The Language of Dress: Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1750-1890

289 Pages·2004·4.7 MB·English

by  Steeve O. Buckridge

The Language of Dress:
Resistance and
Accommodation in
Jamaica, 1760–1890
Steeve O. Buckridge
University of the West Indies Press
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The
Language
of
Dress
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The
Language
of
Dress
Resistance and Accommodation
in Jamaica, 1760–1890
Steeve O. Buckridge
Foreword by Rex Nettleford
University of the West Indies Press
Jamaica Barbados Trinidad and Tobago
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University of the West Indies Press
1A Aqueduct Flats Mona
Kingston 7 Jamaica
www.uwipress.com
©2004by The University of the West Indies Press
All rights reserved. Published 2004
08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Buckridge, Steeve O.
The language of dress: resistance and accommodation in
Jamaica, 1760–1890/ Steeve O. Buckridge; foreword by
Rex Nettleford
p. cm.
ISBN: 976-640-143-8
1. Clothing and dress – Jamaica – History – 18th century.
2. Clothing and dress – Jamaica – History – 19th century.
3. Dress – Jamaica – History – 18th century. 4. Dress – Jamaica –
History – 19th century. 5. Costume – Jamaica – History. I. Title.
GT667.B832004 391.009'7292
Cover illustration:I.M. Belisario, Queen or Ma’am of the Set Girls(c.1837).
From Sketches of Character in Illustration of the Habits, Occupations
and Costume of the Negro Population in the Island of Jamaica (Kingston,
Jamaica, 1837). Reproduced by courtesy of the National Library of Jamaica.
Cover and book design by Robert Harris.
E-mail: [email protected]
Set in Adobe Garamond 11/14.5x 25
Printed in the United States of America.
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To my mother, who taught me to serve God,
to reach for the stars and to love with all my heart!
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Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important
offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world,
and the world’s view of us. Thus, there is much to support the view that
it is clothes that wear us and not we them . . . they mould our hearts,
our brains, our tongues to their liking.
– Virginia Woolf, Orlando
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Contents
List of Illustrations / viii
Foreword / x
Preface / xiii
Acknowledgements / xiv
Introduction
/ 1
1 The Crossing
/ 16
2 Dress as Resistance
/ 67
3 Dress as Accommodation
/ 111
4 Conclusion
/ 174
Appendix 1 / 195
Appendix 2 / 197
Notes / 199
Glossary / 232
Selected Bibliography / 240
Index / 260
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Illustrations
1.1 The Linen Market / 41
1.2 Metal buckles made by slaves / 41
1.3 Bone buttons made by slaves / 42
1.4 Laghetto or lace-bark branch / 51
1.5 Preparing Lace Bark, Jamaica / 53
1.6 A Piece of Prepared Lace Bark, Jamaica / 53
1.7 West Indian Washer Women / 55
1.8 Freed woman wearing lace-bark veil / 56
1.9 Negro Mode of Nursing / 58
1.10 Creole Negroes / 61
2.1 The simple headwrap / 89
2.2 Surinamese headwrap: Wacht me op de hoek / 90
2.3 Surinamese headwrap: Feda let them talk / 91
2.4 Four Girls / 92
2.5 St Vincentian Villagers Merrymaking / 93
2.6 Red Set Girls and Jack in the Green / 101
2.7 Queen or Ma’am of the Set Girls / 103
2.8 Koo, Koo or Actor Boy / 105
3.1 The Romantic dress / 119
3.2 Dress of the 1870s / 120
3.3 Dress of the 1880s / 120
3.4 Dress of the 1890s / 121
3.5 King Street, Jamaica / 130
viii
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3.6 Harbour Street, Jamaica / 131
3.7 Nathan, Sherlock & Co. Ltd, Metropolitan House,
Shoe Department / 132
3.8 Alfred Pawsey’s store advertisement / 132
3.9 Nathan, Sherlock & Co. Ltd, Metropolitan House
Dress Goods / 133
3.10 Betty of Port Royal / 135
3.11 Mrs Louis Verley / 136
3.12 Fun day for a group of middle-class Jamaicans / 139
3.13 Mrs A. Bush, middle-class Jamaican woman / 140
3.14 A View of King Street / 141
3.15 Washing Day on the White River / 143
3.16 Nineteenth Century Negro Woman, Lydia Ann / 144
3.17 G.M. Campbell and Servants, Spanish Town / 145
3.18 Miss Josephine Gray / 148
3.19 Miss Marie Gray / 148
3.20 Jamaican woman in a stylish hat / 149
3.21 Native Jippi-Jappa Hat Maker / 150
3.22 Governor of the Leeward Islands / 153
3.23 Nineteenth Century Negro Girl, Celia / 159
3.24 A Negro Wedding in the Country / 160
3.25 Native Wedding Party / 161
3.26 Task Workers Breaking Stone by the Roadside / 162
3.27 On the Way to Market / 163
3.28 On the Road to Market / 163
3.29 Jamaican Market Woman with Basket / 164
4.1 Jamaican woman in “separates” / 179
4.2 A fashionable lady / 180
4.3 Mrs Maria Gray in European dress / 182
Illustrations ix