{"id":19711,"date":"2012-01-10T06:07:48","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T06:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=19711"},"modified":"2012-01-10T06:07:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T06:07:59","slug":"19711","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=19711","title":{"rendered":"Mixed-race People and Emancipation-Era Jamaica"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mixed-race People and Emancipation-Era Jamaica<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Emancipation: The Caribbean Experience<\/a>
\nBulding Communities<\/a>
\nUniversity of Miami
\nFall 2001<\/p>\n

Kiara Bell<\/strong><\/p>\n

This website was created by the students of History 300: Caribbean History: Emancipation and Freedom, in Fall 2001 at the University of Miami, with the assistance of the staff of Richter Library’s Archives and Special Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n

Following the emancipation of all enslaved Africans in 1834, the island of Jamaica was left in a stage of rebuilding.\u00a0 Religion, education, and family structure were all in disarray and were in need of reconstruction.\u00a0 With their new-found freedom, people also had the task of establishing a new way of life that would allow them prosperity and fulfillment.\u00a0 However, the group that faced the most complex rebuilding process was the so-called \u201cpeople of color.\u201d\u00a0 People of color, who were a result of \u201cmiscegenation,\u201d or sexual relationships between people of African and European descent, faced the challenge of readjusting in the midst of distinct color lines on the island.\u00a0 They faced particular challenges in the areas of politics, marriage and family, and child education.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During slavery, white slave owners fathered numerous children with black slaves, and generations of children of mixed race heritage were the result.\u00a0 White observers tried to subdivide these people of color into various categories.\u00a0 Mulattos were one half-black and one half-white.\u00a0 Samboes were black and mulatto (three fourths black and one fourth white).\u00a0 Quadroons were the offspring of whites and mulattos (three fourths white and one fourth black).\u00a0 Mestees were the offspring of whites and quadroons (one eight black).\u00a0 After the Mestees few could perceive a color distinction because it is unlikely that one could detect \u201cblack\u201d characteristics if an individual had less than one eighth African ancestry.\u00a0 Observers also believed that one could detect the differences between the various subdivisions of people of color based on particular qualities, in addition to physical appearance.\u00a0 The Sambo, although three-fourths black and one fourth white, was still seen differently from the \u201cNegro\u201d in various manners and habits.\u00a0 Generally, people believed that people of color were less subject to disease than whites or \u201cNegro.\u201d\u00a0 White observers also firmly adhered to the idea that most people of color felt a distinct advantage and pride in being slightly removed from the \u201cNegro race\u201d and attempted to take on manners and customs of whites…<\/p>\n

Read the entire essay here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mixed-race People and Emancipation-Era Jamaica Emancipation: The Caribbean Experience Bulding Communities University of Miami Fall 2001 Kiara Bell This website was created by the students of History 300: Caribbean History: Emancipation and Freedom, in Fall 2001 at the University of Miami, with the assistance of the staff of Richter Library’s Archives and Special Collections. Following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,459,8],"tags":[80,9193,9052],"class_list":["post-19711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-latincarib","category-history","category-media-archive","tag-jamaica","tag-kiara-bell","tag-university-of-miami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}