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General Jamaican Reference Sources. The following are a few reference sources available for conducting research at the National Library of Jamaica.
Fast facts about the geography, people, and political parties are provided that give a broad overview of Jamaica. In addition, several articles discuss the influences on Jamaican folk tradition, the differences between the Arawak and Taíno, and the importance of caves to the culture, including a list of petroglyph and pictographic sites.
- Kai Alexis Smith
- 2016
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Jamaica, one of the Greater Antilles, is situated south of Cuba. Divided into fourteen parishes, it is 4,244 square miles (10,990 square kilometers) in area. In 1872, Kingston, with a quarter of the population, became the capital. Demography. The population in 1998 was 2.75 million.
This article examines the ethnohistory of the Jamaican Taíno and the archaeological sequence. It dispels the notion that archaeological data from Jamaica are simply lacking. Nonetheless, there are gaps, not least in thoroughly documented, systematic data recovery that is published in detail. One recurrent issue, often tacit, is the ...
- The Tainos
- The Spanish
- The English
- The Africans
- The Maroons
- Abolishment of Slavery
- Our National Heroes
- The People That Came
- Emancipation & Independence
Jamaica's first people were the Taínos, who came to the island from the northern coast of South America and settled in Jamaica around 600 AD. They spoke a dialect of Arawakan and named the island, "Xaymaca", meaning “land of wood and water”. This gentle tribe eventually succumbed to disease and harsh living conditions imposed by the Spanish soon af...
Having heard Cubans describe Xaymaca as “the land of blessed gold”, the Spanish sailed to the island in search of riches but soon discovered there was none. The beauty of the island, however, captivated Spanish explorer, Christopher Columbus, who noted in his logs, “the fairest island that eyes have beheld: mountains and the land seems to touch the...
During the early days of English colonization in Jamaica, lawless buccaneers plundered ships along the Spanish Main and transported their wealth from their ill-gotten gains to Port Royal, originally a Taíno fishing camp. Under their rule, the town grew rapidly, in little over a decade, to become known as one of the “richest and wickedest cities in ...
Under the English, sugarcane became the main crop for the island and the industry rapidly grew, with over 400 sugar estates established by 1739. To fill the need for cheap labour, colonialists entered into the slave trade to ship West Africans to the West Indies to be sold to planters who forced them to work on these sugar plantations as slaves und...
When the English arrived, the Spaniards fled to the neighboring islands and their freed slaves escaped into the mountains and formed their own independent groups, called the Maroons. The Maroonswere 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. So success...
Slavery was abolished in 1834. In the economic chaos that followed emancipation, one event stood out: the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865. The uprising was led by a black Baptist deacon named Paul Bogle and was supported by a wealthy Kingston businessman, George William Gordon. Both were executed and are now among Jamaica’s national heroes.
Jamaica's freedom fighters, black nationalists and civil rights activists, who fought for our freedom and civil liberties, helped to pave the way for our national development. They are celebrated on National Heroes Day, every third Monday in October. Monuments to all Jamaican heroes can be viewed in the National Heroes Park in Kingstonwhere the Jam...
In the years that followed, much of modern Jamaica was forged. Migrants from India and China came as indentured workers for sugar estates and rapidly moved to become merchants and shopkeepers. Soon Jewish settlers came to Jamaica, followed by migrant traders from the Middle East. All together these groups created the diverse people of Jamaica today...
After almost 250 years of rebellion and resistance, emancipation from slavery was finally won on August 1, 1838. Today, Jamaicans continue to celebrate Emancipation Day every August 1st. After more than 300 years of British colonial rule, Jamaica became a sovereign nation on August 6, 1962 which saw the unfurling of the national flag of Jamaica in ...
Jamaica: Elevation 20 1. 3 Dunn s River Falls, near Ocho Rios 21 2. 1 Christopher Columbus 45 2. 2 A view in Jamaica 68 3. 1 Pirates boarding a Spanish vessel in the Caribbean 85 3. 2 Henry Morgan 88 3. 3 Sugar cane cutting 111 3. 4 Estates and towns in Jamaica, 1774 118 3. 5 A slave whipped by a settler 125 3. 6 Maroon War in Jamaica 147 4. 1 ...
Feb 22, 2017 · Abstract. This paper considers scholarship on political culture in Jamaica in 1865, the year of the Morant Bay rebellion. It situates the historiography of political culture in relation to three trends: first, an older historiography that envisaged the rebellion as indicative of nationalist consciousness; second, a more recent focus on the ...
