Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana as Free Labor Colonies
Introduction
The main concept of this paper is to show how Britain turned three of its colonies (Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana) into "free labor" colonies after gradual emancipation of slaves was introduced in 1833, and full emancipation was accepted in 1838. British West Indian colonies could be put into two categories: established colonies and new colonies. Jamaica had officially been a British colony since 1670, while Trinidad was converted to British rule in 1802 and Guyana in 1814. The age difference between the two categories resulted in different situations for the colonies and that is what will be discussed here.
Before Emancipation
At the end of the 18th Century into the beginning of the 19th Century, Britain was moving toward industrialization, which in turn led to a movement towards free labor from its citizens. Britain was also expanding is enterprises within it’s East Indian Trade Company. The East Indian countries had the raw materials that the new textile industry needed. Free people are also a better market for the textiles than the slave populations of the West Indies would. [1]
The movement towards industry and Britain’s concentration in East Asia hindered the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. All of this caused a movement towards emancipating the slaves in the Caribbean. But the movement towards industrialization increased the need for sugar. [2] When the slaves were freed, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana all had to deal with the new need for labor.
Jamaica was already an established sugar producer and was at one point the jewel of the British West Indies. Jamaica was not a crown colony, however, and was organized by independent citizens, while Trinidad and Guyana, on the other hand, were recently acquired Royal colonies and had different economic circumstances than Jamaica. [3]
Jamaica was about 2,848,000 square acres of land and only one quarter of land was unfit for cultivation. An estimation of about a quarter of the land was cultivated and only about a third of the available land was tilled in 1842. [4]
Trinidad was considered the most fertile of any of the British colonies and second largest island after Jamaica.
Of about 1,400,000 acres, it was estimated that only one-thirtieth part was unfit for cultivation; but not more than 209,000 acres had been appropriated, and of these less than 44,000 were under tillage. Sugar-planting had been a few years in operation when the island came into out possession in 1802.
The high cost, however, wasn’t a problem for wealthy plantation owners, who had money to spare. The existence of this surplus capital played a huge role in driving the sugar trade. For example, Document 6a states that for a single plantation, windmills, housing, distilling and boiling facilities, as well as several animals were needed. These things cost over £100,000 total, but the people investing in the sugar trade were already wealthy and thus could afford the initial expenses. Since the landowners were so rich, it was possible for them to appoint overseers and send them to the actual plantation, and stay home in Europe while still seeing profit. Also, since most of the farms were individually owned (Document 7a), whatever money was made from the plantation would go to the person himself, without having to give much to other investors. It’s also worth mentioning that while the other goods might have been costly, the land was quite cheap (Document 6a). Most plantations were located in the Caribbean, where the climate was ideal for sugar production (Document 2). Surplus capital helped to drive the sugar trade because it allowed for wealthy landowners to set up large farms in a perfect environment quite easily, without many risks or adjustments. Since all they needed to do was use some of their money to start a plantation, and gradually expand it as they gained profit, excess capital was a root for
Secondly land was a major thing that drove the sugar trade. In document 1, its shows a map of the West Indies. The West Indies is where a lot of the sugar was grown, Why? Because in order to grow sugar you need hot, humid climate, the West Indies have that hot, humid climate to produce sugar.
...ss. Also, Dunstan is the cause of Boy Staunton's death. For example, Dunstan says to Boy in front of Paul “It is the stone you put in the snowball you threw at Mrs. Dempster. 254” which is the cause of Paul’s being a premature baby. For this reason, Paul kills Boy and puts the stone in his mouth. However, when Lies “in the top of the balcony” during “The Brazen head of Friar Bacon” publicly asks Paul who is the murder of Boy staunton, he says “the inevitable fifth, who [is] keeper of his conscience and keeper of the stone.”256. In this way, Dunstan indirectly kills Boy mentally and physically.
Jamaica’s land was formatted about twenty-five million years ago. It was formed from two tectonic plates. The plates were the American and Caribbean plates.
After Virginia, Maryland was the second plantation colony formed in 1634 and it also prospered economically from growing tobacco. In the West Indies, they flourished by growing sugar, and the Carolinas with rice. Countless African slaves were brought over in large numbers to provide labor in the growing plantations since the demand for cash crops rose. Slavery was used in all the plantation colonies.
According to Mintz, the emergence of the plantation occurred when there became a decline in miners. This decline brought a new economy and an alternate plan to their mining careers. In addition, it was a new source of production for goods like sugar, rum, coffee and tobacco. Production of goods meant more money to the Caribbean’s economy as well as new materials to give to their colonial powers. Mintz argues that the Caribbean flourished because of the system of plantations. He goes as far as saying, "the plantation system was not only an agricultural device; it also became the basis for an entire societal design" (Mintz, 27).
The country of Jamaica is a West Indian island located near the center of the Caribbean Sea. It is among the group of islands that comprises the Greater Antilles and is the largest of the English-speaking islands in the region. Jamaica has an area of 4,411 square miles and is 146 miles long. It is divided into
However, based on the statistics of plantation records and colonial office papers corroborating Williams’ thesis, one can argue that it was the dwindling West Indian Sugar economy which fostered the granting of emancipation.
In the early 17th century the French arrived in Haiti and established a colony whose base was in pirating. The original inhabitants of this island made their living selling leather and cured beef. These cattle were left by the Spanish who originally inhabited the island. Around the year 1640 beef supplies began to run low, and the settlers began to rob Spanish galleons whose silver came from South American mines. With French persuasion they pirates were convinced to end their pirating and settle on the island. Many of the pirates that settled on the island invested their profits in sugar plantations which were thriving by 1700. This made the island without a doubt the most profitable in the West Indies. This amount of profit was only able to
As time progressed the feudal system was created. It was designed to divide the lands and protect from attack. The king first gave a fief or a piece of land to a royal vassal. As proof for this exchange in land a vassal would swear to the lord to be his man all the days of his life and protect him against "all men who may live or die." Next came investiture. Investiture was a symbolic gesture when a King or a lord presented a royal vassal or a vassal a stick, a small rod, or a clod of earth to show that he has given him a fief. Now this royal vassal was in charge of a huge piece of land. In order to defend it he would then divide his land into smaller pieces. He would take these smaller pieces and give them to warriors or who agreed to be his own vassals. Thus, the royal vassal became a lord to other vassals. The vassals now under this lord would now divide their lands and grant fiefs to warriors of their own. Last in the dividing of land was the knight whose parcel of land was too small to be divided.
Feudalism was a set of political and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries (“Feudalism”). “The feudal system was not planned but, rather grew and developed in response to the social chaos that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It provided order where there no longer was any, and it created new chains of command to replace those that were gone” ( James 58). Feudalism was introduced by King William I to England; this system organized power, land, and divided people into classes. The king, who owned all the land, gave some land to the church and to the barons in return for large blocks of land, the barons promised to fight for the king. Lent land to the knights and also common people (Susie 5). Feudalism test was also to defend against invaders (John 32). In the absence of centralized government authority, people look to personal relationships to bind society together. An individual with military power to offer gave his services to a feudal lord (Hay 170). Feudalism was created to put society, land, and power into order. In the economic system, landlords would force laborers to work on the lord’s manor to the lord’s profit (Medieval 65).
While “The Song of Roland” is, an epic poem dissected by a dichotomy with mirroring to rival that of Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables”, a story with a clear bias as to which side is in the right with their actions. Yet once you realize that it is written in such a way to vilify the Muslims, even though had any other culture done this while they would not be portrayed as hero’s they would not be so vilified as the Muslim in the author’s attempt to slander them and feed the flames of the Crusades with their demonization of the Muslims. King Marsile of the Muslim kingdom of Spain at first attempts to parlay with Charlemagne, but upon hearing of the demands of Charlemagne on top of what he, King Marsile had already offered, Count Ganelon did not have
Colonialism in Jamaica established a lasting social and economic hierarchy that benefited the white minority at the expense of the black majority. The colonization of Jamaica began with the Spanish occupation of the island in the early 1500’s. The Spanish set up small-scale plantations on the island, while focusing on piracy as the key to profit. The Spanish effectively committed genocide upon the native Arawak population by the time English gunboats won the rule of Jamaica from the Spanish armada in 1655. The British immediately increased the slave trade in order to establish a thriving plantation economy (Lake, p.
Kingston is the largest and one of the most diverse cities in the English-speaking Caribbean. More than half a million people populate Kingston of different decent ranging from African, Asian, European, and Middle Eastern roots. The city's tremendous growth during the 20th century has produced severe overcrowding, persistent unemployment, and violent crime. Poverty has devastated Jamaica's black majority and nowhere is this more apparent than in the ghettos of Kingston. European colonialism set up a society of racial stratification and current residents of Kingston have to deal with historic tensions between the city's black and brown residents.
Jamaica, is an island in the West Indies, 90 miles South of Cuba, and it is divided into fourteen parishes. The population is over 2.75 million which 53% of the population lives in the urban surrounding areas. Their national flag has two black triangles that represent historical struggles and hardship with a green triangle which represent agricultural wealth and hope, and yellow cross stripes represent sunshine and minerals resources. The language that they speak is English which reflects the British colonial heritage. Jamaicans speaks really fast but once you have a general conversation from Jamaican’s the words becomes much slower where you can understand what they are saying.