ABSTRACT
The colony became increasingly dependent on North America for its flour, grain, and lumber, but as Northerners preferred to buy their sugar, molasses, and rum from the French, who sold it cheaper, the tended to drain Jamaica of specie. The Jamaica council was aware of the great need of a community of small provision farms. The poor whites of the Virgin Islands with their slaves were invited, in 1720, to come and settle in the eastern end of Jamaica. The disadvantage from the loss of the poor whites which was, perhaps, most keenly felt at the time and which materially retarded the development of Jamaica was its effect upon slave insurrections. The need of a larger poor white population, which the slave rebellion of 1730–1739 emphasized, led Jamaica to adopt new and more radical measures to recover and settle the uncultivated lands. The expense of living in Jamaica was a common complaint from travelers and prospective settlers in the colony.
