Oooh!!! I love these conversations! Because white folk gotta reckon with the fact that it's very likely their Forefathers and Foremothers were considered criminals and/or undesirable people who would not be productive citizens for The Crown. LET'S TALK ABOUT IT!!!! https://twitter.com/MinaLioness/status/1313145390653374466

Why wait for Black History Month when we talking about White History???? LMAOOOOOOOO

Let's knock this table over now.

Much like what happened in what would become the USofA? There were two kinds of White People who were dispatched to the different Colonies. While each Crown had it's own agenda, the kinds of White People fell into two buckets:

1. The Governing Folk
2. The Working Folk

The Working Folk usually had one or two things in common:

1. They were male (the group was largely male)
2. They came to the Colonies under debt peonage, i.e., work release as part of criminal sentencing while in their native lands

Here's what's interesting about Debt Peonage Programs, i.e., Indentured Servitude:

Depending on the country whose flag flew over the Colony in question, the group of people who made up the majority of Indentured Servants were very likely the undesirable ethnic group back home.

In other words? The system was a precursor to modern racism AND white supremacy (but that's a whole 'nother discussion for another day).

Since the OP was talking about Jamaica, I too shall point out how White People became Jamaican.

I love that we're talking about Jamaica because ooooh weeeeee... The White People there did not get any rest in the Colonial Era. None! Zero! Zilch! NADA! LMAOOOOO

To begin, the Indigenous People were the Arawak. They were living their best lives and communing with nature when Columbus ol' dumb self got lost in 1490-something.

Anywhoodles, he pulls up and is like, "This is for Spain!" And the People there are like, "Lol. Say sike!"

There's a whole 'nother side story to be told about Columbus' ineptitude and how this was a last ditch effort for him, but that's not why we're here.

Anyway, the Arawak are doing what they do and being respectful of life and land when they suddenly start dying en masse.

Prior to this, Columbus and Friends were trying to learn what they could about making the land "inhabitable" before the Crown came out to rescue them (this fool had basically shipwrecked). Instead, they end up passing off whatever nastiness they had to the Arawak.

When the Indigenous Tribes saw what was happening, they picked their shit up and left. LMAOOOOOOOOO

Now during this time, Spain pops up and their like, "Oh, okay. This lil island is not so bad! I guess we can fly our flag or whatever!"

But in order for it to be a good investment, Spain had to figure out a way to make money off of the land. Enter in plantations.

Well, you need workers for that. And so Spain does what all the other Colonizing Crowns do and they went to Africa to capture some Africans.

Only problem was? The Captured Africans wasn't with outlined plan or the Colonizers' shenanigans...

And soooooo they would revolt on the ships AND on the island when they got there.

Jamaica as a colony was not a good place. The Spanish Governors & Businessman had to deal with heat, inhospitable land, and upheaval from the Enslaved Population.

The more that happened on that island, the less the Spanish Crown wanted to actually be involved.

The Spanish Crown stopped sending military forces to help the planters and basically told them to figure it out.

Know who figured it out?

The British Crown. They crept in like a thief in the night, finished off whatever troops were there, and took the island for themselves.

And in taking the island for themselves? They attempted to take the plantations AND the Enslaved Peoples.

Here is why this is an important point:

Spain was like, "The hell you thought!" and "freed" their Enslaved People before fleeing the island.

Those Enslaved People knew about the Arawak people AND Enslaved People who escaped who lived in the mountains. And it was an unwritten rule that you didn't f**k with them.

I'm lying...

It was a written rule. Everyone knew you didn't mess with them. Cuz they'd kill you.

So now the British Crown has a problem:

They have all this land and all this work that needs to be done, but no workers. So enter in the White People!

HA! Just kidding. Not yet.

Well, the British Crown is like, "Let's go to Africa and get us some Africans!" And like some dummies? They did. Repeatedly. And had the same problems the Spanish Crown had.

Revolts and Runaways galore.

It did not matter that they tried to split families up or literally beat people from sunup to sundown. It did not matter that they was chopping off limbs or nothing like that. It was almost like African People knew there was a safe place to go to if they could just get away.

But not everyone could get away. So in addition to Revolts and Runaways, the British Crown also had to deal with Masters and Governor's mysteriously dying in they sleep. It was a wild time.

So their idea was to import less Africans....

And offer up the chance to repay a debt to society to the least among them -- chiefly the Irish.

I'm going to pause here because I want to mention that this takes place over a couple hundreds of years. That's how much of a headache African Peoples were for ALL the Crowns.

If "Keep That Same Energy!" & "It's On Sight/Site!" had a baby? It would have been Colonial Jamaica.

Because Jamaica was such a problem? No one with any real pedigree and some money wanted to go there OR send their daughter there for marriage. Which means that many of the White Women who were there were Ladies of the, uh, Night.

It was LIVE AT FIVE 24 hours a day.

So boom! Enter in the Irish.

The British Crown historically did not care for the Irish. This particular group of people made up a good chunk of the imprisoned population. At some point, they started having a population control issue AND a "where do we put the criminals?" issue.

Basically, the Crown goes to the Prisoners and is like:

"Y'all have never done shit for us except get on our nerves. Help yourself by helping us. You'll get a lil plot of land and your freedom in exchange for, saaaay, 20 years of work in the Colonies."

And they didn't just extend it to the incarcerated. They also extended the offer to the unmarried male population of their poorest citizens.

Folks jumped at the chance because it sounded so great!

The Crown was handing out indentured contracts like hotcakes because they KNEW...

They'd pretty much all die from the terrible conditions.

And most of them did. But yeah, they would continue to do this until well... they couldn't anymore.

So congratulations! If you're a regular, non-wealthy white person in Jamaica and you can trace your family back to the 1700s/1800s? Your Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Granpappy was probably a criminal.