Ocho Rios History

Pre-Columbian Ocho Rios

The original inhabitants of Jamaica were the Arawak people, also known as the Tainos. It is believed that they arrived on the island circa 500 BCE from South America. They called the island Xaymaca, which meant "land of wood and water."

The Arawak were a forest people who lived in theocratic kingdoms, with a hierarchically arranged pantheon of gods, called zemis, and village chiefs, or caciques. The zemis were represented by icons of wood, stone, bones and human remains. Arawaks believed that being in the good graces of their zemis protected them from disease, hurricanes or disaster in war.

The Arawaks--who were light brown, generally short with coarse black hair, with broad faces and flat noses--painted their bodies in bright colors, and some wore small ornaments of gold and shells. Body-painting was common, mostly employed to intimidate opponents in warfare.

They lived in small villages in huts constructed of wooden frames topped by straw, and featured earthen floors. The buildings were strong enough to resist hurricanes. Their villages were generally located near the coast.

Their diet consisted of manioc, maize, potatoes, peanuts, peppers, beans, and arrowroot that they cultivated twice each year. In addition, they hunted ducks, geese, parrots, iguanas, small rodents and giant tree sloths. Most fishing, done by hand along the coast and in rivers, was for mollusks, lobsters and turtles. Bigger fish were caught with baskets, spears, hooks and nets.

At the time of the arrival of Columbus, it is estimated that as many as 50,000 Arawak natives lived in Jamaica.

Spanish Discovery and Administration

On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus left Cadiz on September 24, 1493 to discover new territories. His fleet included 17 ships carrying supplies as well as about 1,200 men to colonize the region. The colonists included priests, farmers and soldiers. The goal of the Spanish on this voyage was to found "colonies of settlement" in which the new overlords could convert the natives to Christianity, not just establish "colonies of exploitation."

On May 5, 1494, at the tail end of his voyage, Columbus's fleet arrived at what is today St. Ann's Bay. Here he first encountered the native Arawak people. Believing them to be hostile, Columbus's fleet moved down the coast and set anchor in Discovery Bay. Another group of native Arawaks met the Spaniards on the shore. The natives were set upon by a dog from one of the ships, and several crossbow-wielding soldiers, who killed and wounded a number of the Arawaks. With the natives subdued, Columbus came ashore and claimed the island in the name of the Queen of Spain.

It wasn't until 1509 that the island was formally colonized by the Spanish. Led by governor Juan de Esquivel, the colonists settled in the St. Ann's Bay area. Here they established the town of Sevilla la Nueva, or New Seville.

The Spanish colonists were cruel administrators of their new territory. They resorted to torturing and killing the Arawaks to claim their land. Within several decades, the population of the native Arawaks declined rapidly, victims of enslavement, social dislocation and unfamiliar epidemic diseases.

In the early 16th century, most of the Spanish outposts in Jamaica were small villages scattered around the northern coastal regions of the island. In 1518, the Spanish established fortifications at Point Royal at the end of a finger of land at the mouth of Kingston Bay, and in 1534, governor Francisco de Garay established the town of St. Jago de la Vega as the capital of the territory. Located on the southern coast of the island, the area had been settled by native Arawaks for over a millennia. Over the next century, St. Jago de la Vega (today known as Spanish Town) became the center of trade. Numerous churches and convents were built during this period--many of which remain to this day.

For Spain, however, Jamaica was an afterthought in its colonial empire. While the island yielded no treasure of precious metals, its location (being in the center of its trade routes) was of strategic interest to the Spanish. Jamaica was primarily used as a supply base for its colonial adventures in Mexico and South America. As the local Arawak population diminished, African slaves were imported to help grow the crops that were exported to Spain's colonial outposts.

During the century from 1555 to 1655, pirates routinely attacked Spanish Jamaica. While the territorial governors pleaded for increased support from Spain, the assistance was not forthcoming. This period saw growing internal strife, with the policies of local church authorities undermining the control of the governors of the island.

Christopher Columbus

The Overthrow of the Spanish Colony

In 1654, England's Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell assigned General-at-Sea William Penn (father of William Penn of Pennsylvania) and General Robert Venables to seize the island of Hispaniola (the location of today's Haiti and Dominican Republic). Cromwell's goal was to establish an English trading base in the middle of the Spanish New World. The fleet was unable to achieve this objective, failing in an attempted siege of Santo Domingo. Fearing the wrath of Cromwell, Penn and Venables subsequently elected to attack the Spanish outpost in Jamaica, acting without official orders.

On May 10, 1655, the English arrived in Kingston Harbor and attacked the Spanish outpost. Greatly outnumbered, the Spanish surrendered to the English. The Spanish freed their slaves and fled to Cuba. The freed slaves and their descendants were known as the Maroons. In later years, Spanish diehards and their Maroon allies continued a resistance effort against the English, but their efforts came to naught.

While the English found it relatively easy to gain control of the island, they soon realized that a larger Spanish force could easily take it back just as quickly. By 1659, two hundred houses, shops and warehouses surrounded the fort at Port Royal, and by 1692 five forts defended the port.

William Penn

Early English Administration of Jamaica

From 1655 until 1692, when a large earthquake leveled the town, Port Royal served as the capital of Jamaica. After the earthquake, Spanish Town overtook this role, later followed by Kingston, whose development was spurred through resettlement of earthquake survivors.

The defense of their outpost was a continuing worry for the English. In 1657, Governor Edward D'Oley invited the Brethren of the Coast to come to Port Royal and make it their home port. The Brethren was made up of a group of pirates who were descendents of cattle-hunting buccaneers who had turned to piracy themselves after being robbed by the Spanish (and subsequently thrown out of Hispaniola). These pirates were a seemingly perfect solution; their attacks were concentrated against Spain, the main threat to the town.

These pirates later became legal English privateers who were given letters of marque by Jamaica's governor. Around the same time that the pirates were invited to Port Royal, England launched a series of attacks against Spanish shipping vessels and coastal towns. By sending the newly appointed privateers after Spanish ships and settlements, England had successfully set up a system of defense for Port Royal. Spain was forced to continually defend their property, and did not have the means with which to retake its land.

Included among the privateers, buccaneers and pirates who settled in Port Royal were Henry Morgan, Christopher Myngs and Edward Mansvelt. Under the buccaneers' leadership, Port Royal by 1672 became one of the "wealthiest and wickedest cities in the world." In 1670 Morgan was given a commission as commander-in-chief of all the ships of war in Jamaica; his mission was to levy war on the Spaniards and destroy their ships and stores. He was knighted by King Charles II in 1674, and appointed Lieutenant governor of Jamaica in 1675. He served in this capacity until 1681.

Henry Morgan

King Sugar and the Rise of Slavery

In 1660, the population of Jamaica was about 4,500 whites and some 1,500 blacks. As early as the 1670s, blacks formed a majority of the population, as agricultural products became the focus of the island's economy.

The earliest English settlers established estates on the island that grew tobacco, indigo, coffee and cocoa. However, sugar cane soon became the major crop. By 1673, 57 sugar estates were in operation. Enslaved Africans were imported to provide the workforce necessary for the cultivation of the crop.

The slave trade proved to be a profitable venture for the colonists. The transportation of slaves from Africa to the West Indies and Jamaica became known as the "Middle Passage," as the slave trade became a vital component of the Triangular Trade: trade goods were sent from England to Africa and traded for slaves, who were then sent to the West Indies. The final leg of the journey had Jamaican sugar, rum, molasses and coffee sent back to England.

By 1739, nearly 430 sugar estates had been established in Jamaica. The slaves outnumbered their white masters by a ratio of 20:1 in 1800. Slave rebellions were common, with over a dozen major slave conspiracies and uprisings taking place in the 18th century. One of the most important was the Easter Rebellion of 1760, led by Tacky. The Maroons also fought against the English during this period; the Maroon Wars of 1739 and 1740 resulted in a treaty, signed in 1740, in which the Maroons were given land and rights as free men. In return, they were to stop fighting and assist the English in recapturing runaway slaves.

The Second Maroon War took place in 1795-1796 between the English and Maroons in Trelawny Parish; the Maroons involved were expelled from the island and settled in the Creole community of Sierra Leone.

The frequent slave rebellions in the Caribbean was one factor that led to the abolition of the slave trade, and eventually slavery. On January 1, 1808, the English parliament passed the Abolition Bill; the bill stipulated that trading in African slaves was declared to be "utterly abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful."

The abolition of the slave trade did not quell unrest in Jamaica. In December 1831, a large-scale slave revolt known as the Baptist War broke out. Organized as a peaceful strike by Samuel Sharpe, the slaves demanded emancipation and a working wage of "half the going wage rate," and promised not to return to work until their demands were met by the plantation owners. Upon refusal of their demands, the strike escalated into a full rebellion. It became the largest slave uprising in the West Indies, lasting 10 days and mobilized as many as 60,000 of Jamaica's 300,000 slave population.

Due to the loss of life and destruction of property, the English Parliament held two inquiries. The results of these inquiries contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire, as of August 1, 1834. However, the Jamaican slaves remained bound to their former owners' service until 1838, under what was called the "Apprenticeship System." Many of the quarter million former slaves became small farmers.

Maroon

Jamaica from 1842 to 1962

Following the full abolition of slavery, most of the planters who had farmed in Jamaica left the island, selling their estates to new owners. These new owners continued the old oligarchic system enjoyed by their forebears. The freed slaves remained desperately poor, working as tenant farmers growing subsistence crops. Poll taxes were introduced to severely mitigate the influence of the former slaves.

The first half of the 1860s was a particularly difficult time for the bulk of the population, as a severe drought caused most of the crops to fail, and the American Civil War resulted in supplies being cut off from the island.

During the elections of 1864, the ratio of black Jamaicans to white was 32 to one, but out of a population of over 436,000, fewer than 2,000 were eligible to vote, nearly all of them white. Due to the drought, the mass of the Jamaican population found it nearly impossible to grow even subsistence crops. Black farmers petitioned the government to be allowed to farm on abandoned plantation property.

On October 7, 1865, a black man was put on trial and imprisoned for trespassing on a long-abandoned plantation, creating anger among black Jamaicans. When one member of a group of black protesters from the village of Stony Gut was arrested, the protesters became unruly and broke the accused man from prison. When he returned to his home, Paul Bogle, a leader of the protest movement, learned that he and 27 of his men had warrants issued for their arrest for rioting, resisting arrest and assaulting the police.

A few days later on October 11, Bogle marched with a group of protesters to Morant Bay. When the group arrived at the court house, they were met by a small volunteer militia who panicked and opened fire on the group, killing seven black protesters before retreating. The black protesters then rioted, killing 18 people (including white officials and militia) and taking control of the town. In the days that followed, some 2,000 black rebels roamed the countryside, killing two white planters and forcing others to flee for their lives.

Governor John Eyre sent government troops to hunt down the poorly armed rebels and bring Paul Bogle back to Morant Bay for trial. The troops were met with no organized resistance but killed blacks indiscriminately, many of whom had not been involved in the riot or rebellion. In the end, 439 black Jamaicans were killed directly by soldiers, and 354 more (including Paul Bogle) were arrested and later executed, some without proper trials. Other punishments included flogging for over 600 men and women, and long prison sentences.

Eyre was subsequently recalled to England. In 1866, the Jamaican legislature renounced its powers, and the country adopted the Crown Colony system. During the succeeding years, the island's economy recovered, accompanied by improvements in its social and constitutional structure.

In 1872, the capital was moved to Kingston from Spanish Town. In the 1880s, the islanders gained the right to elect 9 members of a legislative council.

Under the Crown Colony system, education, health and social services greatly improved. A savings bank system was introduced, and the country's infrastructure of roads, bridges and railways was greatly expanded. It was during this period that a nascent middle class developed, with low-level public officials and police officers drawn from the mass of the population.

As the importance of sugar waned in the late 19th century, the colony diversified into growing bananas.

The Great Depression years of the 1930s were a period of woe compounding woe. The banana industry was decimated by disease, sugar prices fell sharply, growing unemployment aggravated by the curtailment of migration opportunities and a growing population combined to create social turmoil. In the spring of 1938, sugar and dock workers around the island rose in revolt, resulting in rioting and violence. While quickly suppressed, the turmoil led to the formation of the colony's first labor unions and the formation of the two major political parties.

Alexander Bustamante founded and led both the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), founded in 1943. His rival was Norman Manley, founder and leader of the National Worker's union and the People's National Party (PNP), founded in 1938. The first elections under universal adult suffrage were held in 1944.

It was during the Second World War that the Allied powers began a search for alternative sources of aluminum ore. While lacking in silver and gold, Jamaica's bauxite-rich soils proved to be a 20th century boon for the country.

Although Jamaican bauxite was not used during the war, three aluminum companies--Alcan, Reynolds and Kaiser--realized the potential and set up shop in the country. Reynolds began exporting bauxite ore in 1952, as did Kaiser in 1953. Production increased rapidly, and by 1957 Jamaica had become the number one bauxite producer in the world, supplying 25% of the world's demand.

Reynolds, whose mines were located in the north of Jamaica in St. Ann's Parish, built a 6-mile long overhead conveyor belt that brought its ore from the interior to Ocho Rios bay.

From 1950 to 1960, Jamaica's mining sector grew from less than 1% to over 9% of the island's GDP.

Paul Bogle

Alexander Bustamante

From Jamaican Independence to The 21st Century

In 1958 Jamaica joined ten other British Caribbean colonies in forming the Federation of the West Indies. Jamaica gained full independence when it withdrew from the Federation in 1962. Independence day is celebrated on August 6.

In the 1960s, the aluminum companies all built refineries to turn the bauxite into alumina. By 1974, Jamaica had become the world's fourth largest producer and second biggest exporter of alumina.

During the first decade of independence, power swapped regularly between the PNP and the JLP. The PNP's Michael Manley became the prime minister in 1972, pursuing a socialist line and relations with Cuba. In the mid-1970s, the government acquired majority interests in the mining companies' operations in Jamaica. Manley's second term marked the start of political violence.

Deteriorating economic conditions during the 1970s led to recurrent violence as rival gangs affiliated with the major political parties evolved into powerful organized crime networks involved in international drug smuggling and money laundering.

Edgar Seaga of the JLP ousted the PNP in 1980, and began to reverse the policies of Manley, bringing privatization and seeking closer relations with the U.S. Nine years later, Manley was returned to power, but pursued a much more moderate line.

Jamaica is currently led by Prime Minister Bruce Golding of the JLP.

The Development of Ocho Rios

For much of its existence, Ocho Rios has been a sleepy fishing village in a beautiful location on the north side of Jamaica. But the past 60 years have witnessed the transformation of the village into a bustling town.

Tourism to the area began in January 1949 with the construction of the area's first hotel development, Tower Isle. The hotel soon became a popular Hollywood hangout; Walt Disney, Eva Gabor, Debbie Reynolds, Errol Flynn, Joe Louis and Noel Coward were counted among its guests. The equally trendy English-style Jamaica Inn opened its doors the following year.

In the early 1950s, Reynolds Mining Company built a deepwater pier in Ocho Rios to handle the loading of bauxite ore that was transported 6 miles from the mines by means of a conveyor belt straight into the waiting cargo ships. Reynolds shut down its Jamaican operations in 1984.

In the 1960s the government created the St. Ann Development Council, which was charged with the systematic development of Ocho Rios. The Council made a number of infrastructure investments to facilitate tourism.

Today, Ocho Rios has become the top cruise destination in Jamaica, attracting over 200 cruise ship visits in 2009, along with over 870,000 passengers and crew.