in Jamaica, 1840s
Guide to the West Indies, Madeira, Mexico, New Orleans, northern South-America, &c., &c: compiled from documents specially furnished by the agents of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Board of Trade, and other authentic sources,
John Osborne (of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.), Simpkin and Marshall, 1847
John Osborne (of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.), Simpkin and Marshall, 1847
The Jamaica Silk Company was the most mentioned silk production project, but there was, at the same time, another company, the Colonial Silk Company, based in Old Harbour, which was mentioned in a few places - the best accounts were reproduced in Australian newspapers -
James G. Barbadoes
There were individual emigrations: James G. Barbadoes, one of the most politically active of all black Bostonians and initially strongly opposed to colonization, emigrated with his family to Jamaica in 1840. According to James and Lois Horton, Barbadoes’s intention was to begin a silk farm (and presumably a silk industry) on the island, but he and two of his daughters died there within a year of their settlement. His second wife, Rebecca Brint Barbadoes, returned to Boston, where she died at her West End home at 42 Grove Street on 31 March 1874.'
Historic Resource Study, Boston African American National Historic Site 31 December 2002 Kathryn Grover, Janine V. da Silva [I have ordered a copy of the book containing the Hortons' article.] |
James Barbadoes was an African-American, possibly of Barbadian descent, who lived and worked in Boston in the 1820s and '30s. He was a leading figure in the Abolitionist movement there, and on a wider stage. He really has little to do with silk and mulberry trees, except for an interesting and not clearly explainable episode at the end of his life.
In 1840, for reasons that are not at all clear - disagreements with fellow Abolitionists? general despair about the possibility of Abolition in the U.S.A.? - Barbadoes took his wife and children to St Ann in Jamaica, apparently to settle permanently. There may have been a group of African-Americans who made this move, attracted by Emancipation in the British West Indies, and possibly generous promises from the Jamaican Government.
There are suggestions of problems over the purchase of a property in St Ann, and, interestingly, some sources suggest that Barbadoes' intention was to go into silk production. Whatever the truth of these accounts, the project came to nothing; two of Barbadoes' children died of fever within the year, and Barbadoes himself died of fever in 1841, at the age of 45. His wife, Rebecca, took the other children back to Massachusetts.
It is proving very difficult to confirm the facts of James Barbadoes' attempt to settle in Jamaica. He was certainly not the only African-American to make that attempt in the mid-19th century, but there seems no suggestion that any others were interested in silk production. If Barbadoes really hoped to go into planting mulberry trees and rearing silkworms, was his interest inspired by the general silk mania in both Jamaica and the U.S.A; was he in any way involved with Samuel Whitmarsh who also came to St Ann from Massachusetts in 1840 to grow silk (I can find no mention of such a link); was he enticed by official offers of incentives? While there is information on Whitmarsh and his group, I have so far found little material on Barbadoes and his fellow African-Americans from New England. I shall keep looking!
In 1840, for reasons that are not at all clear - disagreements with fellow Abolitionists? general despair about the possibility of Abolition in the U.S.A.? - Barbadoes took his wife and children to St Ann in Jamaica, apparently to settle permanently. There may have been a group of African-Americans who made this move, attracted by Emancipation in the British West Indies, and possibly generous promises from the Jamaican Government.
There are suggestions of problems over the purchase of a property in St Ann, and, interestingly, some sources suggest that Barbadoes' intention was to go into silk production. Whatever the truth of these accounts, the project came to nothing; two of Barbadoes' children died of fever within the year, and Barbadoes himself died of fever in 1841, at the age of 45. His wife, Rebecca, took the other children back to Massachusetts.
It is proving very difficult to confirm the facts of James Barbadoes' attempt to settle in Jamaica. He was certainly not the only African-American to make that attempt in the mid-19th century, but there seems no suggestion that any others were interested in silk production. If Barbadoes really hoped to go into planting mulberry trees and rearing silkworms, was his interest inspired by the general silk mania in both Jamaica and the U.S.A; was he in any way involved with Samuel Whitmarsh who also came to St Ann from Massachusetts in 1840 to grow silk (I can find no mention of such a link); was he enticed by official offers of incentives? While there is information on Whitmarsh and his group, I have so far found little material on Barbadoes and his fellow African-Americans from New England. I shall keep looking!
The Liberator, August 20, 1841
'Here is a tribute to Barbadoes, but lamenting his emigration to Jamaica, and his involvement in a project to commence there the culture and manufacture of silk. He soon sickened with the fever of the country and two of his children died. He leaves a widow and several children, who it is understood, are on their way home to this country.' |