So why Salt Fish?
By cynthiann
@cynthiann (18602)
Jamaica
August 7, 2015 10:19am CST
The national dish of Jamaica is Ackee and Salt fish. Yellow ackee pods are picked boiled and then added to the fried salt fish with lots of onions, garlic and peppers. Ackees taste like scrambled eggs. But why Salt fish? As the salt fish is imported from Canada and why should Canadian salted cod be Jamaica's national dish?
The story is a bit sad but a story of ingenuity and hope and rising above adversity.
The Maroons were slaves in Jamaica that fought the British for Independence and refused to be slaves. In a Treaty they were told that they would be taken back to Africa but the Brits tricked them and dumped some of them in Halifax in Canada. They refused to work without pay and ended up by designing the fortifications to protect Canada from the French. You see, they had been architects and engineers, teachers, doctors and builders their own country.
Not only did their build the Forts they dried and salted (for preservation - no fridges) the local salt fish and exported it to Jamaica. Isn't this something?
THEN they used the abundance of sawdust from the buildings in insulating blocks of ice which they exported to Jamaica too. How ingenious was that? I am in awe! The ice was transported in the bottom of sailing ships to Jamaica.
A few years later the Brits returned and some of them were taken to Sierra Leone but some remained and their ancestors are still in Canada and some of them living in the same area.
I know because I met some of them on an Island off Nova Scotia called Dartmouth that houses a Black History Centre.
So this is why today there is still a thriving export industry of Salt Fish to Jamaica!
9 people like this
5 responses
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
8 Aug 15
Today, I can only give an approximation but slavery ended in 1838 in Jamaica. Remember that Canada was colonised by the British so it was 'owned' by them. France wanted to invade and conquer.The Maroons never worked as slaves either in Jamaica or Canada. There were wars against them in Jamaica by the British and eventually treaties were reached. Today - they are still a free people with their own villages and although subject to the laws of the land still have a few laws of their own!
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
9 Aug 15
@topffer I am speaking of the time in possibly the 1800's - not 16th century. I will try tomorrow to give you a more definitive time but I am taking about Nova Scotia/ Halifax so I do not see any discrepancy between us. My main source of information was from a book on the Maroons by Beverly Carey - this is fantastic- scholarly and detailed. I was not talking about Quebec but the fortifications on the coastal area. I will get more info and let you know. The Black History Centre that I visited on the offshore Island of Dartmouth will give you more information to corroborate what I said. I know that I was sparse on details because of the length of the article. I will try tomorrow to give you more details.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
8 Aug 15
@cynthiann We did not read the same books. The first town in Quebec was founded by the French in the beginning of the 16th C, and we speak in my country of a "Conquest war" done by the British during the 18th C when France was in war in Europe and could not sustain all fronts
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I give you the link of the English Wikipedia for "New France". The French Wiki has better historical maps for Canada.
I worked on the abolition of slavery by Britain in Guyana for a biography. It was also something amazing : a French who emigrated in Guyana with not a penny to save his head during the French Revolution, and came back 30 years later when he was a millionaire.
I would like to read more interesting discussions like this one here
.
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I give you the link of the English Wikipedia for "New France". The French Wiki has better historical maps for Canada.
I worked on the abolition of slavery by Britain in Guyana for a biography. It was also something amazing : a French who emigrated in Guyana with not a penny to save his head during the French Revolution, and came back 30 years later when he was a millionaire.
I would like to read more interesting discussions like this one here.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For the short lived monarchy in South America, see Araucania and Patagonia. For the colony claimed by the Marquis de Rays to exist in New Ireland, see De Rays Expedition. For the 2004 film,
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
8 Aug 15
There was a thriving business in the U.S. of keeping ice to keep things cold. There is still a family that does it in New York state, I think it is. They cut the ice and pack it in their barns, back in the day. Then ice men would deliver blocks of ice to the "ice boxes" in town... that was before the days of refrigerators.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
8 Aug 15
@cynthiann I've seen them in museums, but never actually seen one "working"... LOL
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@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
8 Aug 15
@ElicBxn I grew up in the U.K. and we did not have a fridge until I was 14! lol Meat was bought fresh daily and the milkman delivered fresh milk daily, The butter used to get runny in the summer \!
2 people like this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
8 Aug 15
This is basically the same concept but they stored in the hold of sailing ships! Pretty amazing. I had heard of ice boxes but have never seen one as I grew up in the U.K
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
7 Aug 15
A fascinating story! I never knew that there was such a link between Canada and Jamaica and it never occurred to me that salt fish was imported into Jamaica (I suppose I thought that the local fish was salted, as, of course, it is in many parts of the world).
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
7 Aug 15
I thought that you would like it. I remember that your family had past Jamaican connections. Think that I am right.
@Rosekitty (19368)
• San Marcos, Texas
7 Aug 15
@cynthiann..very interesting story..thanks for letting us know things about Jamaica other than the you know what stuff..
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
7 Aug 15
You mean Ganja and Bob Marley? lol You're welcome. It is a fascinating place to live.
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
7 Aug 15
Yes, it has to be rinsed off and then brought to the boil and water is then changed. The same thing is done again to get rid of excess salt. Usually the fish to be used for breakfast is boiled the night before and refrigerated so it is easy to prepare.
I thought that they were very clever to use the sawdust as insulation for the ice. Of course, the bottom of the ship being in the sea is cold too but very clever.I have seen the remains of a hospital built by slaves in Jamaica and they are architecturally perfect. The men's ward was downstairs and upstairs was a ward for females. Amazing.
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