The Electronic Passport to the Caribbean remains of tiny sea animals. A New World The islands of the Caribbean Sea are divided On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus into three main groups—the Bahamas, the Greater landed on a small island he called San Salvador. Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles. The Bahamas is an Columbus believed he had reached the Indies, or the archipelago, or a group of 700 islands north of the islands southwest of India that include Indonesia and Caribbean Sea. People inhabit only about thirty of the Malaysia. Columbus died believing he had reached the Bahamian islands. South of the Bahamas are the largest east by sailing west, but instead he had discovered a islands of the Caribbean, called the Greater Antilles. “new world.” The Greater Antilles include Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto San Salvador was one of the islands in the Rico, and Hispañola. The largest islands of the Greater Caribbean Sea, a body of water between North America Antilles have rugged mountains and lush, thick rain and South America. The islands of the Caribbean are forests. Hispañola is home to two nations: Haiti and the part of the West Indies. The West Indies received its Dominican Republic. Most of the rest of the Caribbean name because Columbus believed the native people of islands form an arc that stretches from Puerto Rico to the the Caribbean islands were Indians. coast of South America. These islands are known as the The Caribbean Sea is named for the Carib, Lesser Antilles. nomadic sea-faring warriors who lived in the region when Columbus arrived. The Carib drove out their The Indentured Servants enemies, the Arawaks. Only men spoke the Carib Spanish, English, French, and Dutch colonists language, the women spoke Arawak. The Carib killed began to settle on the Caribbean islands. The settlers the men, but would keep the women as slaves. The grew tobacco, spices, and indigo, a plant used to make Carib were believed to have eaten the flesh of the people blue dye. They imported indentured servants to work. they defeated. The word cannibal derives from an Indentured servants were people who worked Arawak term for the Carib. without pay. Europeans who owned money they could Once word of a “new world” reached Europe, not pay back were often sent to prison. The servants the British, French and Dutch joined the Spaniards in the signed contracts that required them to work from three to Caribbean. The newcomers brought seven years in exchange for paying off their debts. with them diseases like measles and The services of these involuntary immigrants were smallpox. The Europeans had been sold to the highest bidders after their arrival in the exposed to the diseases, so their bodies colonies. Their life on the Caribbean plantations developed a protection similar to a was one of hard, physical labor and abusive vaccine. When you receive a vaccine, a conditions. At the end of their period of small portion of a virus is injected into indenture the former servants were your body. Your immune system then absorbed into the general population. learns the disease and prepares for future infections. The native people of the Caribbean had no immunity from the European diseases, so outbreaks of measles and smallpox decimated their population. The Islands A vast volcanic mountain chain lies along the floor of the Caribbean Sea. The tops of some of the mountains extend beyond the water to form many of the islands of the region. Other islands are cays (pronounced keez), low- lying coral islands, formed over thousands of years from the accumulation the skeletal Ó2001 Mike Dowling, www.mrdowling.com. All rights reserved. Page 1 of 6 The tobacco grown in Virginia was superior to proportion of slaves ranged from about one third in the Caribbean crop, so plantation owners turned to sugar, Cuba, to more than ninety percent in many of the which became the primary islands. Slave rebellions were crop of the Caribbean. common. As slave rebellions Sugar cultivation requires a Important Dates in the history of Slavery became more frequent, European great deal of backbreaking 1569 Queen Elizabeth I declared, "England was too investors lost money. The costs labor. The plantation pure an air for slaves to breathe in." English of maintaining slavery grew owners lowered their cost of law decreed "as soon as a man puts foot on higher when the European labor by replacing their English ground, he is free,” yet slavery in governments sent in armed forces indentured servants with British held land in American continued for to quell the revolts. African slaves. 238 years. Many Europeans began to 1774 Rhode Island became the first of the American pressure their governments to Slavery colonies to abolish slavery. abolish slavery in the Caribbean. 1807 The United States forbade the importation of The first organized opposition to Demand for slaves new African slaves. slavery came in 1724 from the to cultivate sugarcane and 1807 The British abolished the slave trade in all of Quakers, a Christian sect also other crops caused what their colonies. known as the Society of Friends. came to be known as the 1823 Slavery abolished in Chile. Great Britain outlawed slavery in triangle trade. Ships 1829 Slavery abolished in Mexico all of their territories in 1833, but leaving Europe first stopped 1854 Slavery abolished in Peru. the practice continued for almost in Africa where they traded 1865 The fourteenth amendment to the United fifty years on some of the islands States Constitution declared that neither weapons, ammunition, of the Caribbean. slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for metal, liquor, and cloth for Once slavery was captives taken in wars or punishment for crime shall exist within the United States abolished, the plantation owners raids. The ships then hired hundreds of thousands of traveled to America, where 1873 Slavery abolished in Puerto Rico. 1880 Slavery abolished in Cuba. people from India and other slaves were exchanged for places in Asia. In Trinidad, about sugar, rum, salt, and other 1888 Slavery abolish in Brazil. 1962 Slavery abolished in Saudi Arabia. forty percent of the population is island products. The ships Asian. returned home loaded with products popular with the European people, and ready to begin their journey again. Pirates An estimated 8 to 15 million Africans reached The beginning of the colonial era in the the Americas from the 16th through the 19th century. Caribbean was also known as the “Golden Age of Only the youngest and healthiest people were taken for Piracy.” The Caribbean Sea was what was called the middle passage of the tria ngle trade, thousands of miles from European partly because they would be worth more in America, control, making the region a and partly because they were the most likely to reach prime target for pirates their destination alive. Conditions aboard the ship were who patrolled the seas in dreadful. Slaves were jammed into the hull; chained to order to steal. The one another in order to stop revolts; as many as one in Europeans monarchs could five passengers did not survive the journey. When one not afford to send their naval of the enslaved people was stricken with dysentery or forces to the Caribbean, so they smallpox, they were cast overboard. instead issued “letters of Those who survived the middle passage faced marque” that allowed the owners more abuses on the plantations. Many of the plantation of private ships to attack ships owners had returned to Europe, leaving their holdings in from rival nations. These ship America to be managed by overseers who were often captains were known as unstable or unsavory. Families were split up, and the privateers, and they were legal Africans were not allowed to learn to read or write. pirates turned over a portion of African men, women, and children were forced to work what they seized to the with little to eat or drink. government that sponsored The African slave population quickly began to them. outnumber the Europeans and Native Americans. The Ó2001 Mike Dowling, www.mrdowling.com. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 6 One of the most famous enemies. Ceremonies often include privateers was Sir Francis Drake, the ritual sacrifice of animals. The who sailed for England while religions worship the spirits of the England was at war with Spain. dead, but the spirits given the names Drake not only raided ships, he also of Christian saints. This blending of attacked Spanish towns and mule beliefs allowed the Africans to retain trains carrying gold. Drake was not their native faith while appearing to an outlaw, at least in England. Queen convert to Christianity. Elizabeth I chose him to be the The folk religions also second person after Magellan to lead a sailing provide an additional function, expedition around the world. Shortly after Drake particularly in the remote sections of completed his journey in 1580, Elizabeth addressed Haiti. Many practitioners of the him as “my dear pirate,” and over the religions are able to use tropical objections of the Spanish, she knighted him. plants to relieve pain and cure English and French pioneers began to illnesses. This is the only medical settle on the island of Hispañola around 1630. care available to some people. Their primary source of food for the English and Many people of the French settlers was wild pigs. They roasted Caribbean profess to be Christians, the pigs on open fires known as buccans. but feel comfortable with the rituals The settlers eventually became known as the of the folk religions. In 1998, Pope John Paul buccaneers. II visited Cuba, where he urged Catholics to The Spanish believed they could force the reject the practice of Santeria.