Zachary Roper

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harvey, David

Area of Concentration

History

Abstract

This thesis examines several institutions involved with the education of Afro-Jamaicans following the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1838, as well as the response of Afro-Jamaicans to the curricula that was offered. This thesis fits under the genre of colonial history and submits itself as a study of the relationship between colonizers, or colonizing agents, and the colonized. The former category applies specifically to imperial governmental bodies which actively funded and articulated policy pertaining to education during this period, the local legislatures of the island, and the Orthodox Baptist establishment on the island. The “colonized” in this thesis refers to Afro- Jamaicans who had been defined as chattel by colonial society, or the relatives of such individuals, before the emancipation of 1838. This thesis argues that education programs in post-emancipation period were designed to maintain a status quo similar to that of pre-emancipation society, with Afro-Jamaicans submitting to the authority of the white establishment in economic and social activities. These programs proved ineffectual in maintaining the pre-emancipation status quo largely due to the resistance of Afro-Jamaican communities, and the structural inefficiencies of the institutions involved in education.

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