Jamaica National Heritage Trust

OTHER - The African Presence at Seville

The Spanish Period
It is alleged that an African was amongst Columbus' crew on the 1494 voyage. In 1509, Juan de Esquivel arrived with 60-80 colonists to subdue the Tainos and establish a colony. He established the town of Sevilla la Nueva but by 1512, the Taino population had diminished and in 1513, the Esquivel family was permitted to import three Enslaved Africans. The importation of enslaved Africans increased and in 1523 a permit was granted to Lorenzo de Garrabad to import 4000 enslaved Africans into the Caribbean. Five hundred of these enslaved were sent to Jamaica. The Jamaican colonists were also given a similar grant to import enslaved Africans. In 1534 the Spanish abandoned the town of Seville and moved to St. Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town).

The English Period
The English captured the island from the Spanish in 1655. Seville sugar plantation was founded on 2,500 acres of land by Captain Richard Hemmings, a member of Oliver Cromwell's invasion team of 1655. By around 1670 Hemmings had erected a great house and extensive sugar works. During slavery the estate also produced limes, pimento, coconuts, lumber, livestock and crops for local consumption.

Enslaved Africans were an integral part of the economy and the most important part of the labour force. The Enslaved performed varied tasks, for example:

Fieldwork- planting, weeding, reaping of canes.
Production of sugar - feeding of mills & boiling of sugar.
Craftswork - carpentering, coopering & smithing.
Cooking
Nursing
Fishing

Sugar was grown on approximately 300 acres of land along the coast.

ENTRIES FROM THE ACCOUNTS PRODUCE FOR SEVILLE
Year                Produce                                  Pound Sterling
1772                sugar                                        2956.3.0 £
rum                                          1681.9.6 £
pimento & mahogany              558.47    £

Year                Produce                                  Weight (lb)
1779                sugar                                        4073 lbs.
rum                                          13515 gals.
pimento                                   562 lbs.
1816                sugar                                        150 hogsheads (barrels)
Rum                                        75 puncheons (barrels)
Forty pounds sterling for the hiring out of slaves Nancy Roack and Eliza.

Who were these enslaved people?
They lived, worked, reproduced and died on the Seville Estate. The Return of Slaves shows for the years:
1823 - 195 enslaved - 88 males, 107 females
1829 - 182 enslaved - 80 males, 102 females
1832 - 126 enslaved - 79 males, 75 females

But who were these people?
An Extract from The Return of Slaves Vol.117,1829 Richard Hemming Overseer

Name	Colour	Age	African or Creole	Remarks	Increase of case thereof	Decrease and cause thereof
White	Negro	63	African	11th March		Died old age
Sarah	Mulatto	22	Creole	21 March		Died consumption
Rebecca Jacks	Megro	Infant	Creole	18 Dec Mother Betty	Birth
Caroline Wathis	Mulatto	6	Creole	1st Nov.		Died worms
Joseph Hemming	Mulatto	Infant	Creole	1st Jan. Mother Cinda	Birth
1828 Toby	Negro	12	Creole	29th Jan.		Died inflammation
James Curtis	Sambo	40	Creole	17th Dec		Died Inflammation
Robert Grant	Negro	32	Creole		Purchased
Befs	Negro	53	African			Died visitation of God

The Settlement
Two settlements have been identified on the present 300 acres estate.
Early village c.1660-1760 located southwest of the Great House.
Later Village c.1760-1880 located west of Great House.

House Yard Compound
The house yard compound contained living quarters, kitchens, pens for livestock, barbeques for drying foods and kitchen gardens. Sizes of houses varied being either one, two or three rooms depending on the status and inclination of the owner. House yards were usually fenced by pinguins or sticks. Fences served to emphasize personal space. Masters or slaves were not to pass through the gate or door uninvited.

Furniture and Utensils
A few enslaved slept on the floor but most had beds. Beds were made of wooden frames covered with a rush mat and raised about 1ft of the floor. Chairs were bottomed with reeds and bushes. Tables were usually small and the wealthier had cupboards for plates and chest for holding clothes. Rafters and eaves were used to store personal items and tools, for example, pipes, whips and cutlasses.

The enslaved used wooden, calabash and earthenware vessels. Each household had an earthenware water jar. Some bought European type wares. The master gave each adult an iron pot and a knife.

Enslaved Africans in Jamaica had to cultivate their own plots of land (provision grounds and kitchen gardens) in order to help feed themselves. They could do what they wanted with the surplus food and most of them sold or bartered it. Crops included cassava, yam, okra, pepper, beans, plantain and tobacco. Pigs and poultry were raised to be sold on market day. A few were able to purchase their freedom with money gained from their arketing activities. A portion of the money from the sale of goods was used to buy European type goods, for example, dinnerware, clothing and white clay smoking pipes.

Archaeological Research
Archaeological excavations of the African-Jamaican Enslaved Village at Seville were conducted from 1987-1991 in a collaborative agreement between Syracuse University and the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. Twenty-four houses and their associated yards were examined. The excavations revealed the spatial layout, construction techniques and the cultural practices of the occupants.

Construction Techniques & House-Yard
The house excavated were either one or two rooms. The average size of the rooms was 10 feet by 10 feet. Post holes and molds indicated a wattle and daub construction and those with multiple rooms had and interior partition wall. The floors consisted of marl and limestone. Cooking areas were denoted by the deposition of artifacts at the back of the houses. Cleared areas in the yard suggest social activities outside the house but within a house and yard compound.

Burials
Four Africans burials were found in the yards. They consisted of three males and one female and were dated to the mid-eighteenth century. These burials are able to provide significant information on burial practices and physical conditions of the individuals within a clearly defined African-Jamaican community.
Two of the males were in their early twenties, the third in his mid-forties and the female in her late teens. Each individual was buried within separate yards with unique sets of artifacts that identify in some cases their trade and position in the community. All were buried in wooden caskets. Only one had surface maker.

They were the only individuals exhumed to date that represent the African-Caribbean practice of house yard burials. Burial in the house yard compound suggests an important retention of African burial practices. All the burials faced east which is also another African retention. Artifacts were associated with each burial.

Burial	Sex	Age	Illness	Artifacts
One	Male	20 – 25	Kidney stone
Two	Male	20 – 25	Chronic anemia	Padlock
Three	Female	17 – 19	Chronic anemia	Knife, white clay smoking pipe
Four	Male	40+	Infection of lower limbs that became septic and prevented mobility possibly causing death	Carpenter’s spacer

Post Emancipation Period
People of African descent continued to occupy house areas for some time after Emancipation. Mr. Isaac Rose in an interview with Wenty Bowen in 1974 stated that he was born in 1884 on the Seville property in a place called Nigger (Negro) House. "In those days some of the people who worked on Seville Estate lived on it. That's why they called it Nigger House. They lived in little houses made of thatch, wattle and daub, paved inside with marl." His father fed the mill with cane whilst his mother turned the trash outside the cane yard to boil the sugar.