First Arrivals

Jamaica history is filled slavery and colonization from other European nations.  The very first set of European eyes that saw the faint imagine of Jamaica at sea was Christopher Columbus. This explorer discovered the large island in 1479. Not long after his discovery, Spain started to colonize the lands of Jamaica, specifically St. Anne’s Bay.

 The primary goal at the time was to find gold, silver, or other jewels. The native Arawaks are kind and peaceful group of people that settled on the island around 600 AD. (1) “Their economy, based on fishing and the production of corn (maize) and cassava, sustained as many as 60,000 people in villages led by caciques (chieftains).” (2) Unable to defend for themselves, many became slaves. "Vast numbers died as a result and thousands more committed suicide by hanging themselves or drinking poisonous cassava juice to escape from their bondage. Mothers are said to have murdered their children rather then let them grow up and suffer the slavery they had known." (3) For the most part killed off by the Spaniards because of factors like superior weaponry and disease that the Europeans brought with them sped up the decrease in population. (4) By the mid seventeenth century there was not a drop of pure Arawak blood left on the island of Jamaica (ibid) They set up a few plantations and had slaves shipped from Africa to work the fields from dusk to dawn.  As the population increased, more and more slaves were needed to work the fields. The Spanish colonies only started a fraction of what the British would eventual make.

Soon enough, Britain had they eyes locked onto Jamaica. They saw the potential in Jamaica’s prime growing conditions for sugar cane.  Anticipating an army, England sent over 8,000 troops to suppress whatever force opposed them. They conquered an important fort, and killed the 1,000 Spaniards who were meant to be the main defense. (5) Most conquests of nations involve one nation conquering the native people of another. Jamaica is an exception.  The conquest of Jamaica was basically a conqueror being conquered by another conqueror.  Being no match for England, almost all of the Spaniards fled to Cuba off the northern coast. The Spanish’s goal was to make Jamaica inhabitable for the British. They wanted to make the British start from scratch. The Spanish took everything with them, killed livestock, burned their homes, but left the most important key to any colonizer’s success behind, their slaves.