Jamaica’s Troubled Past Essay -- A Level Essays

Jamaicas Troubled PastThe desolatesJamaicas struggle spirit can be seen even in its early old age with the Maroons. The fighting spirit is not uncommon with people who are laden or forced against their will. The Maroons came in two waves, the first are slaves that fled during the Spanish rule, the second wave was during British control. The Maroons used the highlands of Jamaica to seek refuge, establish colonies and good time plantations when needed. Even today the beliefs and herbal practices of the Maroons are still evident in Jamaican culture. Their trouble past has made their life difficult just now even today they are a presence in Jamaica.The scratch line DesertersThe idea of runaways did not take long in the Caribbean islands. Jamaica was not the whole island experiencing runaways, Haiti, Cuba, and many Latin American countries were all falling victim to these guerrilla style warfare tribes. During the first years of Spanish control the island of Hispaniola (Spanish Ja maica) experience many problems with slaves. Columbus suggested to King Ferdinand in the first letter from his travel of discovery, I can bring slaves that are captured people, as many as are wanted. Disease and overwork killed many of the peaceable, indigenous Arawaks. Others hanged themselves, drank poisonous manioca juice, murdered and aborted their children rather than be enslaved. A few, the first Maroons, escaped into the rough hills. (Olson, pg.234) Recent excavations at Nanny Town, the most important early Maroon settlement, support Maroon oral traditions that the first African refugees found accommodation among the Arawak. (Olson, pg.234) Correspondence from the last decade of the sixteenth century also suggests that Spanish colonial officials w... ...keth. Obeah Witchcraft in the West Indies. Negro Universities Press. Westport, Connecticut. 1970.Buckley, Roger. Slaves in Red Coats. Yale University Pess, New Haven, CT. 1979.Campbell, Marvis. The Maroons of Jamaica 165 5-1796. African World Press, Inc. Trenton, NJ. 1990.Drescher, Seymour. Econocide British Slavery in the Era ofAbolition. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA. 1977Hall, Gwendolyn. Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1971.Olson, Eric. (Feb 2000). survey Rebels The Flight from Slavery of Jamaicass Maroons. World and I v152, p234. Available expand pedantic Research.Reidell, Heidi. (Jan-Feb 1990). The Maroon culture of endurance. (history of Jamaicas runaway slaves) Americas (English Edition) v42 n1, p46(4). Available Expanded Academic Research.