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Early Jamaica
Jamaica has a vivid and painful history, marred since European
settlement by an undercurrent of violence and tyranny. Jamaica
was founded around 700AD by the peaceful Arawak Indians,
who had migrated from South America. They named the island
Xaymaca and left legacies such as bammy (cassava
bread), barbecue meat (jerk cooking) and the words
'hurricane, hammock, tobacco and canoe, essentials
facets of Caribbean life.
Christopher Columbus first explored Jamaica in 1494 when
it was inhabited by the Arawak Indians, and named it St
Iago.
Sugar and Slaves
Spanish settlers arrived in 1510, raising cattle and pigs,
and introducing two things that would profoundly shape the
island's future: sugar and slaves. By the end of the
16th century, the Arawak population had been entirely wiped
out, suffering from hard labour, ill-treatment and European
diseases to which they had no resistance. The Spanish were
the first to import African slaves to work on tobacco and,
later, sugar plantations. Unable to find gold and other precious
metals on Jamaica, the Spanish saw little use for the island
and hardly resisted the invasion of British soldiers in 1655.
Pirates
With the English came a period of sprawling and prosperous
sugarcane plantations and piracy. Slaves were imported
from Africa to work the plantations of wealthy Englishmen,
many of whom lived in England lavishly spending their Jamaican
profits. Investment and further settlement hastened as profits
began to accrue from cocoa, coffee and sugarcane production.
But with Britain constantly at war with France or Spain, effective
control of the island was entrusted to buccaneers, a motley
band of seafaring miscreant, political refugees and escaped
criminals. The city of Port Royal, across the harbour
from Kingston, became a haven for pirates, until the devastating
1692 earthquake, when most of the city sank and a new capital,
Kingston was founded.
Although the pirates had their day, the English continued
to prosper from Jamaica's agriculture. Slave rebellions didn't
make life any easier for the English, as the Maroons,
escaped slaves, engaged in ambush-style campaigns and constantly
fought the British.
Life of the Slaves
New slaves from Africa, mainly Fante, Ashanti, Coromantee
Ibo and Yoruba people were continual imprisoned
and shipped over from Africa, then put to work on sugar plantations
in appalling conditions. The slaves would have to be up at
4 o'clock and work in the fields until sunset. A worker would
yield up to 6 tonnes of raw crop a day. Slaves were burnt,
strangled and otherwise tortured to terrorise them into obedience.
Slave revolts punctuated the 18th and 19th centuries, and
freedom was finally granted in 1838. A drop in sugar prices
eventually led to a depression that resulted in an uprising
in 1865. The following year, Jamaica became Crown Colony,
and conditions improved considerably. Introduction of bananas
crops reduced dependence on sugar.
Post Slavery
Independence from Britain was granted in 1962. The government
became a democracy, with a Prime Minister and a cabinet serving
at the head. Since then, Jamaica has had its economic and
political ups and downs, the most noted of which occurred
in the 1970s, when Prime Minister Michael Manley's
leftist statements and affiliations with Cuba led to other
nations to fear the country would become Communist.
Today, the island economy relies mostly on agriculture and
tourism industries. The sugar industry is the oldest continually
operating industry in Jamaica, generating the third largest
foreign exchange (after tourism and bauxite, not counting
illegal exports).
Sugar is actually the largest employer of labour, directly
employing more than 50,000 workers with a bright future. The
processing of sugarcane is one of the vital industries of
the country to the extent that small pieces of cane are often
found in household refrigerators for chewing. |
