Existing comment:
Free Black Society:
Since the early eighteenth century, Jamaica has had a significant population of free people of color, both blacks and mulattos, which were racial as well as political distinctions in pre-Emancipation culture. During that period and through the 19th century, free people of color typically lived in urban areas and, though the majority was poor, some individuals amassed considerable fortunes, becoming plantation and slave owners themselves. Generally, free people of color occupied an ambiguous position in Jamaica; unaccepted by white society, but wishing to distance themselves from blacks. Falmouth had a large free people of color population; some purchased property and built houses that survive to the present. However, in Falmouth, a more cosmopolitan environment, free people of color lived in integrated neighborhoods with white merchants and artisans. |