#| of slave names and their countries/tribes of origin from a plantation i was looking into owned by people with the same | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

autistocracy · 3 years

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In 1669, the Count of Hanau, Friedrich Casimir, began preparations to purchase territory in Guiana from the Dutch West India Company. Initially, it looked as though this deal would fall through and the Count would be driven into bankruptcy, but before this happened, he received generous donations from various minor nobles both in his court and abroad, allowing the deal to go through. After 3 years of negotiations with the West India Company, Friedrich Casimir purchased the lands between the Courantyne and Amazon Rivers, an area of roughly 100,000 square kilometres, many times the size of the tiny County of Hanau.

After the purchase, he sent roughly 500 colonists, mainly from his county, but there included a small number of colonists from neighbouring countries, to his newly obtained colony. Originally, the plan had been to name the land the Hanauisch-Indien, or Hanauish Indies, but after several months, the land was renamed to Neu-Hanau and the capital at the mouth of the Suriname River being named Friedrichsburg, and sometimes called Paramaribo after a native word meaning “inhabitants of the large river”. As a part of the deal, the Dutch West India Company was given a total monopoly on shipping between Europe and Neu-Hanau.

Not long after the land was transferred to Hanauish authority, the Third Anglo-Dutch War broke out, and shipping to the new colony ceased. The colonists sent by the county on Dutch ships had been forced to land in the Portuguese New World territories of Brazil and take a smaller boat up the coast to the land planned for Friedrichsburg. Many believed the colony wouldn’t make it through the war, but somehow they managed to survive.

After the Third Anglo-Dutch War ended in 1674, shipping renewed, and another wave of colonists arrived in Friedrichsburg, now a small settled village. Initially, the village had some major troubles, including a number of famines, but after two decades, the colonial capital had stabilised.

On March 30th, 1685, Count Friedrich Casimir died without issue, and his nephew, the minor Philipp Reinhard, became the new Count. His reign would begin 2 years later in 1687. His reign would be a relatively prosperous one for the small county and its new colony. One of his first acts as Count was to make a visit to Friedrichsburg, and stay there for about a year, ruling from the tiny village that acted as the colonial capital. He had planned to stay longer, but was stricken with Malaria and had to return to Europe, where he recovered.

Under Philipp Reinhard, the colony of Neu-Hanau tripled in population, as he continued to offer incentives to people to move to the New World. At this time, the majority of the colony’s income was from its sugar plantations, rum distilling, lumber, and coffee. The economy of the colony existed at the time mainly on the backs of slaves, and conditions for these slaves was often harsher than in other colonies. Many of the slaves managed to escape to the jungles and establish contact with native tribes, forming their own tribes, now known as the Maroons.

During the 9 Years’ War and Spanish succession war, both the colony of Neu-Hanau and the County of Hanau were occupied several times, but both managed to recover after these wars, though it would take a while.

In 1712, Philipp Reinhard was elevated to the title of Duke, though he died shortly afterward at the age of 48 without any surviving children, and his brother Johann Reinhard became Duke. Duke Johann Reinhard ordered the construction of several churches, both at home and in the colony of Neu-Hanau, as well as founding two new towns in the New World: Philippsburg and Johannesburg.

In 1736, Duke Johann Reinhard died at the age of 70, and like the last two rulers of Hanau and Neu-Hanau, he died without a male son, and left the title of Duke of Hanau to his grandson, Ludwig, the son of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was only 17 at the time.

Duke Ludwig was an admirer of King Frederick William I, known as the Soldier King, and joined the Prussian military during the War of the Austrian Succession, sending also some forces from his Duchy to support the Prussian army. The war would last 7 years, and see the colony of Neu-Hanau invaded several times, including having the city of Johannesburg razed to the ground.

After the war, Duke Ludwig began to focus a little more on the colony he had neglected, and established a number of forts at strategic places, as well as strengthening the army both at home in Europe and in Neu-Hanau. In Europe, he also chartered the city of Pirmasens, which he made the capital of his Duchy. He also constructed a number of Lutheran churches.

In October 17, 1768, Duke Ludwig’s father, Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt died at the age of 77, leaving the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt to his son, the Duke. Duke Ludwig would continue to rule under the title of Duke of Hanau, and would also continue his military build up of his lands, including the new land of Hesse-Darmstadt, which he incorporated into the Duchy of Hanau.

On April 6th, 1790, Duke Ludwig died at the age of 70 and left his lands to his son, Ludwig II. Ludwig II was more diplomatic than his father, and made constant trips across Europe, including to the court of the Prussian King, Frederick the Great, whose son his sister married, and to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia, whose son and heir his other sister married. He himself was engaged to the daughter of the Duke of Württemberg, but the engagement was called off when his sister Wilhelmina, the wife of Tsarevich Paul, died, and was wed instead to the daughter whom he had previously been engaged to marry. Instead, Duke Ludwig II wed his cousin.

Duke Ludwig II was also a more tolerant person than his predecessors, and ended persecution of Jews and Catholics in his lands, even establishing a Catholic church in Friedrichsburg, Neu-Hanau. Duke Ludwig II’s rule coincided with the French Revolution and the French wars, and he would several times move his court and household to live in Friedrichsburg as the threat of invasion of Hanau was always imminent, and his Duchy lost much of its land on the left bank of the Rhine, the area known as Hanau-Lichtenburg. In 1806, Ludwig II and Hanau joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and was elevated to the title of Grand Duke of Hanau and Hesse by Rhine. In 1816, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he was granted additional lands on the left bank of the Rhine. Outside of war and governance, Grand Duke Ludwig also established several libraries, established several scholarships, and promoted theatre and music. He also ordered the drafting of the first constitution for the Grand Duchy.

On April 6th, 1830, exactly 40 years after the death of his father, Grand Duke Ludwig died at the age of 76, leaving his lands to his son, Ludwig II. Grand Duke Ludwig II’s reign wasn’t truly very notable for either the homeland or the colony of Neu-Hanau. The colony was left much to its own devices during the 18 years of his reign, and during this time, the three cities of Friedrichsburg, Philippsburg, and Johannesburg grew quite a bit without much interference. Two smaller cities were established during this time, largely inhabited by natives and Maroons.

In 1848, Europe underwent the great Revolutions, and Hanau-Hesse wasn’t spared from this. Grand Duke Ludwig II, not feeling up to the pressure and stress that the revolution brought abdicated to his son, Ludwig III, dying not long afterward. The reign of Ludwig III was significant, for during this time, the Austro-Prussian war broke out. Grand Duke Ludwig III, wary of the Prussians, sided with the Austrian Empire. After the defeat of the Austrian alliance, Hanau-Hesse was forced to concede Upper Hesse to the Prussians, nearly halving the land of the Grand Duchy in Europe. Also during the rule of Ludwig III, slavery was outlawed in the colony of Neu-Hanau, and settlements were made with now-free slaves and Maroons, and the two cities of Neu-Darmstadt and Neu-Buchsweiler grew significantly as a result of former slaves settling in the two cities.

In 1868, Grand Duke Ludwig III married morganatically, and afterward retired from ruling, leaving the Grand Duchy to his nephew, Ludwig IV. While Grand Duke Ludwig III’s reign had been significant in its own right, the rule of his nephew was even more significant. During his reign, not only did the Franco-Prussian War break out, but the states that made up Germany united under one flag. This, however, was not something accepted by the people of Hanau-Hesse, nor by the Grand Duke and his ministers. As a result, Grand Duke Ludwig IV, with the support of his people, joined the French in their disastrous war. After their defeat, the Grand Duke, his family, court, and a vast number of his people, fled to the colony of Neu-Hanau, which had remained untouched by the war. The Grand Duchy of Hanau-Hesse abandoned its European homeland.

Neu-Hanau was renamed simply Hanau, and construction of a royal palace began in Friedrichsburg. In total, somewhere between 35 and 40 percent of the population of Hanau-Hesse fled Europe for the former colony of Hanau. Most of these refugees settled in the city of Friedrichsburg, though smaller numbers also went to Philippsburg and Johannesburg. The population of Hanau grew from a mere 30,000 to over 1,000,000 in only 4 years. At first, the colony could not sustain that many new mouths to feed, and the country nearly collapsed, but thanks to help from Brazil, the United States, the United Kingdom (Grand Duke Ludwig’s wife was the second daughter of Queen Victoria), and France, Hanau was able to survive.

In 1892, the Grand Duke Ludwig IV died. He was succeeded by his son, Ernst Ludwig. As with his father’s and great uncle’s reigns, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig’s reign was terribly significant. His reign marked the growth of Hanau as a new, fledgling country in South America, and the growth of modern technology. In 1896, the Royal Palace of Friedrichsburg was outfitted with electricity and electric bulbs. Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig was well connected to the royal families of Europe, particularly those of Russia and the United Kingdom, and would often make visits to these countries. In 1899, he founded a colony for artists in Frierdrichsburg, and gave them great patronage. The colony of Friedrichsburg was noted as a centre of the Art Nouveau style, amongst others. The Grand Duke also established, at the advice of an advisor, a national arms factory, located in Philippsburg. The factory made mostly licensed copies of American and British designs, and still exists today, albeit as an independent company rather than a national company.

In 1914, the world became embroiled in war, and Hanau, as a result of its connections to European powers, was drawn in as well. Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig pledged support to the Allies, sending roughly 600 men to fight in Europe. The Hanauish soldiers distinguished themselves in several battles, but their efforts were largely overshadowed by the fighting done by the larger nations. Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig had hoped that fighting in the war would allow him to take back the lands of Hanau and Hesse that had been taken from his family several decades before, but in the end Hanau had no such luck, and remained a South American country. After the war, many of the monarchies of Germany were abolished, and a great number of nobility fled their countries. Many fled to Hanau, and many were given noble titles as compensation. Several new cities were established with this fresh influx of people, including Corantijn, Nikerie, and Saramacca.

Between WWI and WWII, Hanau was seldom in foreign news. After the abolition of the German monarchies, the surviving German monarchy of Hanau chose to keep much to itself, and focus on its internal politics. The government was restructured to be more modern, though the Grand Duke still retained a great deal of authority, and still does, that most other European monarchs no longer have. In 1923, the Prime Minister of Hanau was elected, replacing the older office of President-Minister; Albrecht Biedermann, of the Vaterländisch Bürgerpartei, the oldest extant party in the Grand Duchy, founded in 1891.

In 1937, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig died, and his son, Georg Donatus, took the throne. However, his reign would be shortlived, as he and his immediate family were killed in an air accident en route to his brother and heir’s wedding in the United Kingdom. After Georg Donatus’ death, his brother assumed the throne as Grand Duke Ludwig V.

In 1939, World War Two broke out in Europe. During the war, the Grand Duchy remained officially neutral, but in reality they were sending supplies to the British for the duration of the war. The country also took in Jewish and other refugees, especially other former nobles of Germany. The Free French were also allowed to use Hanauish ports to ferry men to and from their African colonies and Europe. Many of the Jewish refugees settled in the city of Johannesburg, which historically was the centre of Jewish community in Hanau.

After WWII, the economy boomed after gold was discovered in the interior of the country, followed by the discovery of bauxite deposits that proved to be very profitable for the country in the wake of the pre-war era’s growing usage of aluminum.

‘’

List of Monarchs:

Count Friedrich Casimir: 1642-1685

Duke Philipp Reinhard (originally Count): 1685-1712

Duke Johann Reinhard: 1712-1736

Duke Ludwig I: 1736-1790

Grand Duke Ludwig I (originally Duke Ludwig II): 1790-1830

Grand Duke Ludwig II: 1830-1848

Grand Duke Ludwig III: 1848-1868

Grand Duke Ludwig IV: 1868-1892

Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig: 1892-1937

Grand Duke Georg Donatus: 1937

Grand Duke Ludwig V: 1937-1968

Grand Duke Philipp (of House Hesse-Kassel): 1968-1980

Grand Duke Moritz: 1980-2013

Grand Duke Donatus: 2013-current

List of Prime Ministers:

Albrecht Biedermann, VBP, 1923-1927

Alexander Freiherr von Philippsburg, VBP, 1927-1932

Marcus Siemens, VBP, 1932-1937

Joachim Biedermann, VBP, 1937-1947, brother of Albrecht Biedermann

Philipp Lorenz, VBP, 1947-1952

Adam Ulrich, DP, 1952-1957

Albrecht Biedermann the Junior, VBP, 1957-1962, son of Albrecht Biedermann

Ludwig, Landgraf von Corantijn, VBP, 1962-1967

Philipp Enzensberger, VBP, 1967-1972

Ludwig, Landgraf von Corantijn, VBP, 1972-1977, second time

Marcus I zu Solms-Braunfels-Nikerie, VBP, 1977-1987

Daniel Lorenz, VBP, 1987-1992, grandson of Philipp Lorenz

Albrecht, Landgraf von Corantijn, VBP, 1992-1997, son of Ludwig

Ludwig Biedermann, VBP, 1997-2002, youngest brother of Albrecht Biedermann the Junior

Lukas Augustus Freiherr von Philippsburg, VBP, 2002-2007, great grandson of Alexander frv Philippsburg

Marcus II zu Solms-Braunfels-Nikerie, VBP, 2007-2012, son of Marcus I

Thomas Biedermann, VBP, 2012-2017, son of Albrecht Biedermann the Junior

Thomas Lorenz, VBP, 2017-current, son of Daniel Lorenz

VBP: Vaterländisch Bürgerpartei; DP: Demokratische Partei (1945-1963)

#this is that alternate history i was talking about

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quakerjoe · 6 years

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Roughly 60 years after the abolition of slavery, anthropologist Zora Neale Hurstonmade an incredible connection: She located the last surviving captive of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the United States.

Hurston, a known figure of the Harlem Renaissance who would later write the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, conducted interviews with the survivor but struggled to publish them as a book in the early 1930s. In fact, they are only now being released to the public in a book called Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” that comes out on May 8, 2018.

Author Zora Neale Hurston (1903-1960). (Credit: Corbis/Getty Images)

Hurston’s book tells the story of Cudjo Lewis, who was born in what is now the West African country of Benin. Originally named Kossula, he was only 19 years old when members of the neighboring Dahomian tribe captured him and took him to the coast. There, he and about 120 others were sold into slavery and crammed onto the Clotilda, the last slave ship to reach the continental United States.

The Clotilda brought its captives to Alabama in 1860, just a year before the outbreak of the Civil War. Even though slavery was legal at that time in the U.S., the international slave trade was not, and hadn’t been for over 50 years. Along with many European nations, the U.S. had outlawed the practice in 1807, but Lewis’ journey is an example of how slave traders went around the law to continue bringing over human cargo.

To avoid detection, Lewis’ captors snuck him and the other survivors into Alabama at night and made them hide in a swamp for several days. To hide the evidence of their crime, the 86-foot sailboat was then set ablaze on the banks of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta (its remains may have been uncovered in January 2018).

Most poignantly, Lewis’ narrative provides a first-hand account of the disorienting trauma of slavery. After being abducted from his home, Lewis was forced onto a ship with strangers. The abductees spent several months together during the treacherous passage to the United States, but were then separated in Alabama to go to different plantations.

A marker to commemorate Cudjo Lewis, considered to be the last surviving victim of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States, in Mobile, Alabama. (Credit: Womump/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)

“We very sorry to be parted from one ’nother,” Lewis told Hurston. “We seventy days cross de water from de Affica soil, and now dey part us from one ’nother. Derefore we cry. Our grief so heavy look lak we cain stand it. I think maybe I die in my sleep when I dream about my mama.”

Lewis also describes what it was like to arrive on a plantation where no one spoke his language, and could explain to him where he was or what was going on. “We doan know why we be bring ’way from our country to work lak dis,” he told Hurston. “Everybody lookee at us strange. We want to talk wid de udder colored folkses but dey doan know whut we say.”

As for the Civil War, Lewis said he wasn’t aware of it when it first started. But part-way through, he began to hear that the North had started a war to free enslaved people like him. A few days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865, Lewis says that a group of Union soldiers stopped by a boat on which he and other enslaved people were working and told them they were free.

Cudjo Lewis at home. (Credit: Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama)

Lewis expected to receive compensation for being kidnapped and forced into slavery, and was angry to discover that emancipation didn’t come with the promise of “forty acres and a mule,” or any other kind of reparations. Frustrated by the refusal of the government to provide him with land to live on after stealing him away from his homeland, he and a group of 31 other freepeople saved up money to buy land near the state capital of Mobile, which they called Africatown.

Hurston’s use of vernacular dialogue in both her novels and her anthropological interviews was often controversial, as some black American thinkers at the time argued that this played to black caricatures in the minds of white people. Hurston disagreed, and refused to change Lewis’ dialect—which was one of the reasons a publisher turned her manuscript down back in the 1930s.

Many decades later, her principled stance means that modern readers will get to hear Lewis’ story the way that he told it.

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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On the road in Jamaica: Blue mountain coffee, Reggae and Bob Marley - travel

On a dull and overcast day in San Francisco, my friend Ron informs me that he has decided to spend the upcoming holidays with his family in Jamaica and asks if I would like to come along. After months of unremittingly grey weather, I do not need much persuasion to head for sunnier climes. A week later, we are on a flight to Kingston.Ron’s sister, Estelle, is waiting for us when we walk out of Manley airport, after an eight-hour-long flight. We settle into the backseat of her 4-by-4 and set off on a two-lane highway running parallel to the sparkling azure waters of the Caribbean. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. Kingston, the capital, is located on the south-eastern coast of the island. It has two major sections: ‘downtown’ and ‘uptown,’ also referred to as ‘New Kingston’. Ron’s parents reside in a comfortable villa in the affluent part of town. He has three siblings: a brother and two sisters including Estelle. They are a Mullato family, and like many Jamaicans have white, black, Indian and Chinese blood coursing through their veins, making for a striking combination. The following morning, after a sumptuous breakfast, we set off on a trip to the Blue Mountains, Jamaica’s longest mountain range, to visit a friend of Ron’s who runs a coffee plantation in the region. The area is known for the famous Blue Mountain Coffee, which commands premium prices on world markets. About thirty minutes later, we leave the flats and start chugging up into the hills. The road is scooped out of the rock as if by hand. It seems barely wide enough for one vehicle, let alone two passing from opposite ways. We drive around numerous hairpin turns and are constantly bouncing on potholes. Just when it seems like the road couldn’t get any worse, it turns to dirt. Finally, after two hours of driving, we arrive at the plantation.

B07MJ9NPS5Daniel is a grizzled, serene-looking Rastafarian dressed in loose white clothing, with a beard and long dreadlocks collected under a white turban. He greets us with hugs. “Holy Emmanuel I Selassie I Jah I Rastafari. Welcome to my humble abode” he says with a beaming smile. We climb the steps of the porch and seat ourselves on a long bench running along the verandah. The large two-story wooden home is painted in white and brown and has a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the mist-shrouded peaks and deep valleys encircling it. A tall white woman with blonde dreadlocks comes out with a tray bearing fresh fruit and steaming mugs of coffee. She introduces herself as Gretchen, Daniel’s wife. Three children ranging from ages four to ten are trailing her. I look around and can’t help but notice dozens of tall marijuana plants growing wild all around the house. Then it strikes me. We are smack in the middle of a cannabis plantation. Daniel notices my gaze and explains that he grows both coffee and cannabis on this piece of land. He cultivates coffee for export while the cannabis is strictly for personal use. As night descends on the mountain, he builds a bonfire on a grassy knoll behind the house. We huddle around as he lights a clay pipe.

A cannabis farm in Jamaica. Daniel belongs to the ‘Bobo Ashanti’ sect of Rastafarianism, one of the more orthodox lineages within the larger movement. Bobos take their name from the Asante tribe in Africa, the original source of the majority of slaves in Jamaica. Several well-known Bobo Reggae artists have passed through Daniel’s home including Sizzla Kalonji, Capleton, Anthony B and Ras Shiloh. The next day arrives bright and clear, and after a meal of watermelon and pineapple, we bid our hosts adieu. Estelle is in the driver’s seat as usual. We head towards Trench Town. Trench Town was notorious for political gang violence during the seventies, forcing Marley to leave after an assassination attempt. Sadly, not much has changed since then. Today it is carved up into different zones, each one controlled by a leader or ‘don’. Political parties created the gangs in the 1970s to rustle upvotes. The gangs have since turned to drug trafficking, but each remains closely tied to a political party. The hostility between these rival gangs and ensuing urban warfare has turned the area into one of the most dangerous places in the world. 0805080864, 0007255535We stop in front of an unassuming restaurant with ‘Jerk Chicken’, ‘Oxtail Soup’ and ‘Red Stripe Beer’ printed on the wall in large red letters. A group of kids are kicking around a soccer ball on the street. It’s nearly lunchtime and we have decided to stop for food. We order beers and two portions of each dish with salads on the side. Jerk chicken is the de facto national dish of Jamaica; aromatic and smoky, sweet but insistently hot. All of its traditional ingredients grow in the island’s lush green interior: fresh ginger, thyme and scallions; Scotch bonnet peppers, cayenne peppers, black pepper, onion, garlic, nutmeg, paprika and cinnamon. After lunch, we walk around the neighbourhood, strolling past hard-faced youths lounging in front of shacks boarded up with planks of wood. Boundary walls covered with elaborate street art proclaiming the glories of Bob Marley and Rasta culture mark the periphery. Clothes are hung up to dry on rickety poles joined by a plastic string. Dogs sniff around piles of smouldering garbage.

A white couple, clearly American, wearing brightly coloured Hawaiian shirts, stand in front of a statue of Bob Marley, having their picture taken by a local. They are grinning idiotically with hands upraised in a victory sign. We walk back to the jeep wordlessly. Bob Marley’s voice blares out of the speakers as we drive towards the beach. Fittingly, the song is Trenchtown Rock, penned in the early seventies while he was living in the ghetto with his mother.In the Third World, especially where liberation struggles were underway, Bob was seen as both a popular musician and a revolutionary ally. When Zimbabwe won its freedom from the white Rhodesian regime in 1980, the Wailers played at the independence celebration. Nesta, as he is affectionately known to his legions of fans, succumbed to a malignant strain of cancer while at the peak of his career and passed away at the age of 36 on May 11, 1981. It is nearing sunset when we arrive at the beach. We sit on the white sand at the water’s edge and gaze at the setting sun, a perfect orb on the pink horizon shot through with streaks of gold and scarlet. I close my eyes and drift away to the sound of the water lapping at my feet.Follow more stories on Facebook and TwitterAt Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. Source link Read the full article

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zillowcondo · 7 years

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10 of the Best Jamaican Food Dishes You Need To Try

Jamaica is such a vibrant country and its food certainly reflects that. From delicious tropical fruits to succulent seafood and spicy meat dishes, there’s a whole array of Jamaican cuisine to enjoy. Blending African, Spanish and Asian influences, it has developed its own unique style over the years. We’ve picked 10 of the top Jamaican food dishes that you should try, that will give you a true flavour of this beautiful island.

Ackee and Saltfish

The national dish of Jamaica is ackee and saltfish. Although it looks a bit like scrambled eggs, ackee is actually a fruit. It wasn’t originally indigenous to Jamaica but now grows there abundantly. The fruit has to ripen on the tree before picking as the unripe fruit contains a toxin. Once ripe, ackee has a number of health benefits due to the high number of nutrients it contains. To make ackee and saltifsh, fry salt cod, scotch bonnet pepper, tomatoes, onion, garlic and scallion with boiled ackee. As Scotch bonnet pepper is over 40 times hotter than a jalapeno, you can always omit it or chop it very finely. We tried ackee and saltfish for breakfast at Kanopi House in Port Antonio, but it can be eaten at any time of day. It’s served here with fried dumplings, another popular Jamaican dish. Ackee is also used to make a sweet wine and as a herbal treatment for many ailments.

Jamaica Jerk

Whilst Jamaican jerk chicken is famous all over the world, you can also try Jamaica jerk pork, sausage and even rabbit. The term jerk refers to the method of seasoning and cooking and the technique dates back to the 1600s. At that period, runaway slaves who were known as Maroons escaped to the mountainous regions of Jamaica. There, they encountered the Taino and Arawak tribes who had developed specific ways of preserving meat by hanging it over a low fire. It is thought that the covered pit used to cook jerk was a way of hiding any smoke from cooking, which might lead to their discovery and recapture. The village of Boston in Jamaica is considered to be the birthplace of jerk cooking, and if you visit today you can still try authentic jerk cooked on open pits. The pimento wood logs give the jerk meat its unique flavour. As for the spiciness, it’s down to the Scotch bonnet pepper used in the marinade. We loved it but we drank a lot of water to combat the fieriness! We also made a milder version by omitting the Scotch bonnet pepper, on a culinary tour of The Great House in Yaaman Adventure Park, thanks to our friendly and knowledgeable instructor.

Jerk chicken is often served with rice and peas, like the delicious version we sampled at GoldenEye, the iconic resort in Bay. I was pleased to see that the peas are actually red kidney beans, as I’m not a huge fan of peas themselves.

Jamaican Patties

No visit to Jamaica would be complete without sampling traditional Jamaican patties. It’s thought that they derive from Cornish pasties, introduced to the Caribbean by colonialists from Britain. These developed into Jamaican patties, filled with ground beef, chicken, shrimp or cheese. Vegetarians should be aware that some of the cheese patties actually have beef mixed in with them. Many people eat them with cocoa bread in a sandwich as a real carb fest! A few of the most popular patty stores are Juici Patties, Mothers and Tastee.

Source: Ritcharnd Moskow, Wikimedia Commons

Run Down

One of our favourite Jamaican recipes, run down is made from fish such as mackerel, tomato, onion, garlic, scallion, Scotch bonnet pepper and coconut milk. It takes its unusual name from the fact that its cooked until it “runs down” or falls apart. It is eaten at all times of the day, and often served with baked breadfruit, plantains, boiled bananas or dumplings. We savoured this run down dish at Moon Palace, a luxury resort in Ocho Rios.

Fried Fish

We had some of the best food in Jamaica at Miss T’s Kitchen, an authentic Jamaican restaurant in Ocho Rios. They do some great dishes including these fish bites and escovitch, which is topped with Scotch bonnet peppers, onions and pickled carrots.

Oxtail

Another Jamaican food that we tried at Miss T’s is oxtail stew, with butter beans, carrots and spinners, aka boiled dumplings. The meat is braised for several hours, making it extremely tender.

Callaloo

This popular Jamaican side dish is made with amaranth, also known as callaloo and cooked with onions, scallions and salt. It tastes a little like spinach and contains many nutrients like vitamin A, B and C, calcium and iron. It’s served here with festival, a fried pastry made from cornmeal, flour and brown sugar.

Curried goat

One of the most well known Jamaican dishes is curried goat. When slavery was abolished in Jamaica, many people came from India to work on the plantations and popularized curries on the island. If you’ve tried it elsewhere and found it a bit overpowering, try it in Jamaica as it’s braised for many hours and has a more subtle taste than you’d expect. It’s usually served with rice and peas or boiled green bananas, and used to be reserved for parties or other celebrations but is now more frequently consumed.

Ice Cold Jelly Coconut

You’ve probably tried fresh coconut from the shell as well as coconut milk, but have you ever eaten coconut jelly? It holds a special place in the heart of most Jamaicans and you will see lots of roadside stalls selling “ice cold coconut jelly”. It comes only from green coconuts, not the brown ones and is believed by many to help flush out the digestive system.

Jamaica Rum Cake

You can’t leave Jamaica without tucking into the Caribbean rum cake. Tortuga is one of the best known brands, and their rum cakes are hand glazed with 5 year-old Tortuga Gold rum.

Other popular Jamaican desserts are gizzada, a mix of coconut flakes, brown sugar, flour and spices and plantain tarts. Don’t miss picturesque I Scream store at Errol Flynn Marina in Portland or the historic landmark store at Devon House in Kingston.

Enjoy these traditional Jamaican dishes with a locally brewed Red Stripe beer, a cup of Blue Mountain coffee or the obligatory rum punch – well it would be rude not to ;-). It’s best enjoyed on a beach in Jamaica, but if you can’t get there then the Jamaica Garden Terrace in Canary Wharf, London is a good port of call.

I don’t know about you, but all this talk of food has got us hungry! Which of these Jamaican food dishes would be your favourite?

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