STORY:
With Emancipation, the planters decided to import indentured labour : the first group -63 Germans from Bremen- arrived in 1834.
During the Apprenticeship period there were further imports of Germans, together with Scots and Irish. Immigration from India began in 1838 and by 1917 a total of 33,000 had arrived. Chinese arrivals totalled 5,000 between 1860 and 1893.
MARKET APPEAL:
The German connection remains in Seaford Town and in the general area of Albert Town (see German Town and Stettin) and Stewart Town and this can provide extra appeal for German visitors in particular.
RESOURCES:
In addition to Seaford Town, German heritage extends from Stewart Town through Berlin and German Town (in Freemans Hall) to Stettin (the latter being home to Dr. William Lemonius (1788-1877), a Prussian who served in the Prussian army against Napoleon; pursued to the coast, he killed his horse and boarded a British warship. He came to Jamaica after the collapse of the Duke of Brunswick's Regiment. The property is named after the city in Pomerania from which his family came. He was medical officer at Rio Bueno. From 1834-1837 he secured more than 1,000 immigrants on behalf of the Jamaican House of Assembly from Hanover and other parts of North Germany to come to Jamaica to settle.