The history of the Caribbean has changed our world and how we see it today, we can see how each country and island provides a great deal of information that connects them to a greater whole. Places like Jamaica have experienced a great deal of change since the colonial times, the people that now reside on the island now have freedoms that others did not; if we take a look back during the early 1800s, people still worked under the weight of slavery. Soon that would change under the new apprenticeship period. The people that lived under the apprenticeship were mistreated more during this time period, than they were under slavery and they were only free to certain extents. After reading A NARRATIVE OF EVENTS,SINCE THE FIRST OF AUGUST, 1834, by James Williams, who was an apprenticed laborer in Jamaica, we can see that during this time period it was a tough and a hard fought life. People like James Williams were beaten and whipped day after day proving that the new apprenticeship was a depressing and harsh time period in Jamaica.
Through the reading by James Williams, we get a firm understanding of what is going on during this time period in Jamaica and what people are going through under the new apprenticeship. James discusses how he is eighteen years old and how he is mistreated during this time, “Apprentices get a great deal more punishment now than they did when they was slaves; the master take spite” (page 1) . Since these people are now free they have to endure the physical barriers of society and also the economic hardship. People like James Williams have no education and don’t understand why they are being beaten from time to time. His master, who
previously was a slave owner, most likely resents the idea of apprentices...
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...ually stood for. James was just one example of what people were going through, the idea that he was doing nothing to deserve these whippings is most likely true and others like him had to endure great sacrifice during this time period.
Works Cited
1) Hall, D. G. The Apprenticeship Period in Jamaica, 1834-1838. --. Mona, Jamaica: Institute of Education of the University of West Indies, 1953. Print.
2) Morgan, Kenneth . "Labour Relations during and after Apprenticeship: Amity Hall, Jamaica, 1834–1840." Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies 33: 457-478. http://proxy.buffalostate.edu:2100/doi/abs/10.1080/0144039X.2011.606629#.U2zZ0vldXkN (accessed May 9, 2014).
3) Hall, D. G. "The Apprenticeship Period In Jamaica, 1834-1838." Caribbean Quarterly 3: 142-166. http://proxy.buffalostate.edu:2096/stable/40652579 (accessed May 9, 2014).
consciousness of artisans in New York City during the Jacksonian period. (pp. 14 & 25) The pre-industrial revolutions of the 1800s provided many avenues of employment for masters, journeymen, and laborers; however, the transformation of a merchant capitalist economy provided for many masters to subdivide labor. (pp. 113) Contracted work caused a rift in the structure of the old artisanal class. Masters no longer needed to employ apprentices since they hired out separate tradesmen for the...
Moynihan, Daniel P. "U.S. Department of Labor -- History -- Chapter I. The Negro American Revolution." U.S. Department of Labor -- History -- Chapter I. The Negro American Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
As the United States grew, the institution of slavery became a way of life in the southern states, while northern states began to abolish it. While the majority of free blacks lived in poverty, some were able to establish successful businesses that helped the Black community. Racial discrimination often meant that Blacks were not welcome or would be mistreated in White businesses and other establishments. A comparison of the narratives of Douglass and Jacobs demonstrates the full range of demands and situations that slaves experienced, and the mistreatment that they experienced as well. Jacobs experienced the ongoing sexual harassment from James Norcom, just like numerous slave women experienced sexual abuse or harassment during the slave era. Another issue that faced blacks was the incompetence of the white slave owners and people. In ...
The purpose of this paper is to look at slavery in The East Indies from a female’s point of view. The Europeans came to the East Indies and took over the land and its resources. I believe that this was wrong because it was unreasonable to use the wealth of the East Indies to purchase slaves. In addition, I believe that women and children in particular should have been allowed to have their freedom.
From the country’s earliest days, Jamaica experienced colonial status, with paternal influences from the West. Spain initially maintained ascendancy over the colony; yet, as they embarked upon their sesquicentennial reign, the Empire’s grasp began to loosen. Primarily incessant interstate conflict, between the Empire and its bordering nations, wreaked havoc. Contrastingly, England continued to thrive and experience heightened success in their colonial endeavors. Indeed, as Spain began losing dominance over Jamaica, England looked to the Caribbean to increase their economic hegemony; in 1650, the British successfully cap...
Hart, Richard. (1999). Towards Decolonisation: Political, Labour, and Economic Development in Jamaica. Kingston: Canoe Press.
Jamaica’s fighting spirit can be seen even in its early days with the Maroons. The fighting spirit is not uncommon with people who are oppressed or forced against their will. The Maroons came in two waves, the first are slaves that fled during the Spanish rule, the second wave was during British control. The Maroons used the highlands of Jamaica to seek refuge, establish colonies and attack plantations when needed. Even today the beliefs and herbal practices of the Maroons are still evident in Jamaican culture. Their trouble past has made their life difficult but even today they are a presence in Jamaica.
This piece is a report on Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide a book by Professor Sir Hilary McD. Beckles. The copy of the book that I have is a soft covered (paperback) version that costs two hundred and twenty five TT dollars. The ISBN number is 978-976-640-268-6. This book is published by the University of West Indies Press. It was published in Mona, Jamaica in 2013.The manuscript consists of fifteen chapters and on two hundred and ninety two pages.
“Jamaica’s a country of great dichotomy. On the one hand you have a tourist industry with great beaches and resorts, but on the other you have such great poverty and the violence that goes along with that.”(Michael Franti) In this paper, I will talk about the geography, the history of Jamaica, the people that live there now and that lived there in the past, the lifestyle of the society, and the society, like the government and economy.
United States and Jamaica have many similarities such as they were both under British rule for several years, and they both elect officials to govern the country. However the differences between the two are quite vast when it comes to the quality of education, government, and healthcare. When the three are compared it is clear to see that in terms of where is a better place for a child to grow up the United States is a better place to be.
...-1820 : Parish Apprentices and the Making of the Early Industrial Labour Force. Studies in Labour History. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.
Eventually, the island was besieged and taken over by the British Empire in 1655 who in turn harvested the island’s resources through slavery. Slavery was eventually abolished in 1834 leaving the island with two hundred and fifty thousand African descendent (Mtholyoke, 2014). In 1962 the Jamaican people gained their independence from Great Britain and began a path towards economic prosperity. After gaining their independence in 1962; the Jamaican economies quickly transformed into a paradoxical state of which appeared to have no escape. The country’s market failures were and still remain a result of failed rules, policies, regulations, and greed that is subjecting the country’s economy to what seems to be an uncontrollable down spiral. The Jamaican economy is caught in an economic cycle of haphazard policies by a debase government determined to validate and obscure their exploitation of power for their own gain and the only way to economic prosperity is economic
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.
After Emancipation in 1834 and the failure of the apprenticeship system by august 1st 1838 the shortage of available labour, especially in the larger territories of British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad, led to the introduction of indentured labour. A few different schemes were tried, European labor schemes, Madeirans and Maltese (Portuguese) free labor from Africa, and China and India schemes. However, Joseph Beaumont, a one-time Chief Justice of British Guiana, published a pamphlet in England, in 1871 entitled ‘The New Slavery’, because he saw in practice, immigrant labour schemes was slavery under a different name. In the West Indian colonies especially, conditions similar to those of slavery existed, the voyage to the Caribbean compared to another version of the middle passage suffered by the Africans, the contracts were not much different to slave labour, and immigrants were deceived as to the nature of the work and living conditions. Therefore, most immigrants after five years in ‘quasi-slavery’ wanted their freedom. This resulted in various inducements being offered to persuade the immigrants to extend their bond and eventually to stay in the various lands.
...er, it seems to be in Jamaica specifically, the elite and ruling class are never going to understand what it was like to be a slave or possibly never admit that it was wrong to encourage slavery. Those who were slaves or relatives of slaves, understand the horrors associated with slavery and will not be able to forgive completely the naivity and self involvement on the part of elite in continuing slavery. For as Clare says, although emancipation eventually came, as well as official freedom of Jamaica from Britain, there is no essence of complete freedom.