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Jamaican Food History

Historical period

Taรญno cassava, conuco farming and barbacoa; Spanish conquest from 1494, which destroyed the Taรญno population and introduced pigs, cattle, citrus, sugarcane and the ancestors of the Maroons; English capture in 1655 and the sugar economy that followed, with Port Royal, the buccaneers and an enormous forced migration from West and Central Africa; the MAROON WARS and the treaties of 1739; BREADFRUIT brought by Bligh in 1793 explicitly as cheap food for enslaved people โ€” who at first refused it; emancipation in 1834-38; Indian indenture from 1845 and Chinese from 1854; the banana trade and the United Fruit Company; Rastafari from the 1930s; independence in 1962; and the Jamaican diaspora that made jerk and patties global.

Atlas โ€” where and when

What is recorded

  • Breadfruit was brought to Jamaica by William Bligh in 1793 explicitly as an inexpensive food for enslaved people, following the failed first voyage of the Bounty; it was initially refused by those it was intended to feed. Spanish conquest from 1494 destroyed the Taรญno population; English capture in 1655 established the sugar economy. documented
  • Spanish Jamaica: the Taรญno population is destroyed, and pigs, cattle, citrus and sugarcane arrive along with the Africans whose descendants become the Maroons. documented
  • Bligh lands breadfruit in Jamaica, brought from the Pacific expressly as cheap food for enslaved people โ€” who at first refused it. documented
  • Emancipation in the British Caribbean, and the apprenticeship that followed. documented

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.