This study considers the social and economic lives of free women in Jamaica from 1760 to 1834. Throughout the period studied Jamaica was Britain's most important imperial holding. The colony's slave economy, driven by the labour of hundreds of thousands of enslaved men and women, generated incredible wealth. Still, Jamaica was the deadliest place to live in British America. Due to the endemic nature of tropical disease and atrocious mortality rates, neither the enslaved population nor the white population maintained itself naturally prior to emancipation. However, an environment characterized by death and demographic crisis engendered heightened opportunities for women to take part in tropical enterprise and to shape the futures of their families. Inheritance norms were weakened by the omnipresence of death, precipitating more generous inheritance bequests for women and a greater role given to wives and daughters-both white women, and those of mixed-race descent-in tropical commerce. Additionally, as slave ownership was not limited by gender or race, free women of all races took part in the slave economy. Free women's visibility in the island's formal as well as informal economies, and the wealth accumulated by some, was unsurpassed in a British American context. However, in this slave society, free women's prosperity rested upon the exploitation and oppression of others. In contrast to familiar historical trajectories that have presented Caribbean participation in Atlantic markets of slavery and capital as male-driven ventures, this study argues that free women of all races were vital participants in the slave economy and principle beneficiaries of plantation profits. This project moves beyond previous studies on women in colonial Jamaica by revealing how women's enterprise and relations with one another shaped the nature of this economy and society, including the commercial, familial and kin networks that bound it together. In doing so, it enhances our understanding of this colony and the operation of race and gendered power within it.

Undergraduate thesis

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-275). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Jamaica is rich in contradictions. Life, like the landscape, is made up of great highs and lows, a wealth of beauty paralleled by intense desperation. This report explores these contradictions through an examination of the image of Jamaica packaged and presented to the world as a consumable tourism product. In 2012 as Jamaica prepares to celebrate 50 years of (in)dependence, the small nation finds itself battling (neo)colonialism, dependence, dispossession. Tourism is Jamaica’s main source of revenue and the industry is a major employer. The island’s role as a premier tourist destination is thus inseparable from Jamaicans’ daily lives. The current marketing slogan says to tourists ‘Once you go, you know”, I argue that this assertion is representative of the form tourism takes in Jamaica. By literally and figuratively granting understanding and ownership of the island and its resources to foreigners, the construction of Jamaica’s tourism product systematically commodifies Jamaica, its people, and culture. I seek to interrogate the role of tourism in Jamaica’s continued exploitation and to question the presence of secrecy, colonial nostalgia and national lies in how Jamaicans self identify and in how we are portrayed. / text

No description available.

In March 1994, the Jamaican Parliament passed the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) Act, to facilitate widespread employee share ownership by granting tax incentives to companies that offer shares to their employees (GOJ 1994). The primary aims of the legislation were to (a) strengthen Jamaica's economy by enabling workers to acquire an ownership stake in their employer and (b) improve the economic performance of Jamaican companies by encouraging employees to identify more closely with the goals of their employers (GOJ 1993). Former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, who introduced the ESOP legislation into Parliament, explained that organizational rather than ideological goals were the primary aims of the legislation. He explained that "in due course larger goals such as broadening the base of ownership and giving workers a wider stake in the national economy will also be achieved through ESOPs. But the first objective must be to increase productivity at the company level" (Manley 1995:17). Prior to the passage of this legislation, several employee ownership schemes had been implemented by Jamaican companies on a limited and ad hoc basis without the support of legislation (GOJ 1993). Despite the introduction of these earlier schemes, however, the concept of employee ownership is still a new one to Jamaica and little research has been conducted on how the pre-legislation employee ownership schemes were implemented or how they affected the implementing companies. Although consultants to the government examined these companies and used them as models in drafting the ESOP legislation, the consultants performed no academic studies to examine the organizational impact of the employee share schemes (Golding; Maharaj Interviews). Similarly, several academic studies have been conducted on employee ownership in the US, the UK, and a few other countries, but no formal academic studies of employee ownership have been conducted in Jamaica. These omissions are unfortunate given the interest in ESOPs expressed by the Jamaican government and the desired political, economic, and organizational effects of introducing employee ownership schemes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Anthropology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-158).

Thesis (M.A.)--Duquesne University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Sally Wallace, committee chair; Yongsheng Xu, David L. Sjoquist , Dillon Alleyne, committee members. Electronic text (142 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 20, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-141).

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Mary Zeigler, committee chair; Marti Singer, Lynée Gaillet, committee members. Electronic text (113 [i.e. 112] p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 1, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-110).