Sligoville
Sligoville | |
---|---|
St. Catherine | |
First settled | 1835 |
Founded by | Rev. James Mursell Phillippo |
Sligoville (formerly known as Highgate) is a small community approximately 10 miles from
History
On 10 July 1835, Reverend James Phillippo, an English Baptist minister and anti-slavery activist stationed in Spanish Town, purchased 25 acres (10 ha) of land for £100 and established the first "free village" in the West Indies.[1] The land was subsequently divided into quarter-acre lots which the freed slaves could purchase for £3 each.[2] The first former slave to purchase land in Sligoville was former Hampstead Estate headman Henry Lunan.[3] What became known as the "Free Village" system resulted from this first settlement, and similar villages were established throughout the island, most of them by ministers of religion, who supplied land to the ex-slaves who had never owned land before.[4][5]
Originally named Highgate, the village was renamed as Sligoville (after
Site of Pinnacle, the first Rastafarian village in Jamaica (founded 1940, demolished 1958), see Leonard Howell for details.
Notable people
- Shirley Anne Tate (born March 1956) Jamaican sociologist, scholar, researcher, educator, and author; raised in Sligoville.[6]
References
- ^ "Sligoville". Jamaica National Heritage Trust. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
- ^ a b c "Sligoville – Jamaica's First Free Village". Jamaican Information Service. 6 August 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
- ^ "Sligoville - Jamaica's First Free Village Established To Prepare For Emancipation". The Gleaner. 16 August 2014.
- ISBN 0-415-90345-9.
- ^ Serju, Christopher (29 January 2011). "Bairds Bare Sligoville's Rich Past". The Gleaner.
- ^ "Interview with Shirley Tate". Times Higher Education (THE). 27 April 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2021.