Thea Hist Exam 1

History of the Caribbean

• Christopher Columbus lands in the West Indies (aka the Bahamas), initiating Spanish Colonization

• British begin colonizing in 1630s; capture Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655

• France & the Netherlands also start colonizing around this time

Triangle Trade

• 90% of Indigenous ppl (Caribs & Taino’s) died of disease within 50 years of Columbus’ arrival

• Slaves imported from Africa to produce sugar, molasses, & rum

Colonial Jamaica

• Over 500,000 slaves were sent to Jamaica by 1780

• Approx 465,000 Europeans migrated to the Caribbean as a whole by 1780

• Europeans brought theatre traditions including: spoken drama, ballet, opera, etc

Pantomime

• Uniquely British genre

• No spoken diploid originally (everything was mimed)

• Drew on commedia archetypes

• Lots of physical comedy & slapstick

• Often based on fairy tales/popular stories

• Became spoken in 1843 when the License Act became less restrictive

• Continued today as Christmas tradition

• Nearly always at least 1 character in drag (Narrator)

Caribbean Pantomime: Obi, or Three Fingered Jack

• Based on the true story of Jack Mansong, a Jamaican who led a multi-year slave revolt in 1770s

• Considered a Jamaican Robin Hood figure

• Lived in the mountains w/ a ground of maroons, aka runaway slaves

• Killed in 1781 by another slave who was promised freedom for killing him

• Became a very popular legendary figure inspiring a novel abt him

• Pantomime abt him was write in 1800 by John Fawcett

• Huge success in London & the US

• Fawcett adds a B-plot of a romance between the plantation owner’s daughter Rosa and a Captain from England

• Jack captures the Captain and Rosa dresses up as a boy to rescue him but gets captured as well

• Jack is asspcoayed and protected by Obi, a native Voodoo spirit

Obi or Three Fingered Jack was popular for which 2 main reasons?

• British audiences exoticized Junkanoo and wanted to see it

• The Haitian Revolution was happening at this time, causing anxiety abt slave revolts