History of Jamaica
Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica on May 4, 1494. In his log, he described
Jamaica as "the fairest island that eyes have beheld; mountains and the
land seem to touch the sky...all full of valleys and fields and plains."
In Jamaica, the Spanish mariners found a gentle American Indian people, the
Tainos, who named the island "Xaymaca," meaning "land of wood
and water." The words "hurricane," "tobacco" and "barbecue"
were also derived from their language.
Under the Spanish settlement, the entire Indian population, perhaps a hundred
thousand, died from a combination of forced labour and European infections,
like the common cold, to which they had no immunity.
In 1509, the Spaniards established a capital. New Seville, near the town of
Ocho Rios. The Spaniards actually called the area Las Chorreras. meaning "waterfalls."
The English misunderstood, interpreting Las Chorreras to mean "eight rivers."
hence the name Ocho Rios. Today, the foundations of New Seville are under excavation,
and the search continues for the two ships that Columbus beached nearby. There
is also an attempt to identify the first settlement of the early Spanish settlers
in the area. In their century and a half of rule, the Spaniards brought sugar
cane, and later, slaves from Africa to cultivate the cane.
The English captured Jamaica in 1655 and turned the island into one vast sugar
plantation, making the planters rich. In England, they used to say. "as
rich as a West Indian planter" to mean the richest person around. To grow
the sugar cane, the English brought many more Africans to work as slaves, most
from the west coast of the continent and from present-day Nigeria. Buccaneers
soon operated out of Jamaica, attacking the treasure ships of Spain and France.
One was a young indentured labourer from Wales named Henry Morgan. He would
prosper and rise to Lieutenant Governor. His home base, Port Royal, was known
as "the richest and wickedest city in Christendom." But, in 1692.
an earthquake destroyed Port Royal, pushing it below the sea.
When the English arrived, the Spaniards fled to the neighbouring islands. Their
slaves escaped into the mountains and formed their own independent groups, called
Maroons. The Maroons were in time joined by other slaves who escaped from the
English. For a long time they fought against the English who sought to re-enslave
them. S sful the Maroons, fighting from their fortresses, that the English were
forced to sign peace treaties granting the Maroons self-government and ceding
to them the mountain lands that they inhabited. The runaways periodically staged
rebellions until the treaty in 1739 that gave them a measure of local autanvny
vat mey sttfi retain today. Slavery was abousnedi in economic chaos that followed
етапсааш rrne nut stood out: the Morant Bay Rebellion was led by a black Baptist.
It was supported by a wealthy KinjplBnbnsinessman. George William Gordon.
Migrants from irafea and Ома cane as indentured workers for sugar estates
and rapid moved to other occupations.
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