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The Jamaican Historical Society is a non-political, non-sectarian society with a strong interest in the identification and preservation of the material culture of the island of Jamaica. It was founded in May, 1943, by a small group of persons assisted by the British Council, and has had continuous existence since its foundation.
From 1947, the society has sought to stimulate historical research among secondary school children and, more recently, at the University of the West Indies through competition for the Vendryes Shield.
The society has made an outstanding contribution to Jamaican archaeology and history through the work of amateur members.
The furthest reach of the Jamaican Historical Society has, however, been obtained through the publication of the Jamaican Historical Review that was first published in 1945, and the Bulletin that began in 1952.
interesting articles
The Special Issue publication has several interesting articles.
They are:
Ready-mades and 'Arselouts'. Two aspects of the clothing of slaves in Jamaica by Glory Robertson.
Building 'cross-wise': reconstructing Jamaica's eighteenth-century Anglican churches by Louis Nelson.
Creolisation A departure: An examination of the food and eating habits of the people of pre-emancipation Jamaica by Patricia Dunn.
Early brickyards by H.P. Jacobs.
The construction trade in early nineteenth century Kingston by H. P. Jacobs.
The first article Ready-mades and 'Arselouts' by Glory Robertson, a former librarian at the National Library of Jamaica and the UWI Main Library, Mona, looks at the fact that slave owners provided ready-made clothing for the slaves as far back as the 1680s. This is surprising, she says, as it has been traditionally thought that the ready-made garment industry developed "when the sewing machine, pioneered by various people between 1830 and 1850, was introduced into factories in the 1850s. How then could anyone have been wearing ready-mades in the 1680s?"
In the middle of the eighteenth century, the slaves were provided with yards of material, needles and thread in order to make clothes for themselves. By the 1770s the slaves called this annual distribution their year cloth. However, ready-mades did not disappear when 'year cloth' was introduced.
This is a fairly interesting article and gives some insight into research carried out by the dress historians over the last 20 years. It clarifies what is meant when slaves are described as "naked or nearly so," and explains the kind of dress including an arselout normally worn by the slaves of that period. "There is no evidence that the wearing of non-European dress was ever discouraged by slave owners," the author says in the final paragraph.
The article is accompanied by five illustrations, courtesy of the National Library of Jamaica. The first illustration A Prospect of Port Antonio attributed to Robins 1770 clearly shows the difference in types of clothing worn by the Europeans and the African slave.
Louis Nelson, an architectural historian, is the author of the second article in the publication. Titled Building 'Cross-wise': Reconstructing Jamaica's Eighteenth-century Anglican Churches, it is most interesting and informative and richly complemented by 17 illustrations.
It tells that nowhere else in the Atlantic world was the cruciform design in Anglican churches perpetuated as regularly as in Jamaica, the wealthiest English colony in the eighteenth century. This plan, incidentally, is almost unheard of in England.
Nelson writes that Jamaica's 18th century churches tell of wealth and provincialism, ingenuity and tradition. We also learn from the article that:
The first Anglican church erected on the island on a cruciform plan was in St. Andrew's Parish, Half-Way Tree in 1686.
Although Kingston Parish was established in 1693 (after the 1692 earthquake) it was not until 1701 that the parish was granted a deed for land to build a church.
The Spanish Town church was "the largest cruciform church yet built on the island" and would be the grandest eighteenth century church in Jamaica.
The Anglican church in Montego Bay was the first erected in ashlar masonry, the building material of England's elite mercantile culture. In 1774 the parish of St. James was described as the most thriving district of the island.
Creolisation
The third article Creolisation A departure: An examination of the food and eating habits of the people of pre-emancipation Jamaica discusses the eating habits of the Europeans, the Africans and the Afro-Creoles (free people and slaves) in the pre-emancipation period of Jamaican history.
The author, Patricia Dunn, a research librarian and former Head of West Indies and Special Collection, UWI Main Library, Mona, discusses the eating habits of the Europeans, the Africans and Afro-Creoles (free people and slaves) in the pre-Emancipation period of Jamaican history.
She begins with the point that although there was enough land to provide crops, the moneyed planters imported much of their food from abroad 'since they would rather eat salted English beef and salted New England mackerel than fresh tropical produce'.
Eventually, food and drink became important symbols of class distinction in Jamaica as in the rest of the West Indian colonies. The Creolisation process that took place in the eating habits of the people of pre-emancipation Jamaica has continued to influence the cooking practices in Jamaican society down through the years, the author states.
Today, slave foods, or the foods of the so-called 'lower classes', including saltfish, ackee, breadfruit, callaloo, pepperpot have been accepted at all levels of Jamaican society. As in the case of the previous articles, this one is accompanied by lovely illustrations.
The last two articles are by H. P. Jacobs. Book reviews, Notes on Contributors and End Notes take up the final pages of the review.
