Jamaican History

It has been too long! I was having some trouble getting into my blogger account but I have it all figured out now so I'm up and running. Well since the trip is a short two weeks away (sooo excited) I thought I'd look a little bit into the history of Jamaica. What I became most interested in was the original people of Jamaica, the Arawaks. The Arawaks are also known as the Tainos. 2500 years ago they left South America and settled in Jamaica. They named the island Xaymaca, which means, "land of wood and water." To me it seems their lifestyle was much like that of Native Americans in the U.S. They grew sweet potatoes, corn, fruits and vegetables, and tobacco. Tobacco was popular to grow because smoking it was a pastime for the Arawaks. They usually settled villages along the coast or by rivers so that they were skilled fisherman and that was a main source for food. They were peaceful until the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Columbus went to the island because he heard that there was gold there. Eventually the Spanish killed them off through brutal treatment, slavery, disease. Their numbers went from around 60,000 to 0 in a matter of 50 years. I love history and learning about people that really owned the land like the Arawak people. I hope you found this as interesting as I did.