Multi Cultural And Multi Racial - 1476 Words

Running Head – Caribbean Multi-cultural and Racial The Multi-Cultural and Multi-Racial Caribbean Michelle Knight Essay Submitted for Caribbean History 27100 Professor Audra Diptee Carleton University June 14, 2016 The Multi-cultural and Multi-racial Caribbean The Caribbean islands are a group of diverse islands throughout the Caribbean Sea. These islands can be as far south as the northern South America and as far north as southern North America. These islands have a history that is steeped in its own tradition and traditions from other nations. The Caribbean is a diverse populace that has representation of many cultural and racial bodies. Many of the Caribbean traditions exist because of the historical†¦show more content†¦Initially, indentured servants from Europe were used as the labour to cultivate these crops; however, as the sale of these crops exploded, Europeans began engaging in the African slave trade to further support the harvesting of these crops (Thornton, 1993, p. 182). The history of African slaves is inextricably intertwined with the Caribbean history. Many of the African slaves were sold into slavery but still were able to hold onto customs and philosophical ideals (Thornton, 1993, p. 195). Though these Africans were enslaved they still maintained many of their strong beliefs and warrior ideals from their home countries. In fact, it is believed that these ideals were prominently figured in the slave revolution of Saint-Domingue that eventually resulted in Haiti’s independence (Thornton, 1993, p. 198). The many historical influences on the Caribbean related to slavery and agriculture had a continuing effect on the development of Caribbean islands long after slavery was abolished. These influences are best demonstrated by the differing migration patterns that occurred to sustain the agricultural based economy of the Caribbean islands for the benefit of the European countries that had colonized these islands. Migration Patterns Slavery was gradually abolished throughout the Caribbean. European countries became enlightened and realized that slavery was an inappropriate source of labour (Young, 2015, p. 122). Despite the changing nature of the labour and the elimination