British Jamaicans

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This article is about Jamaican people of British descent, for British people of Jamaican descent, see Jamaican British.

British Jamaicans are Jamaican born persons of British descent.

[edit] History

On the morning of May 10, 1655, two Spanish fishermen likely out searching for turtles off of Port Morant, looked up to see a most surprising sight ­ a fleet of 38 ships with large cannons moving towards them (Sherlock and Bennett, 1998, p.77). The British had arrived, led by Admiral Penn and General Venables, who were seeking to win favour with English Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Turtles forgotten, the fishermen spread the word and messengers set off for the capital Villa de la Vega (present-day Spanish Town) to warn the settlers. Close to 9,000 men were said to have disembarked from those 38 ships ­ some 3,000 more than the actual population of the island at the time. Villa de la Vega fell within days. Those events marked the beginning of over 300 years of English (not British) control of Jamaica. British control began some 50 years later in 1707, when England and Scotland were formally united with one Parliament, known as the nation of Britain. With the English came a new language, a new political system, a new economic base, new recreational, musical and artistic pursuits, as well as new culinary influences and four other cultural groups ­ the Irish, Scots, Welsh and Africans. In the early days of slavery, the Irish (many of whom were political prisoners of the English under Cromwell) were not much better off than the African slaves. The Scots, many of the earliest of whom were also political prisoners of the English under Cromwell, were accountants/bookkeepers, while the Welsh were mainly sailors and artisans, and the Africans, slaves.

The English were long seen as the dominant player in the political partnership between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, loosely begun under James I and increasingly solidified during the 17th century. Not surprisingly, they firmly established themselves as Jamaica's colonial power with the creation of a civil government in 1663. English settlers were recruited from England and from neighbouring islands such as Surinam, Barbados, and Nevis ­ many died from disease. They tended to be small farmers, men given plots of land by Cromwell and later by his successor, Charles II. They were promised the rights and privileges of free-born citizens of England. Eventually, these small landholders gave way to plantation owners with the consolidation into large landholdings ­ better suited to the advent of massive sugar cultivation ushered in during the late 18th century. The English have the dubious honour of presiding over both the large scale growth of the slave trade in the 18th century as well as its abolition in 1804.

By1775, 30 per cent of the island's landholdings were held by absentee English owners ­ persons who resided in England and managed their plantations through Jamaican-based (often Irish and/or Scottish) overseers. At the time of emancipation in the 1830s, that number had risen to 80 per cent.Yet, despite their lack of presence in numbers, the English influence, (which formally ended with Jamaican independence in 1962) their legacy, is strong.

Reminders of English colonisation are everywhere in Jamaica. They encompass all aspects of our daily lives, from the side of the road we drive on and the language we speak, to our government and judicial systems, the structure of our civil service, military, police and education systems, religious institutions (protestant churches), numerous place names ­i.e., Kingston and Queen Street ­ and even some of our traditional food and drink ­Easter bun, Christmas pudding and coffee, to name a few. Up until the 20th century, our literature, art, music and development of sport (cricket and football) were greatly influenced by the English, and the Jamaican versions that exist today, like our language, are considered to have evolved out of resistance to our colonization.