post slavery society in Jamaica

     When the British parliamanet issued the emancipation to the slaves of British West Indies in 1834, the slavery of Jamaica was abolished. The former slaves, however, had to be controlled under the apprentixceship in which the freed people must worked continually for their former master for six years, The period of apprenticeship was described as "a legally mandated transition period between slavery and freedom" byThomas Cleveland Holt, a historian for stuying the history of Caribbean regions. Under the apprenticeship, the relationship between the planters and workers was much the same as thaat between master and slave for forty and one-half hours of the work weeks, but during the balance of the week they were to assume the respective status of employer adn employee freeely negotiating condiditons of work and wages. Therefore, apprenticeship was the residues of slavery and the slavery actually disappeared in 1838 when the apprenticeship ended.

     After getting rid of slavery, African Jamaicans could be free to find their employers and employ themselves. They didn't think that freedom just meant the end of slavery. In fact, they wanted to get rid of reliance on whites and to be independent economically. They left the whites' plantation, set up their own free villages.In addition they often form cooperatives to buy abandoned supar estates to cultivate the food crops. In Jamaica, black freeholders increased from 2,014 in 1838 to 7,800 in 1840 and more than 50,000 in 1859.

     The meaning of freedom to former slaves was not only the independent on aspect of economy, but also the acquirement of political rights. When the emancipation was passed, Lord Glenelg, the colonial secretary of Britain, advocated the idea of racial equally in politics and society. The Emancipaiton gave the right of vote to black Jamaicans on paper. A decate later, however, the British colonial office mounted the anxiety of the rise of black power in Caribbean regions. They worried that blacks would control the British West Indies becaue the majority of populatin was blacks. As a result, they made a poll tax on voters in 1859 and abolished Jamaicanm self-government in 1866. The most of former slaves were desperately poor and suffered the racial discrimination. They lived hard lives and made Morant Bay rebellion in October 1865.

    The black women suffered more than men. They received not only the racial discriminatin from white, but also the gender discrimination. The traditional view of Jamaicans was that women were inferior than men. Today, the unemployment rate of women was about thirty-nine persent, twice higher than that for men of sixteen percent. Besides, women received less wages than men and they often suffered the domestical violence and sexual abuse. The meaning of freedom  to women included the independence from men.

    When slavery eanded, formet slaves became freeholders. To supplant the former slaves in the plantation, the colonists imported thousands of indentured servants from China, India, and Africa. For example, there were about 21,500 East Indians migrated to Jamaica to work as indentured servants between 1838 to 1917. These indentured servants brought new kinds of culture to make the society more diverse.

      In conclusion, the meaning of freedom to former slaves was not just the abolishment of slavery. Being independt on economy and gaining the politic rights were also important part of meaning of freedom. For women, getting rid of gender descrimination was a significant meaning of freedom. In the post slavery society in Jamaica, former slaves became freeholders and indentured servants from Asia replaced them in the plantation.

  

Sources

1.Holt, Thomas Cleveland, The problems of freedom : race, labor, and politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832-1938, page 55-61. Johns Hopkins University Press: 1992

2. Stone, Thalia S, Jamaican Women: Their Politics, Economics, Roles, and Religions, The Dread Library.