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#Post#: 4908--------------------------------------------------
Jamaica
By: 90sRetroFan Date: March 17, 2021, 11:59 pm
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OLD CONTENT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taíno#Spaniards_and_Taíno
[quote]Columbus and his crew were the first Europeans to
encounter the Taíno people, as they landed in The Bahamas on
October 12, 1492. After their first interaction, Columbus
described the Taínos as a physically tall, well-proportioned
people, with a noble and kind personality.
In his diary, Columbus wrote:
They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good
will ... they took great delight in pleasing us ... They are
very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they
murder or steal...Your highness may believe that in all the
world there can be no better people ... They love their
neighbours as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the
world, and are gentle and always laughing.[32]
At this time, the neighbors of the Taíno were the Guanahatabeys
in the western tip of Cuba, the Island-Caribs in the Lesser
Antilles from Guadeloupe to Grenada, and the Calusa and Ais
nations of Florida. Guanahaní was the Taíno name for the island
that Columbus renamed as San Salvador (Spanish for "Holy
Savior"). Columbus called the Taíno "Indians", a reference that
has grown to encompass all the indigenous peoples of the Western
Hemisphere. A group of Taíno people accompanied Columbus on his
return voyage to Spain.[33]
On Columbus' second voyage to their culture, he began to require
tribute from the Taíno in Hispaniola. According to Kirkpatrick
Sale, each adult over 14 years of age was expected to deliver a
hawks bell full of gold every three months, or when this was
lacking, twenty-five pounds of spun cotton. If this tribute was
not brought, the Spanish cut off the hands of the Taíno and left
them to bleed to death.[34] These cruel practices inspired many
revolts by the Taíno and campaigns against the Spanish — some
being successful, some not.
...
Dr. Chanca, a physician who traveled with Christopher Columbus,
reported in a letter that Spaniards took as many women as they
possibly could and kept them as concubines.[42] Some sources
report that, despite women being free and powerful before the
contact era, they became the first commodities up for Spaniards
to trade, or often, steal. This marked the beginning of a
lifetime of kidnapping and abuse of Taíno women.[43][/quote]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Santiago#Seville
[quote]The Spanish Empire began its official governance of
Jamaica in 1509, with formal occupation of the island by
conquistador Juan de Esquivel and his men. Esquivel had
accompanied Columbus in his second trip to the Americas in 1493
and participated in the invasion of Hispaniola. A decade later,
Friar Bartolomé de las Casas wrote Spanish authorities about
Esquivel's conduct during the Higüey massacre of 1503.
The first Spanish settlement was founded in 1509 near St Ann's
Bay and named Seville. In 1534 the settlers moved to a new,
healthier site, which they named Villa de la Vega, which the
English renamed Spanish Town when they conquered the island in
1655. This settlement served as the capital of both Spanish and
English Jamaica from its foundation in 1534 until 1872, after
which the capital was moved to Kingston.
The Spaniards enslaved many of the native people, overworking
and harming them to the point that many had perished within
fifty years of European arrival. Subsequently, the lack of
indigenous opportunity for labor was mended with the arrival of
African slaves.[5] Disappointed in the lack of gold on the isle,
the Spanish mainly used Jamaica as a military base to supply
colonizing efforts in the mainland Americas.[6]
The Spanish colonists did not bring women in the first
expeditions and took Taíno women for their common-law wives,
resulting in mestizo children.[7] Sexual violence with the Taíno
women by the Spanish was also common.[8][9][/quote]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Maroons
[quote]The Jamaican Maroons descend from maroons, Africans who
escaped from slavery on the island of Jamaica and established
free communities in the mountainous interior, primarily in the
eastern parishes. African slaves imported during Spanish rule of
Jamaica (1494-1655) likely[original research?] were the first to
develop such refugee communities.
The English, who conquered the island in 1655, expanded the
importation of slaves to support their extensive development of
sugar-cane plantations.
...
Many of their slaves escaped and, together with free blacks and
mulattoes, former slaves, and some native Taíno[2][3][4]
coalesced into several heterogeneous groups in the Jamaican
interior.[5]
...
surviving by subsistence farming and periodic raids of
plantations. These initial maroon groups dwindled, migrating or
merging with settlers.[10] Others may have coalesced to form the
nucleus of what would later be called the Windward Maroons.[11]
Over time, runaway slaves increased the maroon population, which
eventually came to control large areas of the Jamaican
mountainous interior.[12]
...
Between 1673 and 1690 there were several major slave uprisings,
mainly prompted by newly arrived, highly militarized Fante or
Coromantee groups from Cape Coast and Ashanti Empire.[13] On 31
July 1690, a rebellion involving 500 slaves from the Sutton
estate in Clarendon Parish led to the formation of Jamaica’s
most stable and best organized Maroon group. Although some were
killed, recaptured or surrendered, more than 200, including
women and children, remained free after the rebellion was
considered over.[13]
They established an Ashanti-style polity based in the eastern
parts of the Cockpit Country, notably Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny
Town); the most famous ruler of the western Maroons was Cudjoe.
They incorporated outsiders only after newcomers had satisfied a
strict probationary period.[14] The leader of the eastern
Maroons when they agreed to peace was Quao.[15]
The Windward Maroons, in the wilder parts of eastern Jamaica,
were always composed of separate highly mobile and culturally
heterogeneous groups.[16] It is possible that the runaway slaves
from de Serras' group of Karmahaly Maroons formed the initial
nucleus of the Windward Maroons.[17] From early on, the Jamaican
governors considered their settlements an impediment to British
development of the interior. They ordered raids on the Maroon
settlements in 1686 and 1702, to little effect.[18]
By about 1720, a stronger Windward community had developed
around the culturally Africanised group of three villages known
as Nanny Town, under the spiritual leadership of Queen Nanny, an
Ashanti woman, sometimes in allegiance and sometimes in
competition with other Windward groups.[19] She was known for
her exceptional leadership skills, especially in guerrilla
warfare during the First Maroon War.
...
The treaties following the First Maroon War had called for the
assignment of a white ‘superintendent’ in each maroon community.
Trelawny Town had objected to the official recently assigned to
them and eventually expelled him.[38] At this, the new, hardline
Governor, Balcarres, sent William Fitch to march on Trelawny
Town with a military force to demand their immediate submission.
Balcarres ignored the advice of local planters, who suggested
giving the Maroons some more land in order to avoid conflict.
The governor refused to heed the advice, and instead provoked a
conflict that could have been avoided by demanding their
unconditional surrender.[39] The Trelawny Maroons, led by their
colonel, Montague James, chose to fight and were initially
successful, fighting a guerrilla war in small bands under
several captains, of whom the most noted were Johnson, Parkinson
and Palmer.[40] The casualties suffered by Fitch and his men
were significantly higher than those felt by the Maroons of
Trelawny Town.[41] When the Trelawny Town Maroons killed Fitch,
several of his officers, some Accompong Maroon trackers, and
many militia soldiers in an ambush, Balcarres appointed a new
general, George Walpole.[42] This new general suffered more
setbacks, until he eventually opted to besiege the Cockpit
Country on a massive scale, surrounding it with watchposts,
firing in shells from a long distance, and intending to destroy
or cut off all maroon provision grounds.[43] Meanwhile, maroon
attempts to recruit plantation slaves met with a mixed
response,[44] and other maroon communities maintained
neutrality. Accompong Town, however, fought on the side of the
colonial militias against Trelawny Town.[45]
Despite signs that the siege was working, Balcarres grew
impatient and sent to Cuba for a hundred hunting dogs and
handlers. The reputation of these was so fearsome that their
arrival quickly prompted the surrender of the majority of
Trelawny forces.[46] The Maroons, however, only put down their
arms on condition that they would not be deported, and Walpole
gave his word that would be the case.[41] To Walpole's dismay,
Balcarres refused to treat with the defeated maroons and had
them deported from Jamaica[/quote]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morant_Bay_rebellion#Rebellion_and_respons
e
[quote]On 7 October 1865, a black man was put on trial,
convicted and imprisoned for trespassing on a long-abandoned
sugar plantation, a charge and sentence that angered black
Jamaicans. During the proceedings, James Geoghegon, a black
spectator, disrupted the trial in Morant Bay. In the police's
attempts to seize him and remove him from the courthouse, a
fight broke out between the police and other spectators. While
pursuing Geoghegon, the two policemen were beaten with sticks
and stones from the crowd.[3] The following Monday the court
issued arrest warrants for several men for rioting, resisting
arrest, and assaulting the police. Among those with warrants out
was preacher Paul Bogle.
A few days later on 11 October, Bogle marched with hundreds of
Jamaican peasant-labourers to Morant Bay. They had taken oaths
before marching, to "cleave to the black and leave the white," a
sign that they were preparing for insurrection. Gad Heuman
argues shows that oath taking in African tradition was a way to
bring the group together and prepare for war.[1] When the group
arrived at the court house in Morant Bay, they were met by local
officials and a small and inexperienced volunteer militia,
gathered from personnel from the plantations. The crowd began
pelting the militia with rocks and sticks, and the militia
opened fire on the protesters. More than 25 people were killed
on both sides, before the militia retreated. For the next two
days, the mass of rebellious black peasants took over the parish
of St. Thomas-in-the-East.[1]
In response, Governor John Eyre sent government troops, under
Brigadier-General Alexander Nelson,[4] to hunt down the poorly
armed rebels and bring Bogle back to Morant Bay for trial. The
troops met with no organized resistance, but they killed blacks
indiscriminately, most of whom had not been involved in either
the riot at the courthouse or the later rebellion. Heuman has
described it as a reign of terror.[1]
According to one soldier, "we slaughtered all before us… man or
woman or child". In the end, the soldiers killed 439 black
Jamaicans directly, and they arrested 354 more (including Paul
Bogle), who were later executed, many without proper trials.
Bogle was executed "either the same evening he was tried or the
next morning."[5] Other punishments included flogging of more
than 600 men and women (including some pregnant women), and long
prison sentences. The soldiers burned thousands of homes
belonging to black Jamaicans without any justifiable reason,
leaving families homeless throughout the parish. This was the
most severe suppression of unrest in the history of the British
West Indies, exceeding incidents during slavery years.[1]
Believing that the blacks could not have planned such events
themselves (as he shared the widespread white assumption of the
time that they were not capable of it),[1] Governor John Eyre
had representative George William Gordon arrested. The
mixed-race Jamaican businessman and politician was wealthy and
well-known; he was openly critical of the governor and his
policies. Eyre believed that Gordon had been behind the
rebellion. Despite having very little to do with it, Gordon was
quickly convicted and executed. Though he was arrested in
Kingston, where martial law had not been declared, Eyre had him
transferred to Morant Bay, where he could be tried under martial
law.[/quote]
NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER FORGET.
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