The Georgian Period In Jamaica: A Personal View
Rose Hall Great House, Jamaica
Most of these great houses were the seats of authority on the plantation estates that had and controlled human beings as slaves.
The ramification of this buried malevolence is somehow undermined despite its pernicious legacy, so obviously, these buildings, albeit intricately beautiful, are just painful reminders of a very ugly past that many Jamaicans would rather forget. Notwithstanding deep festered grievances, they would probably take more pride in protecting and maintaining these vanishing Georgian monuments if there were some regards for their ancestor’s roles in their constructions.
Everyone has a story, since most of human history was not always pleasant. So to understand where Europeans were coming from, and why they were so ruthlessly aggressive and predatory, one needs to look back at their history of cultural, religious and political upheavals, impoverishment, barbarianisms, invasions, martyrdoms, crusades, feudalisms, religious persecutions, reformations, anti-Semitism, inquisitions, witch-burnings, bloody European inter-nation wars and revolutions, and serfdom/slavery (See: They Were White and They Were Slaves).
Many historians do not mention the “Little Ice Age,” even when writing about events that happened during these time periods, but between the early 14th and late 19th centuries, a period of cooling known as: “the Little Ice Age” chilled the planet, and Europe bore the brunt of its ill effects in shattering cataclysms (See: Little Ice Age, Big Consequences); resulting into great famines that weakened human immune systems and left populations susceptible to virulent pestilences and epidemics (See: History Channel - The Plague) that caused the demise of large portions of populations, while, at the same time, with no proper infrastructure for hygiene; major cities were submerged in filth and squalor. 1858 is documented as the year of “the great stink,” when the Thames was absolutely vile and horrific (see: Filthy Cities - Medieval London and Filthy Cities - Revolutionary Paris.
Such was the state of affair that gave rise to European global expansionism. Eventually, some understandably rebellious offspring sailed across the Atlantic and captured a continent in a never before known part of the world that the explorer Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) accidentally happened upon and claimed for Spain, while searching for a way to India. These initial contacts further expanded into a free for all European invasion, colonization and exploitation of other people’s lands and resources.
Read next week's continuation .... "The Transgressions"
_____________________________
Nerissa Braimbridge is a Jamaican born; former business woman, who was awarded Woman of the Year, 1975, in the new business idea field, by the Multi-Occupational Society of Manhattan, NYC. Named International Woman of the Year, 1995/96 - in recognition of her services to the business world, by IBC, Cambridge, England, and listed in the 6th edition of Personalities of America - for Services in Arts and Communications by ABI, USA. Mrs. Braimbridge is world traveled, and World Cultures and Humanities are her passion and interests. She may be contacted via email.