Jamaica
When the slaves were emancipated in the British West Indies in 1834, the planters of Jamaica were worried that their labor force would dissipate, as the former slaves went to occupy vacant plots of land in the hills.
They therefore urged a policy by which European peasants would be encouraged to settle in the hills, so as to reduce the land available to the former slaves.Some laborers thus came from England and Scotland, but the most coherent group came from Germany. Most of them were recruited by William Lemonius in north Germany and were shipped out of Bremen; over 500 came in both 1835 and 1836. As seems to be the general rule with developments of this kind, the promises made by Lemonius were not kept, particularly in respect to the provision of housing. Still, a majority of the German immigrants survived the initial period, and before long most of them settled around Seaford Town, about 25 miles from Montego Bay, in the hills.
They had a wide variety of skills, and for a time it was hoped that they might establish an exemplary colony. As a contemporary put it, the authorities hoped that “the unwearied industry, the thought of providing for the support of themselves and families, which their habits would exhibit, would be observed; and, in the course of time, is it unreasonable to hope, imitated?” (Hall 1975, 4) Alas, although some immigrant families did quite soon establish themselves, many did not seem to have the expected European virtues, so that in 1837 it was noted that “in consequence of many of the Emigrants being so improvident it is recommended to serve only one week’s allowance [of basic food] at a time” (Hall 1975, 4). Meanwhile some of the immigrants had died, and others quickly left for the United States.
All the same, by 1840 a community of about 300 Germans had firmly established itself at Seaford Town and had become selfsufficient, growing such crops as yams, plantains, and bananas. About 200 of these immigrants were Catholics, and they eventually established a church at Seaford Town, served by a sequence of Jesuits. In spite of continuing emigration, the community survived as a recognizable entity right down to the end of the twentieth century. Their style of life was by then, as it had been for many years, indistinguishable from that of the Jamaican peasants among whom they lived; only in the kitchen, it is said, were there faint echoes of their distant German origins.
David Buisseret
References and Further Reading
Hall, Douglas. “Bountied European Immigration into Jamaica.” Jamaica ∣ournal 8/4 (1974): 48-54; 9/1 (1975): 2-9.