by perowlifick

Created on: November 16, 2007   Last Updated: November 17, 2007

Jamaica is a place of great beauty beloved and returned to by many a tourist. St. Elizabeth, in the southwest area of the island, is Jamaica's second-largest parish.
It is located in the County of Cornwall a name that seems to have Scottish origins. Black River the Capital of the parish can be found at the mouth of the Eponymous River. This well-know river is not only pretty. It is the longest river in Jamaica.

BRIEF HISTORY
Jamaica is sometimes thought of as a primitive place with modern conveniences provided only to tourists. However, electricity was operable as far back as 1893. Black River was the location and the house it was introduced in was named Waterloo. Although St. Elizabeth covered, before 1703, most of the Southwestern portion of Jamaica, as happens all over the world as a result of "progress" boundaries change.

St. Elizabeth was diminished in size in 1703. In that year, Manchester was taken. Again in 1814 it was decreased in size by losing a part of Manchester. The Governor at the time named the resulting combined areas after his wife. We can now see the influence of England on the island with its governing body consisting of the English titled class.

There was diversity in the population however. Tainos/Arawaks lived there. The influence of the Spaniards who settled in Jamaica can still be seen in the Saint Elizabeth area. Tourists can still find the old buildings with "Spanish wall masonry." It is quite amazing that portions of these walls with their limestone and sand between wood construction are still standing.

As previously mentioned the British came to rule Jamaica. In 1655 they immigrated and began to establish sugar cane plantations. St. Elizabeth with its conveniently located seaport in Black River, prospered along with the planters. Another industry that proliferated was the logging. There was a market for the log wood and it was used to make Prussian-blue dye a popular commodity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

GEOGRAPHY
St. Elizabeth Parish has a latitude of 1815'N, a longitude of 7756'W. It is located west of Manchester, east of Westmoreland and south of Trelawny and St. James. Jamaica's second largest parish it is right behind Saint Ann's which covers 1212.6. Three of its four constituencies, also called electoral districts are controlled by the majority voting block of the People's National Party. The Jamaica Labour Party is predominate in only one of these four electoral districts. This information was last documented in

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