RACE CROSSING IN JAMAICA

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

C. B. DAVENPORT and MORRIS STEGGERDA

in collaboration with

F. G. Benedict, Nutrition Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Lawrence H. Snyder, N. C. State College of Agriculture and Engineering
Arnold Gesell, Yale University
Inez Dunkelberger Steggerda, Smith College
and many residents of the colony of Jamaica

There are great inherent difficulties in selecting personnel for the three groups that will be strictly comparable, as representing random samples of the respective groups. First of all it was decided that all three groups should belong to the prevailing agricultural class and that the Whites of the governing class and the white merchants of Kingston should be excluded. A difficulty arises in this, that just those Whites who are satisfied to live as agriculturalists in the midst of the island are hardly as representative of the more ambitious and intellectually endowed Whites as the agricultural Blacks are of the run of the Black population. It is possible that in choosing non-urban Whites we have selected farther below of average of Whites than in selecting non-urban negroes we have selected below the average of negroes.

The island of Jamaica is one of the Greater Antilles and lies 130 kilometers south of Eastern Cuba and 180 kilometers west of Haiti. It is 230 kilometers long and 80 kilometers broad, and has an area of about 11,000 square kilometers. It is physiographically very rugged, being traversed by a chain of mountains which culminate in BlueMountain peak, 2240 meters high. The mountains are deeply incised by valleys, and in the central and western parts of the island are not a few remarkable depressions, or sinks, all of which have had their influence in determining the distribution and character of the population.

The island first became known to the Eastern world after its discovery by Columbus in May, 1494. At that time it was inhabited by Arawak Indians; peoples that ranged from Brazil to Cuba. In 1509 a colony of Spaniards under Juan d'Esquivel took possession of Jamaica. In the next few years Spanish settlements were made at several points along the coast. First at Seville in the north center (St. Ann) in 1509; then on the southwest coast. SpanishTown, near Kingston, was founded in 1523. The Spaniards brought few Spanish women .with them to these settlements, and much mixture with the Indians occurred. About 1515 the second governor, de Garay, began a system of enslavement of the Indians, which rapidly decimated them and, probably, a large proportion of the hybrids between them and the Spaniards.

The Spaniards at that time included many of Jewish stock, that had wandered with the Arabs, by way of North Africa, to the Iberian Peninsula when it was conquered by the Saracens. In 1608, Portugal having acquired certain interests in Jamaica, a number of Jewish migrated from that country to Jamaica. These, with further immigrations after the British conquest, formed the nucleus of the present numerous Jewish communities (Gardner, 1909, p. 12).

The first appearance of negroes in Jamaica is not precisely known. Negroes accompanied the Spaniards on their voyages of exploration m the early sixteenth century. It is stated by Johnston (1910, p. 38) that the "Apostle to the Indians," Bartolomeo de Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa in Hispaniola (Haiti), went to Spain in 1517 to protest to the Emperor against the harsh treatment of the feeble Arawaks by the Spaniards, and suggested the importation of hardly West African negroes. It is known that in 1615 a patent was issued to Flemish favorites of the Spanish Emperor to supply 4000 negroes annually to Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Porto Rico, and that this patent was passed on to the Portuguese. The first negroes were probably imported into Jamaica in 1517. In one way and another it is estimated by Johnston several thousand negroes were conveyed from Africa to the Greater Antilles during the sixteenth century. Slaves were transported to Jamaica until about 1847, when the slave-trading depots of Africa were destroyed by the British and Americans.

Even "during Spanish rule negro slaves were from time to time escaping into the mountains, casting in their lot with the Arawaks who were hiding there, and breeding with them. Such escaped negroes of the mountains were called Maroons. In 1655 Jamaica was captured by the English, and the Spanish were thereupon wholly expelled. At the same time the greater part of the slaves of the Spanish fled to the mountains and fused with the Maroons, whose designation is still carried by their descendants down to the present time. These mountain negroes caused trouble to white settlers by their depredations; so the English fought them or compelled submission. In 1738 they were granted tracts of land; one 15 miles southeast of Montego Bay; one at AccompongTown and elsewhere in the "cock pit country" (Plate 1, Eig. 1). Later, as a result of nine rebellions among the Maroons (1795), an additional settlement was made at MooreTown in Portland, Eastern Jamaica. It is thus seen that many negroes were more or less segregated in parts of Jamaica 90 to 130 years ago. They have had little contact with the Whites for four or five generations, and constitute a nearly "pure stock" of Negroes.
The African origin of the negroes brought to Jamaica is discussed by Johnston (1910, p. 247). He says: "They were principally derived from the tribes of the Gold Coast — some unusually warlike strain." … "Of the very few African words which survive in the negro dialects and folklore of Jamaica it is certain that the majority are derived from the Chur language of the Ashanti and Fanti." "Anansi," a Jamaican word for spider, is Ashanti. The word for "white man" — "bakara" ("buckra") — is, however, from the Bantu or semi-Bantu languages of the CrossRiver and Western Camaroons. Mr. Gartshore, who was long a missionary in the Ibo country, near Old Calabar, Africa, states that he recognizes several Ibo words in the language of the Jamaican negroes.

The proportion of negro to white in Jamaica has been high from an early date. "In 1673 there were 9504 Negroes in Jamaica (apart from the Maroons) as against 7768 Whites. In 1690 the number of negro slaves had risen to 40,000, while the Whites had decreased to some extent" (Johnston, 1910, pp. 247-248). This great increase was due to extensive importations of negroes to work the sugar plantations. The introduction of coffee into Jamaica in 1721 led to a further introduction of negro labor. By 1764 there were 140,000 slaves in Jamaica; by 1807, 324,000. In 1804, slavery was abolished and compensation paid to owners on 255,290 slaves.
Indian coolies were imported into Jamaica in 1845, and again late in 1868. BytFe last census, the racial composition of Jamaica is as follows.

Whites, 14,476; Colored, 157,223; Blacks, 660,420; East Indian, 18,610; Chinese, 3696; and not stated, 3693. In 1891 there were only 481 Chinese. The number of Whites, absolutely and relatively, is diminishing slightly. In percentages the constitution of the population was, in 1921, as follows: Black, 76.9; Brown (colored), 18.3; White, 1.7; East Indians, Chinese and "not stated," 3.0. The total population of Jamaica by parishes estimated for December 31, 1924, is shown in Table 1 (Cundall, 1926, p. 39).

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