Transatlantic Slavery

Between 1450 and 1850, Europeans had abducted millions of people from West Africa and West Central Africa and enslaved them in the Americas. Portugal was the first, followed by Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Some of the countries that lost citizens to slavery were Angola, Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal. In the Americas, slave plantations were established in the Lesser Antilles (including Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago), the Greater Antilles (including Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica), Brazil and the USA.

Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica in 1494 and encountered the Tainos, the first recorded inhabitants of the island. By 1510, the Tainos were enslaved by the Spanish. Initially, the Tainos were used to produce cassava, cassava bread, corn, pigs, bacon and salted beef to be sent to Spain’s newest Central American settlements. New Spanish settlers in Central America had fallen ill and were unable to make use of the natives. Cotton was produced on a major scale in Jamaica at this time.

Pressure on the Tainos in Jamaica increased, as more produce was needed for Central America. Some Tainos secretly left Jamaica for Cuba and as far as Yucatan. By 1520, overwork, European diseases and suicide among the Tainos, had greatly decreased their numbers. Africans were brought in as slaves, to increase the workforce and to cultivate sugar, which was introduced into Jamaica.