White Jamaicans

rdf:langString White Jamaicans

rdf:langString White Jamaicans

rdf:langString English, Jamaican Patois, Spanish, Portuguese, other

rdf:langString White Jamaicans

rdf:langString Christianity, Judaism

rdf:langString White Jamaicans also known as European-Jamaicans are Jamaican people whose ancestry lies within the continent of Europe, most notably Great Britain and Ireland. There are also communities of people who are descendants of people who arrived from Spain, Germany and Portugal. Historically, White Jamaicans made up a much larger percentage of the population, forming a majority for most of the 17th century, when Jamaica was conquered by the British. After the Spanish colonized the island in the 1600s, the English began taking an interest in the island and, following a failed attempt to conquer Santo Domingo on Hispaniola, Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables led an invasion of Jamaica in 1655. The Spanish left, aside from Spanish Jews, which would later be followed by a predominately English and Irish White population. By the 1670s, Jamaica brought in more Black slaves to work on sugar plantations, which then would be the majority of Jamaica's population. During the First Maroon War, Jamaicans who broke from slavery fought against British colonialists, therefore leading to another decline in Jamaica's White population. The White population would dramatically decrease during the 1800s, making up only 4% of the population at a peak. According to the 2011 Census of Population and Housing for Jamaica, 0.2% of Jamaica's population is considered White. Over half of the White population lives in the Saint Andrew Parish. Seeing as about 4% of Jamaica's population is considered mixed, mainly Black and White, the population of those with partial European ancestry is much higher than that of the recorded White population. There is also a several centuries-old emigration of White Jamaicans, as with Jamaicans in general, to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries.