History of Jamaica

Ischri a Jumieka , Have Patois and English languages

(Patois)

Jumieka a wan a di bigis Kyaribiyan ailan dem, pan we Arawak nietiv piipl yuuz tu liv. Wen Krixtifa Kolombos riich di ailan, im uon op di lan fi Spien. Bot stil, i neva riili get kolonaiz antil afta im ded. Fyuu dekied afta im ded, almuos aal a di Arawak dem wehn ded aaf. Spien afi difen di konchri gens nof nof ried fran di bokanier dem pan di mien siti, Spanish Toun. Ingglan ivenchali kyapcha di ailan ina 1655, suh di Spanish dem lego sum a di slave dem. Di Spanish dem did kum back inna 1658 fi try fi recyaptcha Jumieka, but dem did lose tuh di English agen.

Jumieka den go ton bies fi di haparieshan a di bokanier dem, inkluudn Kyaptin Henry Morgan. Chuu evribadi wehn fried a di bokanier dem, dem manij fi protek di ailan fram di ada koluonial powa dem. Afrikan piipl wehn get kyapcha, kidnap, ahn fuos ina slievri fi wok pahn plaantieshan wen shugakien ton di ailan bigis expuot.

Nof nof sliev kom a Jumieka chuu di Atlantik sliev chried wen ensliev Afrikan piipl kom a Naat Amerika. Fram de taim de, wuoliip a rieshal tenshan wehn de bout, an Jumieka wehn ab wan a di haiyis riet a sliev ribelyan outa aal a di Kyaribiyan ailan dem. Afta di British kroun abalish slievri, di Jumiekan de taat wok tuwaadz indipendens. Sins indipendens, di konchri hexpiiriens nof palitikal ahn ikanamik distorbans, we di kraim prablem we no tap gruo mek wos. Stil, di konchri kyan proud se i prajuus fyuu chreng palitikal liidaz.

(English)

The Caribbean Island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. Early inhabitants of Jamaica named the land "Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". The Spanish enslaved the Arawak, who were ravaged further by diseases that the Spanish brought with them. Early historians believe that by 1602, the Arawak-speaking Taino tribes were extinct. However, some of the Taino escaped into the forested mountains of the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves, and survived free from first Spanish, and then English, rule.

The Spanish also captured and transported hundreds of West African people to the island for the purpose of slavery. However, the majority of Africans were brought into Jamaica by the English.

In 1655, the English invaded Jamaica, and defeated the Spanish. Some African enslaved people took advantage of the political turmoil and escaped to the island's interior mountains, forming independent communities which became known as the Maroons. Meanwhile, on the coast, the English built the settlement of Port Royal, a base of operations where piracy flourished as so many European rebels had been rejected from their countries to serve sentences on the seas. Captain Henry Morgan, a Welsh plantation owner and privateer, raided settlements and shipping bases from Port Royal, earning him his reputation as one of the richest pirates in the Caribbean.

In the 18th century, sugar cane replaced piracy as British Jamaica's main source of income. The sugar industry was labour-intensive and the British brought hundreds of thousands of enslaved black Africans to the island. By 1850, the black and mulatto Jamaican population outnumbered the white population by a ratio of twenty to one. Enslaved Jamaicans mounted over a dozen major uprisings during the 18th century, including Tacky's Revolt in 1760. There were also periodic skirmishes between the British and the mountain communities of the Jamaican Maroons, culminating in the First Maroon War of the 1730s and the Second Maroon War of 1795–1796.