Testimonies on the History of Jamaica

Passage Fort

This is where the ships of British captains Penn and Venables docked in 1655. The image heralds the mission that captured Jamaica from the Spaniards. Jamaica remained in British hands until it gained independence in 1962.

A Plan of the Town of St Jago de la Vega, in the Island of Jamaica [1786]

From the V&A Museum:

This map from 1786 shows the street plan of the town of St Jago de la Vega in Jamaica. Later named Spanish Town, St Jago was once the English capital of Jamaica. This map, dedicated to Sir John Dalling by John Pitcairne, indicates the ownership of specific areas and has a numbered key which shows the location of the main public buildings. An area labelled ‘The Negroe Market’ indicates the town’s role in the slave trade at this time.

Edward Long

Longville Plantation

Longville is one of the first plantations set up by the Long family. The breadfruit was brought to Jamaica by William Bligh as a cheap starch to feed the enslaved. Captain Bligh is imprinted in Jamaica even further - the scientific name for ackee (of the national dish ackee and saltfish) is Bligha sapida, Bligh first broguht it to Jamaica. By William Berryman Watercolour c. 1808-1816

The character Tansy in Testimonies on the History of Jamica Vol 1 travels across Jamaica on nature trips with Edward Long, and with family friends such as Hans Sloane when he is in the island.

Henry Moore's Family

Moore's plantation was owned by the cousin's of the Long's whose plantations are close by. Catharine Long married her cousin Henry Moore. His name was given to Moore Town, a maroon settlement originally called Nanny Town, after he signed a peace treaty with the maroons there. She gave her name to Catherine's Peak in St Andrew Parish. Image:"Planting corn. Old driver. Planting corn. House Negro digging corn holes by William Berryman [circa 1808-1815]"

Lucky Valley Plantation

Lucky Valley in Clarendon was a plantation belonging to the Long family. Some of the Lon's mentioned in Zakiya's Testimonies on the History of Jamaica Vol 1 are Samuel Long, Edward Long and Catharine (Long) Moore. By William Berryman Watercolour c. 1808-1816

Llanrumney, St Mary

'Pirate' Henry Morgan was born in January 1635 in Llanrumney, Wales. He gave the name Llanrumney to one of his three plantations in the parish of St Mary.

Henry Morgan launched three campaigns against Juan de Serras and his Karmahaly/Varmahaly maroons in the 1670s. He wanted all Black people who were not slaves dead.

Juan de Bolas Marker, Lluidas Vale

From the Jamaica National Heritage Trust:

"The Juan de Bolas Marker is strategically placed along the main thoroughfare in the centre of the town of Lluidas Vale. Apart from the adjoining village of Juan de Bolas it is the only object/landmark which honours Juan de Bolas one of the early freedom fighters who achieved freedom, land and independence for his people in 1660s.

When in 1660 de Bolas and his community were discovered by the English Lieutenant Colonel Edward Tyson (d. 1660) he switched his allegiance from the Spanish to the English. Juan de Bolas was made a Colonel of the Black Militia.

This community is also recognized as the first black community in the New World.

Juan De Bolas Mountain, St Catherine

Reggae entertainer I-Wayne and broadcaster Elise Kelly visit the Juan de Bolas Mountains in 2019. He tells her a bit of the history with the maroons, points our a bird not often seen in town. He says it reminds him of the parish of Portland.

Runaway Bay, St Ann

The origins of the naming of Runaway Bay is disputed, but here is one version: "Throughout the whole of the next year these Spanish and negro guerilla bands gave great anxiety to the colonists, but early in 1660, D’Oyley learned that about one hundred and fifty of them had left the mountains, and were encamped at the old spot at Ocho Rios.

 Colonel Tyson was detached with a party of about eighty men and a number of negroes to carry rations and baggage. Advancing overland, they surprised the encampment and slew about fifty men; the rest immediately fled. 

Don Sasi was with them, but managed to reach a spot a few miles distant: here, with some of his friends, he embarked in a canoe and reached Cuba. The place of his final departure is still known as Runaway Bay.”

From: W. J. GARDNER. “The History of Jamaica: From its Discovery by Christopher Columbus to the Year 1872 (Cass Library of West Indian Studies,).”

A view of Roaring River,

A view in the Island of Jamaica, of the spring-head of Roaring River on the estate of William Beckford esqr. / drawn on the spot, and painted by George Robertson ; engraved by James Mason.

view from Navy Island

A prospect of Port Antonio, and town of Titchfield, in parish of Portland, on the North side Jamaica, taken from Navy island [Date Unknown]

The parish of Portland is named after Henry Bentinck, the 1st Duke of Portland, of Titchfield, Hampshire in England, born 1682.

He was Governor of Jamaica from 1721 to 1726.

The Blue Mountains

Two children in the Blue Mountain country

A View from Castleton Road

Titled: "The paradise of the West Indies - East from Castleton Road over Wog Water to Blue Mts., Jamaica"

A View from Wag Water

The Spaniards called this place Agua Alta when they were the colonisers of Jamaica. The British heard 'Wag Water' when they arrived and this name remains today. Titled: "Wagg Water Valley and Blue Mountains, Jamaica 1899"

A tobacco plantation, Blue Mountains

"Markets had to be found for all kinds of new goods that Europeans had never seen before, and habit-forming “drug foods” like sugar, coffee, cocoa and tea became passions of the rich, and then the everyday luxuries of the middle classes. Tobacco and RUM!!!!!

This Atlantic world in the 200 years after Columbus was the scene of a capitalist free-for-all, a sloppy scramble for control of native peoples, lands and all the things that could be extracted from land and sea and sold for a profit. 

As Europeans became more and more concerned with the appearance and well-being of their bodies, they sought tropical and exotic remedies and adornments; this in turn transformed the lives of people and environments thousands of miles away."

FROM Home Cooking in the Global Village Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists by Richard Wilk

Titchfield Hotel [circa 1890-1900]

From MoonJamaica.com:

The foundation and scattered ruins of the Titchfield Hotel, built by banana boat captain Lorenzo Dow Baker of the Boston Fruit Company are now occupied by the Jamaica Defense Force, which patrols Navy Island across the water.

At its peak the Titchfield Hotel was the favoured watering hole for luminaries like Bette Davis, J. P. Morgan, and Errol Flynn, who ended up buying the place in addition to Navy Island and the Bonnie View Hotel. The Titchfield was destroyed and rebuilt several times before it was gutted and abandoned after Flynn’s death. Titled: "Titchfield Hotel dining-room, Port Antonio, Jamaica [circa 1890-1900]"

A roadside market, Jamaica

Created / Published between 1860 and 1910

Mona Sugar Estate. 1904

The grinding machine, Mona Sugar Estate, near Kingston [1904]. Source: Library of Congress

Cane fields, Guadeloupe. 1905

In the cane fields, island of Guadeloupe. Created/Published 1905

Cocoa, Dominica. 1910

The eccentric growth of the cocoa pod in the island of Dominica

Cocoa, Trinidad

Trinidad -- sorting cocoa beans plantation

Juan de Bolas River

From Jamaica National Heritage Trust:

"Juan de Bolas is regarded as the first Maroon chief known in history. He was an enslaved African during the period of Spanish occupation which ended in 1655. In that year he led a group of Spanish enslaved Africans into the hills of Lluidas Vale, St. Catherine. In the struggle for the possession of the island between the English and the Spanish, de Bolas initially assisted Don Christoval Arnaldo Ysassi, the last Spanish Governor of Jamaica (1656 – 1660), in a guerrilla war against the English."