Faculty ofHumanities & Education

1 Humanities & EducationFaculty of8 This joint research project examines the interaction of thepeoples and cultures of the many ethnic groups in theJamaican society in the years between the cataclysmicevents of Morant Bay and the end of the First World analyses the competitive interrelationships among thesegroups as they jostled for space to preserve and expressthe uniqueness of their cultural traditions in a colonialenvironment that was repressive of any heritage otherthan the dominant Victorian one. The study includes anassessment of the role of British elite (especiallymissionaries) in imposing their culture and values, thepreservation of African culture and the importation of newimmigrant cultures (especially Indian and Chinese), andthe impact of this dialectical interplay of cultures inJamaica. Close examination is done of culturalphenomena such as religion ( Christianity, Revivalism,Hinduism, Islam), Obeah and Myal, customs relating to the rites of passage, marriage and family, sportand entertainment, music and dance, intellectual activity and ideas, languages, food, dress, gambling,drinking, ganja and opium usage, values and attitudes and marital culture.

2 The study seeks todetermine the extent to which an identifiable Jamaican Creole culture evolved during the period research is intended to fill major gaps both in the general historiography of jamaica and the widerAnglophone Caribbean, both of which are remarkably under-researched. Several publications areexpected to result from this work aimed both at advancing the current state of historical knowledge foracademic purposes and providing general information and descriptions of Jamaican cultural forms tothe wider public. Work has also been done on the living conditions and culture of the people in bothurban and rural jamaica during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and includes thefollowing publications:* Land We Live In: jamaica in 1890(Kingston: The Social history Project, UWI, 2000). This book provides a physical description of jamaica and valuable information about the social institutions and the daily lives of its people just over a half century after the emancipation of is based mainly on newspaper articles published in the Gleaner in 1890.

3 * Squalid Kingston 1890-1920: How the Poor Lived, Moved and had their Being(Kingston: The Social history Project, UWI, 2000).Humanities & EducationFaculty ofReligious and Secular Culture inJamaica 1865-1920 Researchers:Professor Brian L. Moore and Dr. Michele A. Johnson Department of History9 Humanities & EducationFaculty ofReligious and Secular Culture inJamaica 1865-1920 continuedResearchers:Professor Brian L. Moore and Dr. Michele A. Johnson Department of HistoryBased on articles that appeared in the jamaica Times and the Gleaner, this book explores the desperate living conditions of the people of West Kingston that have persisted and given rise to theviolence so prevalent today. It demonstrates that the plight of the poor in that part of the city hasexisted ever since the nineteenth century with very little change.* Fallen Sisters : Attitudes to Female Prostitution in jamaica at the turn of the Twentieth Century , Journal of Caribbean history 34: 1 & 2 (2000): 46-70.

4 * Celebrating Christmas in jamaica 1865-1920: from Creole Carnival to Civilised Convention , in Kathleen Monteith and Glen Richards (eds.), jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: history , Heritage and Culture(Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, Fall 2001).Old Manor House at Ewarton10 Humanities & EducationFaculty ofPower to the People: George William Gordon andGrassroots Politics in Post Slavery JamaicaResearcher:Dr. Swithin WilmotDepartment of HistoryThis project sought to research and write a political biography of GeorgeWilliam Gordon, one of jamaica s national heroes, who was considered acatalyst for the protest and political involvement of the local black people whichtook place in the immediate post slavery period. The study focused on Gordon spublic career, which spanned a period of 21 years, between 1844 and was an investigation of both his formal political activity as well as hisparticipation in broader social movements representing the politics of activities represented early attempts at mass politicization in post slaveryJamaica and climaxed with the Morant Bay Rebellion.

5 These developments aswell as Gordon s organizational work were studied with the intention ofreassessing the nature and causes of the confrontation at Morant , Gordon s public life as a vehicle through which the political viewsand general aspirations of the freed people, men and women, were expressedwas analysis of Gordon s career and his links with Black jamaica should serve todeepen our understanding of the early formation of jamaica s political cultureas it found embryonic expression in the immediate post slavery period, therebyextending the body of Jamaican/Caribbean historiography concerned with thehistory from below . Findings from the research have been used in the preparation of publications:* The Politics of Samuel Clarke: Black Creole Politician in Free jamaica , 1851-1865 . V. Shepherd and G. Richards (eds.), Questioning Creole: Creolisation Discourses in Caribbean Culture.

6 Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2002, pp. 227-241.* Politics at the Grass Roots in Free jamaica : St. James, 1838-1865 . V. Shepherd (ed.), Working Slavery, Pricing Freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean, Africa and the African Diaspora. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2002, pp. 449 - 466.* From Bondage to Political Office: Blacks and Vestry Politics in Two Jamaican Parishes, Kingston and St. David, 1838-1865 . K. Monteith and G. Richards (eds.), jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: history , Heritage and Culture. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2002, pp. 307-323. * Freedom in jamaica : Challenges and Opportunities, 1838-1865. Kingston: jamaica Information Service, 1997, New Edition 2001, p. William Gordon11 Humanities & EducationFaculty ofPower to the People: George William Gordon andGrassroots Politics in Post Slavery JamaicaResearcher:Dr. Swithin WilmotDepartment of history * A Stake in the Soil : Land and Creole Politics in Free jamaica , the 1849 Elections, has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming collection of Papers include:* We not slave again : Enslaved Jamaicans in Freedom, presented at an International Conference hosted by The International Center for the history of Slavery at Nottinghman University, September 10-12, 2001.

7 The Conference s theme was Freed Slaves-Integration and Exclusion.* The Historians and George William Gordon , presented at the 2nd International Conference on Caribbean Culture, the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, January 9-12, & EducationFaculty ofA Study of the history of Schooling in jamaica 1866-1962 Researcher: Dr. Ruby KingInstitute of EducationThe focus of the investigation has been on the purposes, characteristics, growth and development ofelementary Education as it evolved and was practised in jamaica during the period of Crown ColonyGovernment. In addition to documentary/archival research, the analysis of the content of reading books,syllabi, and examination papers in use at elementary schools and teachers colleges during the period, wasundertaken. The investigation clarified how the roots of the present system were established during the period from1892-1914.

8 In this period, the system of elementary Education introduced by Sir John Peter Grant wasdefined and honed. All major characteristic features of the present Education system may be traced backto that period, when the culture of the elementary schools and teachers colleges was established. The factthat the weaknesses in our system have proven to be largely intractable is due to the way the system wasstructured in the beginning. A significant finding was that of the key role of individuals and groups inshaping educational policies and practices. Inspector Savage, Superintendent Inspector Thomas Capper,Senior Inspector Hicks, Archbishop Nuttall, the denominational groups, teachers associations, the Board ofEducation and the Education Department all impacted the significant feature of the curriculum in the early years was the emphasis on morals, which were includedwith the scriptures as a prescribed subject.

9 The morals to be inculcated were set out in Schedule A of thevarious Codes of Regulations. For example, the morals to be inculcated in the upper grades included,reverence, self-respect, courage, self-control and self-denial. Perhaps the greatest virtue was loyalty to theEmpire and to the Crown. Through Education in morals and the scriptures the educational decision-makersof the time sought to produce peaceful, docile citizens and contain any possibility of violence. The research has been extended by work carried out in the USA into the way in which the Education forex-slaves in that country was structured and also into the substantial linkages between educators inJamaica and that country during the period. Indeed the research points to the existence of a community ofeducators in the North Atlantic during the late nineteenth century of which jamaica was a significant papers on this aspect of the research, Education in Late Nineteenth Century jamaica : the AmericanConnection andEducation and Emancipation: jamaica and the USA in the Late Nineteenth Century, werepresented at international conferences.

10 An investigation of English links in the educational system resultedin a conference paper, Education in jamaica in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: TheEnglish & EducationFaculty ofA Study of the history of Schooling in jamaica 1866-1962 Researcher: Dr. Ruby KingInstitute of EducationA number of articles based on the research have been published in refereed journals or as chapters in books. Among these are:* Elementary Education in Early Twentieth Century jamaica , in Caribbean Journal of EducationVol. 16 No. 3 Sept. 1989. pp. 224-246)* Geography in the Curriculum of Elementary Schools in late Nineteenth Century jamaica , in Caribbean Geography Vol. 5, No. 2 1994 pp. 136-143)* Educational Inequality in jamaica : The Need for Reform, in Ruby King ed. Institute of Education Annual 1998. pp. 43-58. This was first read as a paper at the Ministry of Education and Culture, jamaica , Conference for Teacher Educators, September 1994.