Part 2
Causes of turmoil in Jamaica
By Pat Chin
Part I
covered the recent upsurge of violence in Jamaica within the
context of capitalist globalization.
The subjugation of Jamaica started when Christopher Columbus
landed and took possession of the island for the Spanish crown
on May 5, 1494. It was just two years after the rapacious
explorer had sailed west from Europe in search of shorter trade
routes to Asia in voyages that would lay the foundation for the
trans-Atlantic slave trade in human cargo stolen from
Africa.
When Columbus arrived, the Caribbean island was home to the
Arawaks, who belonged to the linguistic stock of North American
indigenous peoples. They called their home "Xaymaca"--land of
wood and springs.
Jamaica was formally declared a colony in 1509 and partially
settled by the Spanish adventurer Juan de Esquival. Only
sparsely populated by settlers, it remained Spain's possession
for the next 161 years. Since no gold was found, the island was
used as a way station for Spanish galleons sailing between the
Western Hemisphere and Spain.
European pirates and buccaneers fought each other in bloody
battles on the Caribbean Sea. Centrally located, Jamaica was
the epicenter of their clashes for supremacy, and competing
forces murdered numerous Arawaks. In addition to this, deaths
from overwork and European-borne diseases soon caused the
extermination of the Arawaks.
Bitter cane and slavery
Finding no gold in Jamaica and only small deposits elsewhere
in the so-called West Indies, the colonialists turned to sugar.
The sugarcane plant, introduced into the region by Columbus in
1493, became the new potential source of Caribbean wealth. But
the Arawaks had been wiped out. Spain had a relatively small
population and couldn't allow the migration of more settlers to
the colony. As a result, African slaves were rounded up and
shipped across the Atlantic to labor in the fields.
Admirals Penn and Venable seized Jamaica for the British
crown in 1655. The small bands of slaves left behind by the
Spanish--called Maroons--fled to the mountains where they set
up free communities that offered refuge to runaway slaves,
while fighting off successive attempts by the British to
recapture them.
English settlers, who arrived in droves, established a
thriving sugar industry. Britain also populated the island with
white indentured servants and prisoners captured in battles for
Irish and Scottish freedom from England's colonial
domination.
Based on slave labor, the new sugar industry boomed and
Jamaica was soon regarded as one of the finest jewels in the
British crown. But this wasn't primarily due to the huge
profits being made from sugar; Jamaica had also become the
biggest center for the re-exporting of slaves to other British
and Spanish colonies.
"Over a million slaves were brought to Jamaica during the
period of slavery, of which 200,000 were re-exported," wrote
author Horace Campbell in "Rasta and Resistance From Marcus
Garvey to Walter Rodney."
"The very fierce slaves remained in Jamaica, and by the end
of the slave period, there were only 323,000 slaves who
survived.
"As a center for re-export, Jamaica was the prize of the
British possessions," continued Campbell, "and the planters in
Jamaica were the darlings of the British aristocracy in the
18th century, when the wealth of the slaves supported Earldoms
and safe parliamentary seats. The organization of the
plantations, which supported the planter class, encompassed the
highest form of capitalist organization at that time ... where
the instrument of labor, the slave, was at the same time a
commodity which could be replaced after being worked to
death."
The riches amassed from piracy on the high seas and the
European plunder of Central America provided the financial
basis for the establishment of sugar, tobacco and cotton
plantations. In turn, the experience and wealth derived from
the plantation system, coupled with the massive spoils of the
slave trade, laid the foundation for the European industrial
revolution and gave rise to the world's first stock market in
England. And for nearly 200 years Jamaica played its part as
colonial subject.
History of slave revolts
It is well documented that the most rebellious Black
captives who passed through Jamaica's bustling re-exportation
center were left on the island, the majority being from
Africa's Gold Coast. The country's history of slave revolts is
consistent with this fact, the pre-emancipation period of
British colonial occupation being marked by successive
uprisings.
The populations of the small Maroon communities of runaway
slaves, carved out after the British drove the Spanish from the
island in 1655, increased sharply after major slave uprisings
broke out against the new colonial regime in 1673 and 1685.
"The survival of the Maroon communities depended on the mode
of social organization of the villages," explains Campbell. "In
order for the Maroons to survive they had to organize a system
of production and exchange, superior to the plantation levels
of cooperation, reminiscent of African communalism where they
divided the tasks as they hunted, fished, and gathered wild
fruits. Their scouts carried out intelligence activities on the
white plantations to learn the military movements of the white
people's army; they never confronted the whites on the plains
and blew the Abeng horn to forewarn their villages of
the impending attacks."
One of the most famous Maroon leaders was Nanny, a fierce
Ashanti warrior woman, whose army of former slaves successfully
used guerrilla tactics against the British on countless
occasions to defend their territory in the eastern
mountains.
The major Maroon War of 1729 to1739 was fought under the
leadership of Cudjoe, who was also descended from the Ashantis
of Africa's Gold Coast. His guerrilla army fought the British
to a standstill, and in the end they begged him to sign a
treaty recognizing all Maroons as free people. The victors also
won autonomy over their territories on both sides of the
island, but in return for a promise of no taxation, Cudjoe
agreed to refuse asylum to new runaway slaves.
Numerous slave revolts erupted after Cudjoe decimated the
British Army, including another Maroon War in 1795, decades
after the colonialists instigated Nanny's death. Sam Sharpe, a
slave and Baptist deacon, led the biggest. Campbell describes
the brilliant tactics that Sharpe executed in the Christmas
Rebellion of 1831:
"Local commanders, who had previously taken on the guise of
deacons, proceeded to march from plantation to plantation
freeing the slaves and burning to the ground the homes of the
most vicious planters. The drum, conch shells and the blowing
of horns called other slaves to the ranks, so that before the
night was out, 20,000 supposedly docile slaves were
precipitating the death-blow to slavery in the British
domains.
"As usual, capital was called upon to defend its own
interests," Campbell continues, "and one of the most feared
overseers, Grignon, assumed the rank of Colonel to command the
Western Interior Regiment to defend the estates. But the
determination of those who stood up for their rights was such
that Grignon soon had to retreat to the sea, along with those
whites who had already been put out to sea in the Montego Bay
Harbor. This retreat left the countryside to the slaves, who
pushed from Montego Bay to Savanna la Mar, freeing slaves and
blowing the horns of freedom."
Two weeks later--only after they were tricked into thinking
that slavery had been abolished with an amnesty--did the slaves
lay down their arms. Thousands were slaughtered and many others
brutally whipped in the bloody reprisals that followed.
Facing death, Sharpe was pressed to express regret for his
actions. "I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in
slavery," he responded defiantly. (Quoted in Campbell)
Although Jamaica's most powerful slave rebellion was crushed
through trickery, the struggle for emancipation elevated the
issue of abolition, and the British Parliament was forced to
formally end chattel slavery in its colonial possessions
effective Aug. 1, 1834.
Next: Emancipation's
aftermath--The emergence
of the trade union movement, the struggle for independence and
other forms of resistance.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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