User talk:Aamsden

 == [[''Christopher Columbus sighted the island of Jamaica during his second voyage, and it became a Spanish colony in 1509. Saint Jago de la Vega (now Spanish Town) was founded about 1523. Colonization was slow under Spanish rule. Jamaica was captured by an English naval force under Sir William Penn in 1655. The island was formally transferred to England in 1670. During the final decades of the 17th century, growing numbers of English immigrants arrived; the sugar, cacao, and other agricultural and forest industries were rapidly expanded; and the consequent demand for plantation labor led to large-scale importation of black slaves. Jamaica soon became one of the principal slave-trading centers in the world. But, by 1838, slavery was abolished by parliamentary legislation, and $30 million was granted as compensation to the owners of the nearly 310,000 liberated slaves.

Large numbers of the freed blacks abandoned the plantations following emancipation and took possession of unoccupied lands in the interior, gravely disrupting the economy. Labor shortages, bankrupt plantations, and declining trade resulted in a protracted economic crisis. Oppressive taxation, discriminatory acts by the courts, and land-exclusion measures ultimately caused widespread unrest among the black population.'']] ==