Colonization and Struggles with Slavery

           After the Spanish fled to Cuba, there was a major increase of British colonists and slave traders to Jamaica. Although many attempts were made to find wealth in silver and gold throughout the country, the new proprietors soon realized that the real money was in the agriculture (7)

However, whilst more British were moving to the island, the ex-Spanish slaves of African and some Awakan descent were being organized into fighting groups called Maroons. The Spanish trained them at the last moment and taught the how to deal the most amount of damage to the British. They utilized guerrilla tactics. Because of how well they knew the land, the maroons were able to have the upper hand when it came to navigating through dense jungles. (8) Even though the Europeans still had superior weaponry, guerilla tactics proved to be very effective. Countless attacks from the maroons deeply annoyed the British, and made control of certain parts of Jamaica hard to live/plant in. The British needed more people and fertile land to grow sugar cane and colonize Jamaica. The more people, the cheaper the labor, the higher the profit. This idea lead to the major importation of slaves.

            The primary source of labor was slaves “shipped” from Africa to Jamaica. (9) More slaves were transported to the island to work on plantations owned by rich British. Sugar cane however, as profitable as it was, required to ton of labor from slaves to harvest A sugar cane field of about five hundred to one thousand acres would take about two hundred and fifty hands to harvest it (10). People were taken all over the west coast of Africa, like the Ibos from Africa, and the Coromantes from the gold coast. Despite still being human, the Europeans treated the slaves like cattle. With technologically more advanced tools at their disposal, the Europeans displayed their superiority by killing Africans. (11) The slaves were now transported in small, cramped, and unsanitary moving boats. Slaves had to often defecate on themselves or even other people because the space in the boat was so little. After a three-month journey to the America, the slaves were divided up into groups based on their physique. (12) From that point until they most likely died, they were cane plantation workers. In the 1700’s, plantation owners became extremely wealthy due to the fact that slaves weren’t paid at all. At one point in Jamaican history, population of slaves to white people was 14 to 1. (13) With these many slaves willing to fight, rebellions were bound to happen.

            The plantation owners saw notable uprisings, rebellion and resistance for the first time. An outspoken slaved called Tacky sparked a deadly rebellion. Damage from the uprising also occurred “The rebellion flared throughout Jamaica destroying many estates in an attempt to relieve themselves from their bondage. The rebellion was soon overthrown with many casualties (mostly blacks), but did give the first glimpse of freedom to many Negro slaves throughout the country.” (14). As maroon communities grew, the British became more and more worried.