Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Jamaica

Throughout my blog post, I talk about how enslaved people pushed emancipation forward through their resistance, which helped them gain full freedom. They resisted through rebellions like the Maroon wars and the Baptist war. They continued to resist during emancipation when they were still under the control of the Planters. They didn’t allow for their spirit to be broken, and they kept fighting for their freedom. This legacy of resisting oppression and colonization continues today in Jamaica. It shows in the different resistance movements that were made and connections they try to keep to their roots.

Resistance continued today:

One movement was the Rastafarian movement. Rastafarianism is a religious and political movement. It was around during the time of enslavement. During enslavement, it was used to resist enslavement. It gave people a way to be more connected to where they came from after being taken from their homes. Planters didn’t want enslaved people to practice African religion, but they did through Rastafarianism, and it allowed them to keep some of their roots. Rastafarianism during enslavement also focused on this idea of repatriation back to Africa. It gave them hope that one day they would be able to return to their homeland. In Jamaica today Rastas, are still around, and they still hold the same ideologies as Rastas during slavery. Rastas today are resisting racism and oppression. It’s used to show unity and to stay connected to their roots.  

Another way movement that continued to show resistance was led by Marcus Garvey. Garvey was born in Jamaica on August 17, 1887, in St. Ann Bay. It was one of the most influential black activists. His ideologies consisted of black nationalism and Pan-Africanism. He believed that black people should return to Africa and that they should be separated from whites. He was against colonization and believed for black people to be successful they had to have their own. In 1914 Garvey started the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Jamaica. When he moved to American in 1916, he started a branch in Harlem, New York. The goal of this organization was to return people to their homeland. His ideologies were controversial during this time. While in America, Garvey was able to gain a strong following in New York and helped changed the way that black people saw themselves. He taught black people how to love themselves, love where they came from, and become more aware of their history. He promoted separatism to prevent black people from assimilating into white society. In 1923 Garvey was arrested for mail fraud and imprisoned for two years. He was deported to Jamaica in 1927. UNIA’s success started to decrease after the organization broke apart, and they were never able to return people to Africa. On June 10, 1940, Garvey died leaving behind a legacy of the resistance like his ancestors. His ideologies still impact today’s society. We see it in movements that are still around today. We see his influence in Rastafarianism, Black and Power Movement.

Dealing with the history of enslavement:

In Jamaica, people are dealing with the history of slavery by keeping the history alive in their culture and fighting for recognition of what’s happened to their people. One way Jamaica people are keeping their history alive is through music. Reggae is a popular music genre in Jamaica. The sound is soulful and freeing. When the artist sings the people listening hold on to every word and beat. Reggae music was influenced by the Rastafarian movement. It could be used to tell the history of slavery and oppression. Or it could be used to tell a story of hope and bring acknowledgment to importance in the black community. Reggae music has been played all around the world. One of the most important artists in Reggae music was Bob Marley. Marley is known all around the world. The type of stories he told in his music ranged from songs about enslavement to songs about everyday life. Instead of just seeing the history of enslavement as a way to oppression, they are empowering themselves with their story and making sure their story is told the way they want to tell it.

Another way that they are dealing with the history of slavery is by asking for reparations. Asking for reparations is a way for them to get recognition for the brutality of what enslaved people went through and caused the British to acknowledge their part in the slave trade. In 2013 Jamaica’s prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller asked the UK’s prime minister David Cameron for reparation. Cameron denied it because he didn’t think reparations or an apology for slavery the was right move. But in 2018 the UK decided to pay reparation to Jamaica. The money would come cash and kind, scholarships, exchange programs, and other activities. They may also help with research in chronic diseases, (Wilkinson). Through reparation, Jamaica can slowly start bettering their country and the British can finally take accountability for their part in the slave trade.

In conclusion, enslaved people pushed emancipation and freedom forward through their resistance to enslavement. They resisted through rebellions and having the strength to keep going. The legacy of resistance lives on in Jamaica society. It shows in the different resistance movements. Like the Rastafarian movement and Garvey’s black nationalism. These movements resisted colonization and racism. They used these movements to unity and stay connected to their root. Jamaica’s deal with history by being empowered by it. They use reggae as a way to tell their story and reparations as a way to get the acknowledgement that they deserve.  

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tXkrYoN1Iq6Trid-lytwZ4SBL0fFH7rR-7MsPkkPfDY/edit#gid=0

Sources:

“Rastafari and Slavery.” Web blog post. Religion. BBC, 10 Sep. 2009. Web 14 Dec. 2020

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/history/reggae.shtml

“Marcus Garvey.” Web blog post. Encycleopaedia Britannica, 10 Sep. 2020. Web Dec. 15 2020

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Garvey

Wiilkinson, Bert. “Caribbean wins reparations payments.” Web article. New York Amsterdam News, 29 Nov. 2018. Web. 14 Dec. 2020 http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2018/nov/29/caribbean-wins-reparations-payments/

Before emancipation was able to happen in Jamaica the slave trade had to first get abolish. For the slave trade to get abolish enslaved people showed resistance. They showed resistance by rebelling, like the maroon wars. Abolishing the slave trade would be the first step towards emancipation. With the help of abolitionists, they were able to abolish the slave trade. It was abolished in Jamaica on January 1, 1808. Once the slave trade ended the British Empire tried to improve enslavement. They sent orders for planters to improve better working and living conditions for enslaved people. The planters didn’t follow these orders and the enslaved people rebelled. Also, abolitionist that lived in Jamaica continued to advocate and support freedom for enslaved people. Throughout the British Colonies in the Caribbean, there were many rebellions. The rebellions helped push for emancipation in the colonies. It was hard for the British empire to gain control over them and the amount of enslaved people that ran away throughout the colonies. Enslaved people participated in emancipation by resisting enslavement. One of the biggest in Jamaica was the Baptist War in 1831. As I stated in my previous blog post the Baptist war was one of the most impactful rebellions. It helped accelerate that process for emancipation, as did the other rebellions throughout the Caribbean.     

On August 1, 1834, enslaved people of Jamaica were emancipation, as were other enslaved people in the British Colonies. Most of the time when someone thinks of emancipation they think about freedom. But this wasn’t the case for people enslaved in Jamaica. Even though they were emancipated, they still weren’t fully free. For enslaved people not much changed after emancipation. They were still required to work on plantations. Continued enslaved was justified as apprenticeships or endured servitude. This meant that all enslaved people over the age of 6 were required to have an apprenticeship for 6 years. They would work for planters without pay for these 6 years. They were working for food and a place to live. They were also only required to work 40 hours a week if they wanted to and they no longer had to work nights. Also, they were able to cultivate their own land under emancipation.

Although there were new emancipation laws planters didn’t follow them. The planters were against emancipation and would do anything to deter the slave people from wanting freedom. An article was written in 1853 by Henry Bleby two years after emancipation, it depicts how planters treated enslaved people after emancipation. He was a resident in the British colony and he talks about how planter scared enslaved people into thinking freedom was bad. One example of how they would deter enslaved people by telling them that once their free they would have to worry about their own expenses, and they wouldn’t be able to pay because they don’t have a job. Or they would threaten to kill them if a war broke out. Planters would punish the enslave people for becoming free or try and break their spirit. One quote from the reading states “he often heard the negro’s complain that the overseers, while flogging them, would say, “You are going to be free but we’ll take it out of you,” (Bleby 132). The planters tried to instill fear into enslaved people and break their spirits. Planters didn’t improve working or living conditions for ex-enslaved people. The planters also received compensation from the government for loss of property of people. The British government was still trying to please the planters while the ex-enslaved people got nothing. Emancipation wasn’t successful in the sense of improving enslavement, but it was successful in the process of ending enslavement. What I mean by this is that planters to abuse the apprenticeship system, so they abused it didn’t last long. On August 1, 1838, the apprenticeship system was abolished. Since there was no longer the apprenticeship system the focus was the shift to full-freedom.

Enslaved people were still under the control of the planters. Planters needed to keep control over the enslaved people because they continued to benefit from enslavement. To ex-enslaved people during emancipation, freedom meant having the freedom to work when you want to work, have good working and living conditions, being able to get pay to be to have a life, having an option of where you want to work, and being treated like a human. The free people of Jamaica didn’t allow the conditions of emancipation to stop them from gaining full freedom.

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Sources:

Bleby Henry. “Death Struggles of Slavery: Being a Narrative of Facts and Incidents, Which Occurred in a British Colony, during the Two Years Immediately Preceding Negro Emancipation.”, London: Hamilton, Adams and Co, 1853, pp. 1-302. https://www.dloc.com/CA01099996/00001/131x?search=emancipation+%3djamaica

 Ingraham, Jim. “Labor in Jamaica after Emancipation.” The Caribbean Experience. Web. 11 Nov. 2020. https://scholar.library.miami.edu/emancipation/jamaica5.htm

Tortello, Rebecca. “The Road to Freedom.” Pieces of the Past. Web. 11. Nov. 2020. http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story006.html

Patrick, Bryan. “Emancipation.” A Celebration of Emancipation. 1994.

Emancipation

Slavery in Jamaica:

The treatment that enslaved people received causes them to rebel and push the fight for freedom forward. Jamaica was mostly used for sugar plantations. Most of the Jamaican population was made up of enslaved people, while the minority were white people. Although there aren’t really any firsthand accounts of what enslavement was like for enslaved people in Jamaica, we can infer based on what was going on in the surrounding islands. Most Caribbean islands were used as a place to have sugar plantations. Being enslaved on a sugar plantation was the most dangerous place. People were constantly dying from harsh conditions. There is a painting made by William Clark in 1823. It depicts what life would be like on a sugar plantation in Antigua. Antigua is another Caribbean land not far from Jamaica and was also used for sugar plantations. The painter shows enslaved women, men, and children working on Bodkins’s estate. You can also see the slave master or drivers holding a whip. Enslaved people had to work constantly with little breaks. Sugar cane could grow more than 10 to 13 feet high. Due to the harsh conditions that enslaved people faced, they resisted enslavement whenever they could. The painting shows what enslavement on a sugar plantation looked like in the Caribbean islands.

The First Maroon War:

           One of the first successful resistances was the First Maroon War. The First Maroon War started in 1728 and end in 1740. Marron was a place of refuge for runaway slaves. The first people to settle in the marrons were descendants of runaway Spanish slaves, and runaway slaves continued to join the settlement. The marron settlements were in the mountains, where they created villages to live in. They were divided into two different groups. There was the Windward in the east and the Leeward in the west. They were located far away from British plantations. The planters on the land didn’t like the maroons. They didn’t like the fact that the maroons were around because it gave their enslaved people a symbol of hope. They believed that maroons shouldn’t be free because it affected their planation. Having the maroons caused their enslaved people to run away to the settlements. The planters were actively aggressive towards the settlements. The British planters wanted to get rid of and control the maroons. But the Maroons were determined to keep their freedom and fought back against them.           

Baptist War:

           There were several revolts started by enslaved people, but one of the biggest was the Baptist War. The Baptist war happened in 1831 in December. It was one of the biggest wars in the British Colonies. The war lasted 11 days, and it is also known as the Christmas Rebellion. Planters were worried about Britain abolishing slavery because of talk in Parliament. During this time, enslaved people were using this time to plan a rebellion. The leader of the rebellion was Samuel Sharpe, “Daddy”. Sharpe had more freedom than mostly enslaved people. He used his freedom to start the revolt and spread the word about it. Sharpe gained inspiration for the revolt from the Demerara Slave Revolt of 1823. Demerara was an Island in the Caribbean that is now a part of Guyana. The Demerara Slave Revolt is one of the major revolts that set the tone in the Caribbean. The Black Regime was a group that helped Sharpe’s revolt. In the end, the Black Regime was defeated. The war ended in 1832 but sporadically continued. The Baptist War was one of the most impactful rebellions that helped accelerate emancipation in Jamaica and throughout the British Colonies.

Timeline:

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Bibliography:

Painting- http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/carviews/p/022zzz0001786c9u00003000.html

Momodu, S. The Baptist War (1831-1832). 2017, July 22.

The Baptist War (1831-1832)

Brereton, Bridget. NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, vol. 70, no. 3/4, 1996, pp. 309–312. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41849783. Accessed 28 Nov. 2020.

History:

           To understand how the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade affected Jamaica, we are going to follow the slave ship the Mary. In 1494 Jamaica was first controlled by the Spanish. During this time, they enslaved the native Arawaks that lives there. This caused a lot of the natives to die because of the harsh conditions of enslavement and the diseases that were brought over. Since the Arawaks were dying, they started to bring in enslaved Africans to continue the work. In 1655 The British took over Jamaica from the Spanish.

The Voyage:

            The slave ship the Mary set sail from Bristol on April 9^th, 1794. It was captained by Thomas Dustin. They purchased slaves in West Central Africa and St. Helena. The port in which the slaves were purchased was unspecified. The enslaved people on this ship would have had to go through the Middle Passage before reaching their final destination in Jamaica. The enslaved people on this ship would face unimaginable conditions during their journey. They would be treated as cargo. They would be branded and shackled together. In the ships, they would be packed closely because their enslavers wanted to bring over as many slaves as possible. They were left in unsanitary conditions which would cause them to get sick and die. When Mary reached West Central and St. Helena, they purchased 75 enslaved people. During the journey 1 person died. On February 13^th, 1795 they reached Jamaica. When they reached, they would be surrounded by tobacco, indigo, and sugar plantations. Having been taking from their homes and having everything they’ve ever known is ripped away from them and to be treated like animals was the cause for resistance.  

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Bibliography:

“The History of Jamaica.” Jamaica Information Service, 5 Aug. 2019, https://jis.gov.jm/information/jamaican-history/

“”History of the Maroons.”https://cyber.harvard.edu/eon/marroon/history.html

“Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade- Database.” https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database

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