Scottish Jamaicans Explained

Scottish Jamaicans (Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: Seumasaich Albannach) are Jamaicans of Scottish descent. Scottish Jamaicans include those of European, mixed African, and Asian ancestry with Scottish ancestors and date back to the earliest period of post-Spanish European colonisation.

An early influx of Scots came in 1656 when Oliver Cromwell deported 1200 prisoners of war.^[1] There was also a later migration at the turn of the 18th century, after the failed Darien colony in Panama.^[1] In 1707, Scots gained access to England's preexisting colonies when the Act of Union took place.

People of Scottish Jamaican descent

• Ryan Shakes, American social media personality
• Alison Hammond, British TV celebrity
• Akala, British rapper and poet
• Harry Belafonte, American musician
• William Davidson, radical^[2]
• Paul Douglas (Grammy Award-winning drummer and bandleader of Toots and The Maytals)
• Ms. Dynamite, British singer and rapper
• Stewart Faulkner, British retired athlete of Jamaican and Cuban parentage
• Salena Godden, poet and author of Jamaican Irish parentage, descendant of Scottish ancestor Lieutenant General James Robinson (1762–1845) who is buried at Edinburgh University.
• Goldie, British disc jockey of Scottish and Jamaican parentage
• Harry J, record producer
• Lewis Hutchinson, Scottish immigrant to Jamaica; owned a castle; one of Jamaica's first known serial killers
• Colin Powell, American general, of Scottish Jamaican parentage^{[3] [4]}
• Mary Seacole, nurse during the Crimean War; her father was a Scottish soldier
• Gil Heron, Jamaican football player
• Gil Scott-Heron, late American soul and jazz poet
• Robert Wedderburn, radical and abolitionist^[5]

See also

• Scottish place names in Jamaica
• Scottish colonization of the Americas
• Tobacco Lords
• White Jamaicans

Further reading

• Besson, Jean Martha Brae's two histories: European expansion and Caribbean culture-building in Jamaica (The Scottish and Creole planters around Martha Brae - Google books version)
• Karras, Alan L. Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740-1800 (Google books version)

External links

• The Forgotten Diaspora
• Scots ashamed of role in Jamaican Slavery

Notes and References

1. Web site: Scottish Genealogy Society - Scottish Jamaica Testaments. 7 March 2003. 4 September 2017. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20100129103152/http://www.scotsgenealogy.com/online/scottish_jamaica_testaments.htm. 29 January 2010.
2. Web site: William Davidson. 21 February 1999. 4 September 2017. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/19990221040435/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRdavidson.htm. 21 February 1999.
3. News: Colin Powell claims Scottish coat of arms . The Guardian . London . Tania . Branigan . 2004-05-12 . 2010-05-23.
4. Web site: Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter - May 17, 2004. Eogn.com. 29 August 2017. 4 July 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080704175342/http://eogn.com/archives/news0420.htm#ColinPowellsScottishAncestry. dead.
5. Chase . Malcolm . Wedderburn, Robert (1762–1835/6?) . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . online . 2008 . 10.1093/ref:odnb/47120 . . Retrieved on 17 August 2008.