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Map of the Panama Route.
The riches of Panama were rumored on the Island of Jamaica as much as they were on every other island in the Caribbean Ponto, driving every young black man into the frenzied fever of wanting to leave home, and all for the adventure of it all. In fact, the very riches that those young deluded men dreamed of would later prove to be a mirage. But, young men of African descent had to dream dreams of unheard of riches for it was now the middle of the XIX century and if only to see that old Canal being built was unimaginable.
Still, no spiritual seer could dare reveal her sightings, for who would have believed that those Westindians men would go down in history as the Silver People. They might have seen that the Silver People of the Panama Canal Zone would, in fact, end up working and as the unrecognized key factor in making the historic events of the building of the great waterway possible. That is, until the events of the latter end of the XX century would make history change her story, and we, in our time would see the end of the Panama Canal Zone. The history of the Jamaicans in the country known as Panama, however, would really begin even before the economic disaster known as the French Canal in 1889, and much earlier than the United States Government involvement in the area for the construction of the American Canal.
The native Blacks, however, who the country of Panama recognized much later as Afro Coloniales, would put their own mark on the history of this great waterway even before it was built. The natives (mostly blacks) in Panama, who met the American gringo travelers in that magical year of 1849, would not feel secure in their status as freedmen until much later in the XIX century, in 1870. As free as they, the Negroes, acted even then was due to events occurring on the issue of slavery. The Anglo-Spanish Treaty of 1817, though it concerned the freeing of Negroes from captured slave ships, did not cover the Emancipados who were freed by the Moret law of 1870, of gradual emancipation of slaves in the region of Central America.
The year of 1849 for the people of the United States would spell for many an opportunity to get out of real poverty. The first Americans traveled during those times of “Gold Fever” through the route used for centuries by the Spanish Colonialists in what is known in Panamanian history as the “Camino Real.” The route entailed using river canoes and porters to carry loads of supplies for the foreigners who were appearing on the same docks that for centuries received Negro slaves captured in Africa, some bought from the slave mines in islands like Puerto Rico.
Researchers have found many logs and writings of American and other English speaking travelers who have left us some interesting views in their travel reports of the Panama of those times. Most important for our story here is the account of Mr. Collis Potter Huntington of Harwinton, Connecticut who appeared in Panama with a large supply of groceries and whiskey. It is said that by the time Huntington reached his destination in California he had sold most of his supplies to other American travelers, becoming a rich man in so doing. However, for us here, Mr. Huntington’s trip would serve only as a benchmark for what was to come.
This story continues.
