Art and Emancipation in Jamaica
Isaac Mendes Belisario and His Worlds

Chronicles the iconography of sugar, slavery, and the topography of Jamaica from the beginning of British rule in 1655 to the aftermath of emancipation in the 1840s. This book offers different perspectives on art, music, and performance in Afro-Jamaican society and on the Jewish diaspora in the Caribbean.

Coinciding with the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade, this multi-disciplinary volume chronicles the iconography of sugar, slavery, and the topography of Jamaica from the beginning of British rule in 1655 to the aftermath of emancipation in the 1840s. Focusing on the visual and material culture of slavery and emancipation in Jamaica, it offers new perspectives on art, music, and performance in Afro-Jamaican society and on the Jewish diaspora in the Caribbean. Central to the book is Sketches of Character (1837-38), a remarkable series of lithographs by the Jewish Jamaican artist Isaac Mendes Belisario, constituting the earliest detailed representation of the masquerade form 'Jonkonnu'. Innovative scholarship traces the West African roots of Jonkonnu through its evolution in Jamaica and continuing transformation today; offers a unique portrait of Jamaican culture at a pivotal historical moment; and provides a new model for interpreting the visual culture of empire.