Homeschool - History

 The Arawaks

The Arawaks were very successful explorers. They eventually settled in Barbados due to its coral reefs, lack of dense rainforests, fertile soil, and abundance of clay and conch shells. They lived in peace in Barbados for hundreds of years in isolation from the rest of the world.

The Arawaks grew crops including, peanuts, squash, and a variety of fruits. They also grew cassava and this was a major part of their diet. 

The Arawaks were also talented craftsmen, making sharp tools from conch shells to fish and building canoes 

They had olive skin and long dark hair, and enjoyed singing and dancing. They lived in cone-shaped houses with thatched roofs.

Their farming techniques included cutting down trees to make room for planting. The land was burnt in order for it to be cleared of any bush. The resulting ash was mixed with fish and urine to produce a fertilizer that would aid in prolonging the usefulness of the land.

The Caribs or Kalinago

In 1200 AD a new group of people arrived in Barbados – The Caribs. (You may also refer to them as Kalinago.) They were like the Arawaks in their appearance, but they were much more fierce and warlike. It is also believed that they partook in human sacrifice. The Arawaks were terrified of the Caribs. Eventually, the peaceful Arawaks of Barbados were either killed by the Caribs, or fled to neighboring islands.

Carib boys were trained to be warriors from a young age. Ordeals designed to make them strong had to be endured such as having a bird beaten to death against their young body. They were incredibly accurate bowmen and used a powerful poison to paralyze their prey.

Women ate separately from the men only after the men had finished eating. When going into battle, the Carib men made scars on their faces using the sharp teeth of agoutis rodents to make themselves look terrifying.

The culture has almost vanished from Barbados. Pockets of the culture and people, now known as the Kaligano, exist in St Vincent, the Grenadines, and in Dominica. The largest population is the Kalinago territories in Dominica.

Early Inhabitants

The Caribs/ Kalinago

Carib groups of the South American mainland lived in the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, Frech Guyana) and south to the Amazon River. Some were warlike and were alleged to have practiced cannibalism, but most were less aggressive than this. Their cannibalism was believed to be a war practice and not part of everyday life. 

Raids upon other peoples provided women who were kept as slave wives; the male captives were tortured and killed.

The Caribs are believed to have practiced polytheism. This means that they believed in multiple Gods. 

The Island Carib were a sea people, expert navigators who made distant raids in large dugout canoes.   

The last survivors of the once-powerful Carib people, the original inhabitants of most of the Lesser Antilles, now live on the two eastern Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Vincent, and in Belize, Guyana, and Suriname.

In 1797, 5,080 Caribs - the majority of St. Vincent's population - were forcibly removed from the island by British troops and banished forever to the coast of the Republic of Honduras.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Arrival of Europeans

The early natives relied on the sea and the gifts of the land to support their small populations.

They prospered until the fateful day when the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived with his Spanish ships.

From that day in 1492, when Columbus sighted the islands now known as Cuba and Hispaniola, the Caribbean and its people would never again be the same.

Who was Christopher Columbus? 

 

1. Columbus was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, part of what is now Italy

2. His real name was Cristoforo Colombo. (Christopher Columbus is the Eglish translation)

3. Columbus was not the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

4. His ships which he led to the Cariea are the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.

5. Columbus spent years trying to convince someone to pay for his voyage. He was successful for a very long time

Revision Questions

1. Give two reasons why the Arawaks settled in Barbados. (2 marks)

2. Why were the Arawaks considered to be talented craftsmen? (3 marks)

3. Explain the main difference between the behavior of the Arawaks and the behavior of the Kalinago. (2 marks)

4. What was done to young Kalinago boys to prove that they were ready for manhood? (2 marks

5. The Caribs/ Kalinago were polytheistic. Explain what this means. (2 marks)

Read and take the quiz: 

https://www.ducksters.com/biography/explorers/christopher_columbus.php 

Early Settlers in Barbados

The 1400’s: Portuguese Visitors

In the 1400s, the Portuguese reached Barbados while sailing through to Brazil. They had no desire to fight with the fierce Caribs, so they did not make an effort to colonize the island. However, it is thanks to one of their sailors, Pedro, a Campus, that the island first received the name of ‘Barbados.’

Legend has it that when Campus saw the native fig trees with a distinctive beard-like feature, he dubbed the island ‘Los Barbados‘; Portuguese for ‘The bearded ones.’

1492: Spanish Invasion

In 1492 the Spanish made their way to Barbados, as the declining Amerindian population had rendered the island ‘uninhabited.’

Despite the skilled warfare of the Caribs, the Spanish wiped out this local population; either by capturing the Caribs and transporting them to Spain as slaves, the Caribs fleeing to nearby islands, or the Caribs dying due to European diseases brought over by the Spanish.

Despite the Spanish successfully taking control of the island, they soon abandoned Barbados to take over larger Caribbean islands, leaving Barbados uninhabited once more.

1532 to 1620 – the Portuguese Empire briefly claimed Barbados.

1625: English Landing

On 4th May 1625, Captain John Powell landed an English ship on Barbados’ now deserted shores. In fact, this landing is said to have been a navigational error, when the crew sailed off course on a journey from Brazil to England and ended up in Barbados. Nevertheless, Powell claimed the island in the name of King James 1st of England.

1627: First Settlement

The first British settlers arrived in Barbados on 17th February 1627, brought over by Captain Henry Powell (John’s brother). It consisted of 80 English settlers and 10 kidnapped Irish and English workers. They named the settlement ‘Jamestown’ (now Holetown). Over the next decade, Barbados was divided up amongst England’s wealthy gentry, who had the finances and connections to manage and develop the land.

Did you know? Although the Portuguese and the Spanish had visited Barbados earlier, England was the first European nation to establish a lasting settlement on the island, becoming known as the ‘first settlers.’

The main product in Barbados was initially tobacco. However, that was soon replaced by sugar.  Barbados eventually became famous for its sugar. Its sugar production was so high that by 1660, Barbados was generating more money in trade than all the other English colonies combined, mostly just by trading in sugar. The island was producing 25,000 tons of sugar annually in 1700.

Barbados' sugar production on large estates using slave labor became very profitable and important to the British economy. 

Friday, October 14, 2022

European Settlement in the Caribbean:  Jamaica

The first Jamaicans were the Taino Indians who settled in Jamaica around 600 AD. After living continuously in Jamaica for almost 900 years, the Tainos were wiped out within 50 years of the Spanish conquest in 1494, due to exploitation by the Spanish settlers, starvation and a lack of resistance to European diseases. Many Tainos fiercely resisted the Spanish occupation of their land and some even committed suicide rather than serve as slaves.

The word Jamaica actually comes from the Arawak word Xaymaca, meaning “Land of wood and water”.

The British

In 1655 British naval forces captured Jamaica from the Spanish. The British went on to control of Jamaica for over 300 years. 

While many of the first English settlers in Jamaica were landowners, others were pirates who operated with the consent of the British. Buccaneers attacked the Spanish who carried gold and silver. The headquarters at Port Royal soon became rich with stolen Spanish gold and was known as the "wickedest city in the world".  

European Settlement in the Caribbean

Understanding Colonialism 

1. What is colonialism?

It is the domination of a people or area by a foreign state or nation. 

2. What is a colony?

A  colony is a country under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country.

Friday, October 21, 2022

PLEASE USE YOUR NOTES or NOTES  ON THIS PAGE TO HELP ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW

1. What country was Columbus originally from?

2. Give the names of the King ad Queen who supported Columbus' voyage. 

3. The Europeans explored the 'New World' in search of God, Glory and Gold.  Explain what this means.

4. Why do you think that Columbus and his people enslaved the indigenous people of the Caribbean?

5. What did the Arawaks use to fertilize the land?

6. Name 2 Caribbean countries where you would find the direct descendants of the Kalinago to this day. 

7. Which group of Europeans gave Barbados the name 'Los Barbados'?

8. Why was the name 'Los Barbados' given?

9. Why was sugar so important to Barbados ad England?

10. Why is Holetown important to Barbadian history?

11. The original Arawaks of Jamaica called the island Xaymaca. What did this mean?

12. Why was Port Royal in Jamaica named 'The Wickedest City in the World'? 

The Maroons

The Maroons were escaped slaves. They ran away from their plantations when the British took the Caribbean island of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The word maroon comes from the Spanish word ‘cimarrones‘, which meant ‘mountaineers’. They fled to the mountainous areas of Jamaica, where it was difficult for their owners to follow and catch them, and formed independent communities as free men and women

Rebellious slaves disappeared into the mountains and joined the Maroon communities. As the Maroon population grew, the Jamaican government decided to defeat the Maroons once and for all. The First Maroon War began in 1728The First Maroon War began in 1728. 

What is guerilla warfare?

The First Maroon War

The First Maroon War was a conflict between the Jamaican Maroons and the British in Jamaica which reached a climax in 1731.

Background

In 1655, the British defeated the Spanish colonists and took control of most of Jamaica. The enslaved Africans joined the Amerindian population to form the  Maroon communities. The area is known as Cockpit Country.

Guerrilla warfare and the use of scouts who blew the abeng (the cow horn, this was used as a trumpet) to warn of approaching British soldiers allowed the Maroons to evade, thwart, frustrate, and defeat the forces of an Empire.

See where the Maroons lived!

Activity: Research Nanny of the Maroons. 

Write 5 facts about her and her contribution 

to Jamaica's history. 

The  Bussa Rebellion

The Bussa Rebellion was the largest slave revolt in the history of Barbados.

How and why did the enslaved Africans of Barbados rebel in 1816?

Resistance among enslaved Africans began the moment they were captured and took many different forms. 

Some chose to do the following:

• speak their native language in private
• perform African rituals like drumming
• appear to accept Christianity, but secretly practise their religion
• run away
• poison their masters
• pretend to be sick in order not to work
• damage tools or machinery

The uprising started at Bayley’s estate, St. Phillip. It was an attempt by the enslaved people to change the society in Barbados. They believed that Barbados belonged to them and wanted their freedom from the plantation owners.

Bussa commanded about 400 men and women against the troops. He was killed in battle and his troops continued to fight until they were defeated by superior firepower. 

One white civilian and one black soldier were killed during the fighting. Compared to this, 50 enslaved people died in battle and 70 were executed in the field. Another 300 were taken to Bridgetown for trial, of which 144 were executed and 132 sent away to another island.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

The practice of people owning other people is called slavery.

The African slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean began in the early 1500s. European ship captains bought slaves from African traders. The African traders captured people from many parts of Africa and forced them into slavery. 

Conditions on slave ships were terrible, and many people died. The trip across the Atlantic Ocean was known as the Middle Passage.

Facts about the Middle Passage 

1. Historians estimate that between 9 - 11 million people were taken from Africa by European slave traders. 

2. On the ship, they were chained together, and the low ceilings did not permit them to sit upright

3. Occasionally, the African captives successfully revolted and took over the ships. (Amistad)

4. Most enslaved Africans were carried to the Caribbean (45%) or to Brazil (45 %). Less than 5% went to the US

Shackles used during the Middle Passage

• The voyage across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, generally took 6 to 8 weeks. Once in the Americas those Africans who had survived the journey were offloaded for sale and put to work as enslaved labour.
• The ships then returned to Europe with goods such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice and later cotton, which had been produced by enslaved labour.

Slaves would be brought from the pen to stand on a raised platform so that they could be seen by the buyers. Before the bidding buyers could come up onto the platform to inspect the slaves closely. The slaves had to endure being poked, prodded and forced to open their mouths. 

The auctioneer would decide a price to start the bidding. This would be higher for fit, young slaves and lower for older, very young or sickly slaves. Potential buyers would then bid against each other. The person who bid the most would then own that slave. 

The death-rate among slaves was high. To replace their losses, plantation owners encouraged the slaves to have children. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and by twenty the women slaves would be expected to have four or five children. To encourage child-bearing some  owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children.