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Jamaica history. Spanish Town.
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T, Picken, 'Scene in Jamaica, 1st August 1838', cover for Quarterly Papers for the use of the Weekly and Monthly Contributors to the Baptist Missionary Society 77 (January 1841). A view of the parade in Spanish Town from the South. The Governor stands on the steps in front of the Hings House portico to the left; a massive royal standard is on the right. Here Baptist readers saw 'the Governor, the Bishop of Jamaica, and Mr Pillipo, as though testifying to the spectators the happy union of civil and relivious feeling at this auspicious moment'. The perspective is compressed. The Rodney Temple on the north side of the square has ballooned, quadroopling in sizem so that its cupula is higher than all the other buildings in the picture. To accommodate this enlarged structure, the arcade behind it stretches futher back into a half circle. Is roof is depicted crammed with spectators. There are also pleny of pairs of sentry boxes shown in front of the Archives and the Island Secretary's Office. The woodcut shows everyone watching the parademarching off along the north side of the parade marching off and then turning down King Street en route to the Baptist Chapel. The audience is broken up by class. Those watching from inside the railings have plenty of parasols though the commentry emphasised that 'the children occupy the centre of the railings'. Otherwise while some parasols are sprinkled among the group in the street in front of the King's House many of the women are wearing bandannas. The image catches an event that reached across class boundaries. Read a Chapter

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“...a history of its people, its buildings, its streets, as well as its past. It is an urban history that adds texture and depth to an already vast historiography of the island. Robertson adds insight to that urban landscape he illustrates not only by presenting an anthropological study of the town's historical landmarks and attractions, but also a complex sociocultural study of the town's inhabitants. While today's visitor's may see the last vestiges of a colonial government in fallen buildings and an old rusty iron bridge, Robertson forces the reader to see the town for what it once was.” read on....
-Colleen Vasconellos University of West Georgia, USA

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for £20.95		 Chapter Five: Reorientations, 1780-1838. "The 58 years after 1780 saw the transformation of the Jamaica of the plantocracy. The islands Governors, Council members and Assemblyment all continued to hold forth in the splended settings constructed in Spanish Town during the 1760s, but within a single lifespan a succession of social, economic and plolitical changes buffeted their hierachical world and challenged most of their society's basic assumptions..." [click the link to read on]read a free chapter online
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“… this book should set a standard, first by its careful research and secondly by illustrating the importance of Spanish Town (and towns in general) to the well being of the slave islands.”
-James Walvin, University of York, UK

“James Robertson has produced a work of significance for the broad understanding of Jamaican history, especially the neglected story of the island’s town and cities.”
-B.W. Higman, Australian National University, Humanities Research

Spanish Town is an old town. As Jamaica’s capital for nearly 350 years and subsequently as a major urban centre, its streets and squares witnessed key political and social transitions. But although the once proud city has lost all its ancient glory, Spanish Town has a rich and textured legacy.

Robertson guides the reader through the landmarks, identifying sites and scenes long lost and showing what is still there to be appreciated. His account of Spanish Town’s long history is firmly rooted in the streets and lanes of the town, its nooks and niches, sounds and smells. The urban landscape he presents is a peopled landscape, inhabited by rich and poor, enslaved and free, notables and eccentrics, Africans and Europeans. He shows convincingly that the colonial capital provided both a cultural and political counterpoise to the colony’s merchants and plantations and that its diverse inhabitants had created a ‘creole town’ as early as 1750 when they were still preparing to build Spanish Town’s splendid Georgian square in the midst of its multiplying yards.

The work is based on extensive research in scattered archives and is illustrated by a variety of rare and wonderful images.

James Robertson lectures at the Department of History & Archaeology, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

Catalog suggestions:
Libraries: Jamaica History
972.92 22
Special Displays & College Courses:
Black History Month, Jamaica History; Slavery, Colonialism
Carribian History, Jamaicans

Library of Congress:

Gone is the ancient glory : Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1534-2000
/ James...
LC Control No.:
2006397713
Type of Material:
Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name:
Robertson, James (James Craufurd), 1958-
Main Title:
Gone is the ancient glory : Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1534-2000
/ James Robertson.
Portion of Title:
Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1534-2000
Published/Created:
Kingston [Jamaica] ; Miami : Ian Randle Publishers, 2005.
London [UK] : Central Books, 2005 as distributors
Description:
xviii, 477 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9766371970 (pbk.)
9766371989
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 417-458) and index.
Subjects:
Spanish Town (Jamaica)--History. (as cagalogued by ? NLJ)
Jamaica (other suggested headings..)
Black History
Jamaica History
Jamaica Politics to 1962
Dewey Class No.:
972.92 22
Other System No.:
(OCoLC)ocm58806838
Geographic Area Code:
nwjm---
Quality Code:
lccopycat (=catalog data copied from ? National Library of Jamaica)
CALL NUMBER:
Not Available
-- Request in:
Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or Area Studies Reading Rms
-- Status:
In Process 06-05-2006
MARC tags

FMT BK
LDR pam a2200181 a 4500
001 013195659
003 Uk
005 20060207122055.0
008 050505s2005 jm abc b 001 0 eng
015
|a GBA540589
|2 bnb
020
|a 9766371989 :
|c £35.00
020
|a 9766371970 (pbk.) :
|c £22.50
040
|a StDuBDS
|b eng |c StDuBDS |d Uk
042 |a ukblsr
08204 |a 972.92 |2 22
1001 |a Robertson, James.
24510
|a Gone is the ancient glory :
|b Spanish Town, Jamaica 1534-2000 /
|c James Robertson.
260
|a Kingston, Jamaica :
|b Ian Randle ;
|a London :
|b Global [distributor],
|c 2005. correction: Central Books distribute in Europe
300
|a xviii, 477 p. :
|b ill., maps, ports. ;
|c 23 cm.
504
|a Includes bibliographical references and index.
500
|a Formerly CIP.
|5 Uk
651 0
|a Spanish Town (Jamaica)
|x History.
85241
|a British Library
|b HMNTS
|j YD.2006.a.715
SYS 013195659

Nielson's Bookdata as at December 2007:

BIC Subject & Qualifiers:
American history...(HBK)
Jamaica............(1KJWJ)
Dewey:..............972.92 (DC22)
Date Range:.........1543-2000 	  	 
BISAC Subject: 
Caribbean & West Indies General(HIS041000)
LC Subject Heading:.History
....................Spanish Town (Jamaica)
Readership Level:...General (US: Trade)

Distributors:
 
UK 	Central Books Ltd........Distributor
US 	Independent Publishers Grp........."
SA 	New Africa Books.........Distributor
UK 	Global Book Marketing....Representative
SA 	New Africa Books.........Representative
OTHER
Ian Randle Publishers,Jamaica Distributor
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