Saint Elizabeth, one of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

's largest

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

, is located in the southwest of the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

, in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

. Its capital, Black River, is located at the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of the Black River, the widest on the island.

History

Saint Elizabeth originally included most of the southwest part of the island, but Westmoreland was taken from it in 1703, and in 1814 a part of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. The resulting areas were named after the wife of Sir Thomas Modyford, the first English

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Jamaica. There are archeological traces of Taíno/Arawak existence in the parish, as well as of 17th-century colonial Spanish settlements. After 1655, when the English settled on the island, they concentrated on developing large sugar cane plantations with enslaved African workers. Today, buildings with 'Spanish wall' construction (masonry of limestone sand and stone between wooden frames) can still be seen in some areas. St Elizabeth became a prosperous parish, and Black River an important seaport. In addition to shipping sugar and molasses, Black River became the centre of the

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply cha ...

trade. Large quantities of

logwood ''Haematoxylum campechianum'' (blackwood, bloodwood tree, bluewood, campeachy tree, campeachy wood, campeche logwood, campeche wood, Jamaica wood, logwood or logwood tree) is a species of flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is ...

were exported to Europe to make a blue dye very like Prussian blue, which was very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. St Elizabeth was the first parish to have electric power, where it was first introduced in a house called Waterloo in Black River in 1893.

Geography

The parish is located at

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...

18°15'N, and

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...

77°56'W; to the west of

, to the east of Westmoreland, and to the south of St. James and

Trelawny Trelawny or Trelawney may refer to: Places * Trelawny (electoral division), an electoral division of Cornwall * Trelawny, Black Hill, Ballarat, a heritage house in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia * Trelawny, Jamaica, a parish of Cornwall County, Jam ...

. It covers an area of 1,212.4 km², making it Jamaica's second-largest parish, smaller only than Saint Ann's 1,212.6 km². The parish is divided into four electoral districts (constituencies), that is North-East, North-West, South-East and South-West. Lovers' Leap

The northern and northeastern parts of the parish are

mountainous A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...

. There are three mountain ranges —the Nassau Mountains to the north-east, the Lacovia Mountains to the west of the Nassau Mountains, and the Santa Cruz Mountains which, running south, divide the wide plain to end in a precipitous drop of at Lovers' Leap. The central and southern sections form an extensive

plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

divided by the Santa Cruz Mountains. A large part of the lowlands is covered by morass, but it still provides

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and ot ...

land for

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s and

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two po ...

s. The main river in the parish is the Black River, and measuring , it is one of the longest rivers in Jamaica. It is navigable for about , and is supported by many

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drain ...

including Y.S., Broad, Grass and Horse Savannah. The river has its source in the mountains of

where it rises and flows west as the border between Manchester and

then goes underground. It reappears briefly in several surrounding towns, but reemerges near Balaclava and tumbles down gorges to the plain known as the Savannah, through the Great Morass and to the sea at Black River, the capital of the parish. The geology of the parish is primarily alluvial plains to the south, and

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, Dolomite (rock), dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathe ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

to the north. The karstic zones are known to contain over 130 caves (Jamaica Cave Register as of 2007 - from Fincham and JCO). These include Mexico Cave and Wallingford River Cave, near Balaclava, which are two associated sections of a major underground river that has its source in south Trelawny, as well as Yardley Chase Caves near the foot of Lovers' Leap, and Peru Cave, near Goshen, which has

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble ...

s and

stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typicall ...

s. Mineral deposits include

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...

antimony Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient ti ...

, white limestone,

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and ...

and

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

which is used to manufacture glass.

Demography

The parish had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 148,000 in 2001, 4000 of whom live in the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

town. The distinct feature of this parish is that numerous

ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

s can be found here; St Elizabeth probably has the greatest ethnic mixture in Jamaica. St. Elizabeth provides the best testimony of the Jamaican motto – "Out of many, one people". The Meskito (corrupted to ‘Mosquito’) Indians brought to Jamaica to help capture the

Maroons Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos. ...

, were allowed to settle in southern St. Elizabeth in return for their assistance and given land grants in this parish. This parish has also attracted Dutch, Spanish, Indian,

Maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are vari ...

, mulatto, English, and European inhabitants from the 17th century onwards, with the result that many observers feel that it has more people of mixed-race ancestry than can be found in any other part of the island. In the 19th century Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, Scottish,

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

, Chinese, and East Indians migrated to Saint Elizabeth. There are pockets of ethnic concentrations in the parish, including

Mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese ...

and Creole, notably found in the southeast.

Politics

Saint Elizabeth Parish has four MPs based in four constituencies; Saint Elizabeth North Eastern, Saint Elizabeth North Western, Saint Elizabeth South Eastern and

Saint Elizabeth South Western Saint Elizabeth South Western is a parliamentary constituency represented in the Parliament of Jamaica. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The constituency covers the south west part of Saint Elizab ...

Economy

Mining

The parish has been a major producer of

since the 1960s. Port Kaiser, near a town called

Alligator Pond Alligator Pond is a fishing village on the southwestern coast of Jamaica in the parish of Manchester. Unlike the tourist-oriented coasts in the northern part of the country, Alligator Pond's shoreline is as much about work as play; here fisher ...

, has a leading deep-water

pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...

for bauxite

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

. The Alpart alumina refinery was constructed in the 1960s at Nain and produces nearly 2 million tonnes of alumina annually for export. The replacement cost of building the refinery is approximately $2 billion. There are other alumina refineries close to the nearby town of Mandeville.

Agriculture

Apart from bauxite mining, the parish also produces a large quantity of Jamaica's

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

; there are two sugar factories in the parish.

Fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

is a major industry in the parish, as is tomato canning; a plant is at Bull Savannah. The parish also cultivates

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponi ...

such as

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

, peas, beans,

pimento A pimiento or pimento (or cherry pepper) is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper ('' Capsicum annuum'') that measures 3 to 4 in (7 to 10 cm) long and 2 to 3 in (5 to 7 cm) wide (medium, elongate). Pimientos can have vari ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

sweet potatoes and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

. As a result of the fertile soil that provide for grazing fields,

pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands ( pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...

is possible.

Livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to ani ...

include

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...

, hogs, and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...

Tourism

Since the 1990s, the parish has become a significant

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

destination, with most visitors going to the

Treasure Beach Treasure Beach is the name given to a stretch of four Jamaican coves and their associated settlements: Billy's Bay, Frenchman's Bay, Calabash Bay and Great (Pedro) Bay. The region is isolated from the main tourist areas and the minor roads conn ...

area. The Appleton rum

distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the hea ...

, near the rough Cockpit Country in the north of the parish, is also a tourist destination. The Cockpit area was the site of Maroon settlements through much of the 18th century.

Ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

tourism along the Black and YS rivers, and in the Great Morass, has been developed in recent years.

Education

The parish has 12 high schools and 75 primary level institutions as well as 167 early childhood institutions. Notable institutions include: *

Bethlehem Moravian College Bethlehem Moravian College (formerly Bethlehem Teacher Training College) is a college located in Malvern, Jamaica. The college grants the bachelor's degree in primary and secondary education, business studies, and hospitality and tourism manageme ...

* Black River High School * Hampton School *

Lacovia High School Lacovia High School (COBY) is a government-owned, co-educational, first-to-sixth form, non-traditional, secondary school located in Lacovia in the parish of St Elizabeth, Jamaica. According to Go-Local Jamaica, an online branch of the Jamaica G ...

Munro College Munro College is a boarding school for boys in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. It was founded in 1856 as the Potsdam School (named for the city of Potsdam), a school for boys in St. Elizabeth as stipulated in the will of plantation owners Robert Hugh Munr ...

* St. Elizabeth Technical High School

Places

Beaches

* Font Hill Beach * Galleon, Crane * Fullerswood * Parottee * Fort Charles * Calabash Bay * Great Bay * Billy's Bay * Frenchman's Bay *

Blue Fields Beach Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when o ...

Towns and villages

The Social Development Commission's national grid of communities has sixty one communities in St. Elizabeth broken down into 465 districts. The communities which include major towns are: Flagaman

Caves

St. Elizabeth has approximately 44

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s, including: * Mexico * Peru Cave * Yhardly Chase Caves * Wallingford Caves * Nain

Other places of interest

Lover's Leap Lover's Leap, or (in plural) Lovers' Leap, is a toponym given to a number of locations of varying height, usually isolated, with the risk of a fatal fall and the possibility of a deliberate jump. Legends of romantic tragedy are often associated w ...

is a cliff plunging several hundred metres into the sea, with an attached romantic legend of two young slaves jumping to their death rather than live apart. There is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

here too. *

Y.S. Falls Ys (pronounced ), also spelled Is or Kêr-Is in Breton, and Ville d'Ys in French, is a mythical city on the coast of Brittany that was swallowed up by the ocean. Most versions of the legend place the city in the Baie de Douarnenez. Etymology ...

is a famous falls in

, similar to

Dunn's River Falls Dunn's River Falls is a famous waterfall near Ocho Rios, Jamaica and a major Caribbean tourist attraction that receives thousands of visitors each year. Appearance At about high and long, the waterfalls are terraced like giant natural stairs t ...

in Ocho Rios, St. Ann. * Bamboo Avenue in Holland Bamboo was developed in the 17th century when local landowners planted bamboo on both sides of the road to provide shade during their travels. * Black River is one of the island's largest wetland freshwater ecosystems. Parts of the river can be explored by guided boat trip, where one can experience mangroves, and observe a host of wildlife, including salt water crocodiles, herons, and egrets.

References

Notes

Bibliography

*''Lover's Leap: Based on the Jamaican Legend'', Horane Smith, Minerva Press (1 June 1999),

External links

Parish Information
{{coord, 18, 03, N, 77, 47, W, display=title, region:JM_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki Parishes of Jamaica