Inhalt: I. Becoming Jamaica. Taíno society / Kit W. Wesler ; Taíno worship / Ramón Pané ; The first European account of Jamaica / Andrés Bernáldez ; A Spanish settler in Jamaica / Pedro de Maçuelo ; The Spanish capital / James Robertson ; Slavery in Spanish Jamaica / Francisco Morales Padrón ; A description of Spanish Jamaica / Francisco Marques de Villalobos ; The economy of Spanish Jamaica / Alonzo de Miranda ; The western design / Don Juan Ramirez ; Mountains of gold turned into dross / Anonymous ; The establishment of Maroon society / Robert Sedgwicke and William Goodson -- II. From English conquest to slave society. Pirate stronghold / Nuala Zahedieh ; Port Royal destroyed / Anonymous ; White servants / Government of Jamaica ; The rise of slave society / Richard S. Dunn ; African music in Jamaica / Hans Sloane ; A Maroon tradition / collected by Kenneth M. Bilby ; Treaty between the British and the Maroons / Anonymous ; African arrivals / Audra A. Diptee ; Spiritual terror / Vincent Brown ; Two enslaved lives / Trevor Burnard ; Increase and decrease / managers of Haughton Tower Estate ; A free Black poet / Francis Williams ; Jamaica talk / Frederic G. Cassidy ; The War of 1760-1761 / Edward Long -- III. Enlightenment Slavery. Creole society / Edward (Kamau) Brathwaite ; Cane and coffee / Robert Charles Dallas ; Women's and men's work under slavery / Lucille Mathurin Mair ; Although a slave me is born and bred / recorded by J.B. Moreton ; Capture and enslavement / Archibald John Monteith ; The Black church / George Liele ; British missionaries / Mary Turner ; The Second Maroon War / representatives of the Trelawney Town Maroons ; Jonkanoo / Michael Scott ; Provision grounds / Sidney Mintz ; The Liberation War of 1831 / Henry Bleby ; Apprenticeship and its conflicts / Diana Paton ; An apprentice's story / James Williams ; Because of 1833 / Andrew Salkey -- IV. Colonial Freedom. Free villages / Jean Besson ; Cholera / Samuel Jones ; Black voters / Swithin Wilmot ; Religion after slavery / Hope Waddell "Jamaica, the largest of the English-speaking Caribbean islands, has had an influence far greater than its size. The astonishing cultural reach of Jamaicans into the global mainstream is unmistakable. By contrast, many lesser-known aspects of the island's powerful history are unevenly recognized. The Jamaica Reader covers the sweeping story of Jamaica's past and present from its indigenous origins before European contact, to its twenty-first century present"--