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Brief history of Jamaica

Brief history of Jamaica before, doing and after the Europeans invaded, occupied, colonized and enslaved the Island by the way of Christopher Columbus. You might call this the testing ground for the enslavement of Africans in what we now call the USA. Pre-Colombian Jamaica Prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494, Jamaica was inhabited by Arawaks, living in simple communities based on fishing, hunting, and small scale cultivation of cassava. The impact of the contact with the Spanish was traumatic, and these communities disappeared in 70-80 years. Plunder, disruption of economic activities, new diseases, and migration decimated the indigenous population. Only a few artifacts-facts, examples of which are on display at the small museum at White Marl, and a few Spanish corruptions of place names (such as Ocho Rios) remain from this period. Otherwise, there is no Arawak influence on the subsequent development of life on the island. The Spanish Occupation, 1494-1655 Disappointed...

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante

"In one instance the spread of Africans and Europeans to continents other than Europe and Africa helped to produce a world order that has reigned supreme in technology, science, economics, law, and sociology for five hundred years. It was, however, a racist construction created out of stolen land, broken treaties, stolen labor and broken backs. Any interpretation of the post modern views of the present world has to take into consideration that the entire discourse on the fluidity of cultures, the notion of subjective identities, the instability of social and cultural space, and the interaction and interpenetration of peoples is a direct result of the most massive forced movement of people the world has ever known (Cohen, l982). It becomes impossible to speak of the Americas or Caribbean without Africans or indeed Europe without Africa. One cannot speak intelligently about Portugal and its history without Brazil or without Angola and Mozambique; this is an incredibly interco...

John Punch

Beginning of African Enslavement In the English Colonies and the USA John Punch is one of the first servants on record to be sentenced to slavery on the grounds of race in what we now call the USA. In other words, this was the beginning of African enslavement in the English colonies and subsequently the USA. Punch was a servant of the Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn, a wealthy landowner, a justice and one of the few members of the House of Burgesses, representing Charles River  County (which would become York County in 1642). In 1640, Punch ran away to Maryland with two European indentured servants of Gwyn. The three men were returned to Virginia and on 9 July, the Virginia Governor's Council, which served as the colony's highest court, sentenced the two Europeans to have their terms of indenture extended by four years each, but they sentenced Punch to a life of servitude. In addition, the council sentenced the three men to thirty lashes each. Wikipedia