The Caribbean island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. Early inhabitants of Jamaica named the land "Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". The Spanish enslaved the Arawak, who were ravaged further by diseases that the Spanish brought with them. Early historians believe that by 1602, the Arawak-speaking Taino tribes were extinct. However, some of the Taino escaped into the forested mountains of the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves, and survived free from first Spanish, and then English, rule.
Sir William Alexander Clarke Bustamante was a Jamaican politician and labour leader, who, in 1962, became the first prime minister of Jamaica.
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party (PNP). While its name might suggest that it is a social democratic party, the JLP is actually a conservative party. However, it has longstanding ties to the Jamaican labour movement. The Republican Party is in support of the JLP; the JLP is a pro-American party.
Edward Philip George SeagaON PC was an American-born Jamaican politician. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1980 to 1989, and the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980, and again from 1989 until January 2005.
Hugh Lawson Shearer was a Jamaican trade unionist and politician, who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1967 to 1972.
Mary Jane Seacole was a British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman who set up the "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described this as "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers", and provided succour for wounded service men on the battlefield, and nursed many of them back to health. Coming from a tradition of Jamaican and West African "doctresses", Seacole displayed "compassion, skills and bravery while nursing soldiers during the Crimean War", through the use of herbal remedies. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004, she was voted the greatest black Briton.
National Heroes Park is a botanical garden in Kingston, Jamaica. The largest open space in Kingston at 50 acres in size, National Heroes Park features numerous monuments; it is the burial site of many of Jamaica's National Heroes, Prime Ministers and cultural leaders. The neighborhood around the park is also known as National Heroes Park.
The monarchy of Jamaica is a constitutional system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Jamaica. The terms Crown in Right of Jamaica, Her Majesty in Right of Jamaica, or The Queen in Right of Jamaica may also be used to refer to the entire executive of the government of Jamaica. Though the Jamaican Crown has its roots in the British Crown, it has evolved to become a distinctly Jamaican institution, represented by its own unique symbols.
The Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) is a 5,000-member public sector trade union in Jamaica which represents workers in local and national government, governmental corporations, quasi-government bodies and other agencies created by statute. Its members are non-supervisory personnel and include fire-fighters with the Jamaica Fire Brigade, workers at the National Water Commission, non-nursing personnel in the health service, non-teachers in the schools, workers at the National Irrigation Commission and government employees in the 13 Parish Councils.
William Wellington Wellwood Grant OD was a Jamaican labour activist. He was known as "St. William Grant", "St." presumably meaning "Sergeant" in reference to his military or UNIA service.
Orville Richard Burrell CD, better known by his stage name Shaggy, is a Jamaican-American reggae musician, singer, DJ, and actor who scored hits with the songs "It Wasn't Me", "Boombastic", "In The Summertime", "Oh Carolina", and "Angel". He has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning twice for Best Reggae Album with Boombastic in 1996 and 44/876 with Sting in 2019, and has won the Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist in 2002.
Gladys Maud, Lady Bustamante, OJ was a Jamaican workers' and women's rights activist and wife of Sir Alexander Bustamante, Jamaica's first Prime Minister. She was a prominent member of the Jamaican trade union movement, and was affectionately known as "Lady B".
Jamaica was an English colony from 1655, and a British Colony from 1707 until 1962, when it became independent. Jamaica became a Crown colony in 1866.
The Colony of Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. In Jamaica, this date is celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday.
Norman Washington Manley was a Jamaican statesman who served as the first and only Premier of Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by the British colonial government to the colony in 1944.
Berenice Dolly, OBE was a Trinidadian nurse. She was instrumental in the development of health care on the island and a co-founder and president of the Trinidad and Tobago Nursing Association. She was honored as an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1962 and awarded the Gold Public Service Medal of Merit of the Order of the Trinity in 1976.
Ethel Lily May Thorpe was a British-Canadian nurse.
Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) is a public general hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. It is the oldest public hospital in Jamaica and is the main hospital in south eastern Jamaica. The hospital is operated by the South East Regional Health Authority on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Jamaica.
Free black people in Jamaica fell into two categories. Some secured their freedom officially, and lived within the slave communities of the Colony of Jamaica. Others ran away from slavery, and formed independent communities in the forested mountains of the interior. This latter group included the Jamaican Maroons, and subsequent fugitives from the sugar and coffee plantations of coastal Jamaica.
