly protected.
British Rule
In 1654 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England,
dispatched a British fleet to the Caribbean to break the stranglehold
of the Spanish. They were repulsed at Hispaniola by a strong Spanish
force and decided to take Jamaica as a consolation prize. They sailed
into what is now Kingston Bay in May 1655 and sent an ultimatum to the
capital. The small Spanish force considered its position and decided to
retreat, heading to the north coast and sailing to Cuba. Before they
left, they freed their slaves, who fled into the interior of the
island.
The Spanish attempted to retake the island in 1658 at the
Battle of Rio Bueno but were defeated; however, this did not alleviate
Jamaica’s problems. Other European powers began to put pressure on the
defending forces, and British naval power in the area was badly
stretched. Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica, offered a deal
to pirate ships already well established in the area: if the pirates
protected British assets, then they were free to harass enemy shipping
with impunity. They agreed; Modyford issued letters of accreditation
which authorized the pirates to act in the name of the British
Crown.
These “privateers” were welcomed at Port Royal, the English
settlement on the southern tip of Kingston harbor, and it quickly
developed a reputation as the wickedest city in the world. Plunder was
now legitimate business and the city was awash with money and booty
from the numerous pirate raids. There was little evidence of religion
or of the rule of law. Henry Morgan was chief among the pirate leaders.
He and his followers conducted a successful series of bloody raids on
Spanish settlements in the Caribbean, culminating in the sacking of
Panama, the major city of the Spanish Main.
In 1670 the Spanish officially ceded Jamaica to British
rule as part of the Treaty of Madrid, and the British began a
systematic process of settlement, offering land and aid to prospective
settlers. They rescinded their agreement with the privateers and began
the process of evicting them from Port Royal. Henry Morgan was offered
the post of Lieutenant Governor of the island and charged with driving
out his former cohorts. The erstwhile pirate thus became a policeman
during the last years of his life. Morgan died in 1588 before his task
was complete, but nature finished what he had started: Jamaica suffered
a powerful earthquake in 1692, and Port Royal sank into the sea, taking
with it many of the treasures stolen from the Spanish. The surviving
pirates took to the sea once again.
Plantations and Slavery
As the 18th century began, the British colony of Jamaica
was putting the disaster at Port Royal behind it. The trade in sugar
cane and spices was becoming profitable. However, there was a problem.
Plantation work was labor intensive, but there were very few laborers
on the island; the Spanish slaves had disappeared into the inhospitable
interior and the native Arawak had been decimated by disease. The
decision was made to import a work force from West Africa, resulting in
some 600,000 slaves being transported to Jamaica over the next few
decades. One in five slaves died en route, and many more died of
disease once on the island. However, there seemed to be an
inexhaustible supply sailing across the Atlantic. On the back of this
cruel system, Jamaica gradually became the biggest sugar producer in
the world and a very wealthy island indeed.
The colony slowly became better organized. Thirteen
administrative parishes were created, forming the basis of government
that we still see today. The Governor, official voice of the monarch,
commissioned a representative (or custos) in each parish. Powerful
land-owning families organized an Assembly to run the everyday affairs
of the island, but many landowners continued to live in Britain, where
they exerted tremendous influence in Parliament. They ensured that the
interests of Jamaica, or at least their own interests on the island,
were always at the forefront of decisions made in London.
However, even in these early days there were slaves who
fought against the tyranny of the system. The original slaves whom the
Spanish had released after 1655 became known as “Maroons,” from the
Spanish word cimarrón (which means “wild” or “untamed”). They made
their settlements in the hills away from British rule but began to
attack colonists in a program of raids now remembered as The First
Maroon War. British forces suffered constant harassment at their hands
and even named a part of the island “The Land of Look Behind” in
recognition of the surprise attacks they suffered. Eventually the
British began to force the Maroons into more isolated and remote
pockets of land.
This war of attrition ended in 1739, when agreement was
reached between the two sides. The Maroons were allowed self-rule in
certain designated areas in return for not inciting or helping the
plantation slaves. This agreement is at the root of Maroon
self-government today. The slaves themselves also began organizing
revolts (the first in 1760), but their situation remained the same.
Treatment of slaves was for the most part cruel and inhumane, with
family life virtually destroyed as fathers were systematically split
from mothers and their children.
During the American War of Independence, Jamaica came under
threat again from other European powers, which saw Britain’s problem to
the north as a chance to capture its colonies in the Caribbean. Some
islands were taken by the French, but Admiral Rodney saved Jamaica by
defeating the French fleet at the Battle of Les Saintes in 1782.
Jamaica thereafter became an island of strategic importance for the
British, who based a large naval fleet at Fort Charles in Port
Royal.
Emancipation
The French Revolution in 1789 sent ripples of discontent
through the Caribbean. The French peasants’ cry for freedom prompted
another Maroon War on Jamaica, after which many Maroons were deported
to Nova Scotia. There was, however, a growing movement against slavery
in Britain. In 1807 Parliament made the trade in slaves illegal, but
the powerful sugar lobby exerted pressure and slavery continued on the
plantations. The slaves were angry and dispirited, but nonconformist
churches broke the monopoly of the Church of England and encouraged the
slaves to stand up and take action against injustice. This intervention
guaranteed the popularity of these Christian denominations; today, you
will find Baptist and Adventist churches in almost every settlement,
their congregations still as strong today as in the early 1800s.
The momentum for change was growing, and in 1831 a black
lay preacher named “Daddy” Sam Sharpe led a revolt of 20,000 slaves at
Montego Bay. After a campaign of great destruction, the authorities
assured them that slavery would be abolished. Sharpe and approximately
1000 other slaves surrendered peacefully, only to be rounded up and
publicly executed. This news was met with revulsion in Britain, and
moves to liberate the slaves culminated in full freedom in 1838. Many
retreated into the hills to make their own way, the forefathers of
today’s small-scale, self-sufficient farmers.
Unfortunately, being “free” solved none of the problems
suffered by the population. There was no economic infrastructure
outside the plantation system, and power remained in the hands of a
small minority of white and mixed-race individuals. Meanwhile, Asian
laborers were invited to take up the work previously carried out by the
slaves; their descendants can still be found on the island,
particularly around Little London in the west. As a further blow to the
economy, the British Parliament passed the Sugar Equalization Act in
1846 as part of a new free-trade policy. Jamaica’s protected market was
effectively gone.
In October 1865 at Morant Bay, there was another uprising,
led by Baptist minister Paul Bogle and by George Gordon, a mulatto
(mixed-race) landowner. It brought savage retribution from the
authorities, and both leaders were executed. But it prompted the
dissolution of the Jamaica Assembly, which was dominated by plantation
owners. The island became a Crown Colony ruled directly from London,
and over the next few years there were several reforms to its political
and social systems.
As the sugar trade declined in importance, economic
disaster loomed. Fortuitously, another crop found favor withthe
industrial world: Jamaica became the island of bananas. The first
consignments were exported in 1866 and, within a few years, thousands
of tons were being shipped to markets in the US and Britain. The boats
carrying the banana crops also fostered the beginnings of the tourist
trade. The first visitors arrived as passengers on them, spending time
around Port Antonio. Charmed by the tropical paradise, they quickly
spread the word about the beauty of Jamaica.
Still there was little change in conditions for the black
majority, who had no economic or political power. The world-wide
depression of the 1930s brought a new wave of demonstrations in
Jamaica, and a number of individuals emerged to lead the people and
pave the way for nationhood. Marcus Garvey called for black
self-reliance, and Alexander Bustamante formed the Industrial Trade
Union and later the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). The Jamaica Trades
Union Congress and the National Workers Union allied themselves to the
People’s National Party (PNP), led by Norman Manley in opposition to
Bustamante. Together, these organizations fought for local rule, which
in 1944 resulted in universal voting rights for adults.
At the same time, the early years of World War II brought
American tourists who were no longer able to travel to Europe on
holiday. Jamaica’s popularity as a tourist destination was now
undeniable.
Independence and Democratic Rule
In the postwar period there continued to be constitutional
changes, including self-government for Jamaica in 1959. Britain hoped
to create a Federation of Caribbean Islands in the region. But the
Jamaicans voted instead for full independence, which became official on
6 August 1962. Jamaica is also a nation within the British
Commonwealth.
Since independence the political culture of Jamaica, which
started out with such confidence and optimism, has been fraught with
problems. Violence and corruption have been constant factors in the
political process.
From 1962 until 1972, the JLP held power. The party’s broad
aims were to support capitalist policies and to continue close ties
with Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth. In 1972, however, the
left-wing PNP was elected with a massive majority but with little
change in the economic power of the people. Michael Manley, son of
Norman, led the party and pushed for policies that brought Jamaica
closer to independent nonaligned countries. Manley was made out to be a
second Castro, foreign investment quickly dried up, many wealthy
Jamaicans left the island, and the economy collapsed. The uncertain and
volatile situation led to gang violence, and Jamaica seemed to be
heading for civil war. In 1979 the JLP came back to power following a
campaign that saw the deaths of several hundred people. Its leader,
Edward Seaga, reintroduced capitalist policies and foreign investment
began to trickle back.
Jamaica in the 1990s
Since 1993, the PNP has once again been in power, this time
under the leadership of Prime Minister Percival Patterson. He and his
party are charged with forging a positive path for the people of
Jamaica. Energy is being focused initially on using the cultural wealth
of the island to create a real national identity. But the problem of
economic and social inequality remains, and violence, which accompanies
political allegiance, remains a part of everyday life in the ghettos of
Kingston.
Notwithstanding its status as a member of the British
Commonwealth, Jamaica now looks much more toward the US for its future.
Its proximity to the US — only 90 minutes from Miami by air — means
that cultural influences for the young are found in American
entertainment media and sports. Jamaica seeks to combine these
influences with its own strong identity to create an independent and
stable society.
