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Jamaica: the Maroons, the Black Irish, and perhaps the last Black Pope
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mike111: [QB] [qb] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Mike111: Before going on with Jamaica history: please note - The Jamaican governments history and Henry Louis Gates Jr. history of Jamaica, both clearly indicate and unquestioning acceptance of the Albino version of history, which we prove on a daily basis to be lies. So critical judgment should be exercised when reading this short version from the Gates Jamaican history site. [/qb][/QUOTE]This is more from the Africana site. English Conquest On May 10, 1655, an English expedition, commanded by Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables, landed at the present-day coastal town of Passage Fort, in the southeastern parish of Saint Catherine. This expedition, which had failed to capture Hispaniola, proceeded to claim the island of Jamaica for England. At the time of the English conquest, the Spaniards were unable to effectively resist the invasion because only about 500 of them were armed with weapons. The English ordered the Spanish colonists to deliver all of their slaves and goods and leave the island. Some followed these orders, but a group led by Don Cristabal Arnaldo de Isasi remained and put up guerrilla resistance to the English. Isasi freed the slaves, many of whom retreated with the Spanish rebels into the hills. From there, the Spanish and the freed blacks who had joined them frequently raided and waged guerrilla warfare on English settlements. Isasi, finally overwhelmed by English forces, fled to Cuba for reinforcement. Some of the blacks who had fought with Isasi, recognizing that the Spanish case was lost, defected to the English. A black regiment fighting for the English, led by the former slave Juan de Bolas, proved a decisive factor in the final defeat of the Spanish, marked by Isasi's retreat in 1660. Jamaica's English-appointed governor Edward D'Oyley compensated the black regiment by officially recognizing their freedom and granting them landholdings. Other formerly Spanish-owned slaves remained autonomous of the colonial administration, living in their own communities as maroons. Spain officially ceded the island to England under the Treaty of Madrid in 1670. The English established a representative system of government, giving white settlers the power to make their own laws through an elected House of Assembly, which acted as a legislative body. The Legislative Council, whose members were appointed by the governor, served an advisory function and took part in legislative debates. This system lasted until it was replaced in 1866 by the crown colony system of government, which stripped the island elite of most of its political power. THE SLAVE TRADE AND PLANTATION ECONOMY The English encouraged permanent settlement through generous land grants. In 1664 Sir Thomas Modyford, a sugar plantation and slave owner in Barbados (a Caribbean island of the Lesser Antilles chain), was appointed governor of Jamaica. He brought 1,000 English settlers and black slaves with him from Barbados. Modyford immediately encouraged plantation agriculture, especially the cultivation of cacao and sugarcane. By the early 1700s sugar estates worked by black slaves were established throughout the island, and sugar and its by-products dominated the economy. Other economic activities, including livestock rearing and the cultivation of coffee and pimento (allspice), developed as well. With the establishment of the plantation system, the slave trade grew. Slaves of both genders and every age were found in all facets of the island's economy, in both rural and urban areas. They were laborers on plantations, domestic servants, and skilled artisans (tradesmen, technicians, and itinerant traders). The wealth created in Jamaica by the labor of black slaves has been estimated at £18,000,000, more than half of the estimated total of £30,000,000 for the entire British West Indies. It has been postulated that the profit generated by the 'triangular trade' (involving sugar and tropical produce from the British Caribbean colonies, the trade in manufactured goods for slaves in Africa, and the trade of slaves in the British Caribbean) financed the Industrial Revolution in Britain. More than 1 million slaves are estimated to have been transported directly from Africa to Jamaica during the period of slavery; of these, 200,000 were reexported to other places in the Americas. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Akan, Ga, and Adangbe from the northwestern coastal region known as the Gold Coast (around modern Ghana) dominated the slave trade to the island. Not until 1776 did slaves imported from other parts of Africa-Igbos from the Bight of Biafra (southern modern Nigeria) and Kongos from Central Africa-outnumber slaves from the Gold Coast. But slaves from these regions represented 46 percent of the total number of slaves. The demand for slaves required about 10,000 to be imported annually. Thus slaves born in Africa far outnumbered those who were born in Jamaica; on average they constituted more than 80 percent of the slave population until Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807. When Britain abolished the institution of slavery in 1834, Jamaica had a population of more than 311,000 slaves and only about 16,700 whites. By the mid-1700s planters were distributing small plots of marginal land to their slaves, both men and women, as a way to offset the cost of providing food. However, the slaves were expected to tend their own crops only during their limited free time. Although slaves were not allotted much time to work the plots, they were able to produce enough not only for their own subsistence but also for sale. A vibrant marketing network developed among the slaves throughout the island, creating what is referred to as a proto-peasantry. In the British mind, slaves were no more than property and merchandise to be bought and sold. On this premise, the British enacted a whole system of slave laws aimed primarily at policing slaves. In general, the premise that slaves were no more than property allowed slave owners to treat them brutally. The severity of this brutality varied. Slaves on large sugar estates generally suffered the harshest punishments, while those on smaller estates and in towns received somewhat better treatment. FREE COLOURED COMMUNITY White men on the island often had relations with black women (slaves or free), giving rise to a coloured population. ('Coloured' is a term in the former British colonies for people of mixed European and African descent.) Children of free women were born free, but those of slave women were born enslaved. Some coloureds who were born as slaves were freed through manumission (the formal release of a slave) by their fathers. Masters at times also manumitted black slaves for various reasons, such as in reward for a lifetime of servitude. Free coloureds formed a middle group on the social ladder, between blacks and whites. They disassociated themselves from the slaves but were not accepted by the whites. The number of free people of color (including free blacks and free coloureds) increased significantly between 1722 and 1830, from 800 individuals to 44,000. Free coloureds were principally urban dwellers, participating in several phases of economic life. They were artisans, merchants, mechanics, and professionals-lawyers, schoolteachers, and journalists. A few inherited plantations from their fathers. Free coloured women excelled as traders, shopkeepers, innkeepers, and housekeepers. Many free coloureds were well educated, as education was valued as the vehicle for upward social mobility and 'acceptance' by whites. Many coloureds attended universities in Britain, and their children outnumbered whites at the Wolmers Free School in Kingston, which was established for the white population in the 1700s. In 1837 there were 430 children of free coloureds attending this school, out of a student body of 500. Despite their numbers and the education and wealth some obtained, free coloureds had no civil rights. Therefore they were caught up in a continuous struggle for equal rights. They protested primarily through petitions and memorials rather than open violent conflicts. In 1813 a petition, signed by more than 2,400 free coloureds, demanding rights to give evidence in court was delivered to the House of Assembly, which acceded. In 1816 free coloureds petitioned for full political and civil rights on the grounds that they were taxpayers but were not represented. They threatened to cease paying taxes until they were granted these rights. Under pressure from free coloureds, the local authorities gradually removed legal restrictions, culminating on December 21, 1830, with the Act for the Removal of All Disabilities of Persons of Free Condition. MAROON COMMUNITIES Since their arrival on the island, blacks had resisted their enslavement. They engaged in what is referred to as atomized forms of resistance, such as foot dragging (work slowdowns, or 'go-slows'), destruction of property, theft, absenteeism from work, and the covert murder of whites. But resistance also took the forms of large-scale rebellions and establishment of maroon communities. Maroonage, or the establishment of communities by runaway slaves, began with the slaves imported by Spain and continued throughout the period of slavery in Jamaica. The maroon communities waged relentless warfare against British colonialism. Beginning in the 18th century, two distinct groups of maroon communities emerged: the so-called Leeward Maroons in the south central, or leeward, part of the island and the so-called Windward Maroons in the north and northeast. The Leeward Maroons had an elected chief, and the villagers were divided into politico-military units. Their system was stratified based on ability, especially military ability, and a careful division of labor. Some were proficient in attacking plantations to steal provisions and free slaves, especially female slaves because men outnumbered women in the maroon communities. Others were hunters, hunting wild hogs; others made salt, necessary for meat preservation; and others cleared the ground for the women to plant crops, such as plantains, sweet corn, bananas, cacao, pineapples, cassava, and sugarcane. The Windward Maroons did not have a central leader as did the Leeward. They developed a somewhat loose federation of communities or quasi-autonomous villages under different leadership, having a politico-military structure that made for democratic inter- and intra-group relationships. Nanny Town (named after its legendary leader, Nanny; now known as Mooretown), which was situated deep in the Blue Mountains, was reputed to have the greatest warriors among the Windward Maroons, numbering 300 in their ranks. Both the Leeward chief, Cudjoe, and Nanny were notorious for their continued and relentless attack on British colonization and slavery. Nanny fought uncompromisingly against slavery. In addition to being a feared warrior, she was said to be an obeah woman, possessing supernatural powers that she allegedly used in repelling and defeating British attacks. For reasons of security, maroon villages were located in the relatively inaccessible mountains, giving them a commanding view of the lowlands. Guards were posted at the entrance to watch and alert communities at the approach of the British by blowing the abeng, the conch shell or cow horn, as was the practice in parts of West Africa. The boldness of the maroons, their prowess in guerrilla warfare, and their knowledge of the terrain made them a serious threat to English colonization, the plantation economy, and slavery itself. They plundered and burned plantations, captured slaves, took arms and ammunition, and killed English soldiers who ventured into the interior. Their continued successes against English forces inspired slaves, many of whom escaped the plantations to join maroon communities or to establish new ones. The maroons were such a formidable force that the English were unable to subjugate them after 85 years of intense, bitter struggle. The English conceded defeat in 1739, ending the First Maroon War. In the peace treaties, the maroons won their independence and freedom. They were granted semiautonomous government status and land in return for halting all hostilities against whites, obligating themselves to assist in case of foreign invasion, destroying any new maroon communities, and capturing and returning future runaways. Thus, on the fringes of the slave-plantation economy established by Europeans, semiautonomous communities of free blacks developed, with their own economy and culture partially based on African traditions. An uneasy peace prevailed until July 1795, when 580 maroons from the maroon community of Trelawny Town revolted against indignities and injustice meted out to them by the authorities. It took considerable force to suppress the revolt, known as the Second Maroon War. The British forces consisted of 1,500 soldiers supported by several thousand militiamen and 100 fierce bloodhounds imported from Cuba in December of that year. In June 1796 the government deported 568 maroons (including men, women, and children) from Trelawny Town and confiscated their land. They sent the maroons first to Nova Scotia, in what later became Canada, and subsequently to Sierra Leone. This deportation effectively deterred further maroon hostilities. Fearing deportation, they collaborated fully with the authorities, especially in suppressing slave revolts. The action of the maroons in suppressing the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865 testifies to their full cooperation with the government. The treaties successfully reduced maroonage and the formation of new maroon communities, but some of the maroon communities that were already established have survived to this day. The surviving maroon communities are Nanny Town; Scott's Hall in the present-day northern parish of Saint Mary; and Accompong (named for Cudjoe's brother, who had distinguished himself as a military leader with the Windward Maroons) in the southwestern parish of Saint Elizabeth. However, the retention of African cultural and political practices within these communities varies. SLAVE REVOLTS Ethnicity was prominent in the organization and execution of slave revolts in Jamaica, especially those during the 17th and 18th centuries. Akan slaves were involved in most revolts. In 1673 about 300 Akan slaves revolted in the north central parish of Saint Ann. In 1690 another Akan rebellion involving 400 slaves broke out on Suttons Estate in the south central parish of Clarendon. After setting the plantation on fire the rebels fled to the hilly interior, from where they conducted continuous raids on nearby plantations. In 1745 Akan slaves revolted in the southeastern parish of Saint Thomas. In 1760 a slave by the name of Tacky, an Akan who had been a chief in Africa, led the most widespread slave revolt in Jamaica's history. Beginning in the northeastern parish of Saint Mary, it soon spread to a number of parishes, including Westmoreland, Saint James, and Clarendon, and to the capital of Kingston. The rebels, inspired by the victory of the maroons in winning their liberty, fought in the same manner in an effort to win their freedom. It took the authorities six months to suppress Tacky's revolt, and by then the rebels had killed 60 whites. Tacky was shot dead by a maroon, and the authorities executed nearly 400 slaves. Other revolts broke out in 1761, 1765, and 1766, but they were quickly crushed by the authorities with the aid of maroons. The most violent slave revolt of the 19th century was the Baptist War, also known as the Christmas Rebellion, in 1831. Led by Samuel Sharpe, a Baptist deacon and domestic slave, the revolt began in Saint James and soon engulfed much of western Jamaica. In its suppression, more than 430 blacks, including Sharpe, were executed. All who were thought to have been associated with the revolt, including white missionaries, were either imprisoned or killed. This revolt was a decisive factor in the British move toward emancipation, in addition to intensified antislavery agitation by the Quakers (Society of Friends) in Britain, led by Thomas Buxton, Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, and Stephen Lushington. APPRENTICESHIP AND EMANCIPATION Full emancipation was a gradual process in the British colonies. The first step occurred with an 1833 legislative act of the British Parliament that proposed a program known as apprenticeship. The act became effective in all the British colonies on August 1, 1834. All slaves' children under the age of six or born after this date were freed, while all others were required to undergo a transitional period as 'apprentices' before full emancipation. The act sought to soften the effects of abolition on slave owners by giving them monetary compensation of £6,161,927 for their loss of property in slaves. The slaves received no compensation. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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