German settlement in Jamaica

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A small German settlement in Jamaica took place in 1830 after the abolition of slavery ordered by the colonial power Great Britain had led to a labor shortage in the colony.

History of the German Settlers in Jamaica

Lord Seaford , who owned the Montpelier Estate and Shettlewood Pen in St. James , established a European settlement, Seaford Town in Westmoreland , in 1835 to address the labor shortage. As a result, over a thousand Germans immigrated to Jamaica in the wake of the impoverishment of large sections of the population during the industrialization of Germany at that time ( pauperism ) and settled in Seaford Town. They were simple craftsmen from the Weser Uplands and Bremen who were supposed to teach the slaves, who had meanwhile been freed, how to live in families and how to cultivate and raise livestock .

They had originally been promised that they would get land on arrival and move into finished houses and receive a small maternity allowance until they could successfully support themselves. The truth is that many had to build their own homes, expecting a 72-hour week on a meager ration of 4 pounds of cornmeal, 1 pound of beef, 4 pounds of flour, and 3 pounds of salt fish. Been promised was the indentured servants but more. Of the 250 Germans who came to Jamaica with the first wave in mid-December 1834, 34 died of tropical diseases in the first two weeks . Many later migrated to North America , but some stayed in the place. They learned how to grow bananas , ginger , cocoa , coffee and cassava and were then able to provide for themselves.

Today the German language is no longer spoken on the island, only a few German words have remained. As a legacy, Catholicism is the predominant religion in the place, and the immigrants have also left their mark on the architecture. Often there are still houses with cellars, as we know it from Germany. In Seaford Town you can often see blond, blue-eyed or other European body features, which are particularly common when going to church.

Seaford Town has a museum on the history of German immigrants in Jamaica, which was built in cooperation with the German embassy. The cemetery is also worth a visit. Numerous German names can be found on the tombstones, while the graves from more recent times use anglicized spelling.

The documentary German Town was released in 2014 . The lost story of Seaford Town, Jamaica by David Ritter and Clinton H. Wallace.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Seaford Town: Westmoreland . Jamaica National Heritage Trust. 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
  2. ^ Website of the film , accessed on March 22, 2016