Jamaica’s Troubled Past Essay -- A Level Essays

Jamaicas Troubled PastThe MaroonsJamaicas fighting odor can be seen even in its early days with the Maroons. The fighting spirit is not uncommon with people who are oppressed or pressure 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 attack plantations when needed. Even today the beliefs and herb tea practices of the Maroons are still evident in Jamaican culture. Their trouble past has made their life difficult but even today they are a presence in Jamaica.The First DesertersThe idea of gala affairs did not take long in the Caribbean islands. Jamaica was not the only island experiencing runaways, Haiti, Cuba, and many Latin American countries were all move victim to these guerilla style warfare tribes. During the first years of Spanish control the island of Hispaniola (Spanish Jamaica) experienced many problems with slaves. Columbus suggested to King Ferdinand in the first garner from his voyage 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 tapioca plant juice, murdered and aborted their children rather than be enslaved. A few, the first Maroons, escaped into the craggy hills. (Olson, pg.234) Recent excavations at Nanny Town, the most important early Maroon settlement, bet on 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. obi 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 1655-1796. Africa n World Press, Inc. Trenton, NJ. 1990.Drescher, Seymour. Econocide British Slavery in the Era ofAbolition. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA. 1977Hall, Gwendolyn. Social go steady in Slave Plantation Societies. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1971.Olson, Eric. (Feb 2000). Mountain Rebels The Flight from Slavery of Jamaicass Maroons. World and I v152, p234. Available Expanded Academic 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.