History

Kingston didn't become an important city, or a city at all for that matter, until well after the British captured Jamaica from Spain in 1655. It wasn't until the great earthquake of 1692 left the nearby boomtown of Port Royal almost entirely underwater that Kingston's population grew to any size--thanks to the survivors fleeing from across the harbor. A subsequent disaster, a devastating fire in 1703, left Port Royal virtually abandoned and sealed the town's fate as a literal backwater. Prior to this, Kingston's Downtown area was dominated by a fishing and pig-farming village known as Colonel Beeston's Hog Crawle.

The well-organized city was built to take advantage of the outstanding natural harbor that had put Port Royal on the map in the first place, and it was named in honor of William of Orange, who ruled England from 1689 to 1702. Before long, Kingston became an immigration point for merchants from around the Caribbean seeking fortune from the slave trade and associated commerce. When slavery was abolished in 1834, Kingston's population swelled as many former slaves rejected the rural life that reminded them of a not-so-distant past. Country folk began migrating to Kinston in great numbers in search of a fresh start.

Thanks to brisk trade that continued along Kingston Harbor, the city soon challenged the capital of Spanish Town in economic importance. In 1872, after what proved to be years of futile resistance, the disgruntled bureaucrats in Spanish Town finally ceded power. Uptown Kingston remained predominantly rural well into the mid-1800s, when wealthier Kingstonians began seeking refuge from the swelling shantytowns that sprang up around Downtown. Most areas of Uptown today still include "manor" or "pen" in reference to the parcels of land that contained the farming estates of yesteryear.

In 1907, a massive earthquake destroyed the majority of buildings along the waterfront, further exacerbating the flight to Uptown of those with means. By the 1930s, prices plunged for the commodities that still formed the base of Jamaica's economy, causing widespread riots around Kingston. This was a time of social and political unrest throughout the African Diaspora, catalyzing the Jamaican labor movement and bringing leaders Marcus Garvey, William Gordon, and Alexander Bustamante to the fore. By the time Jamaica was granted its independence on August 1, 1962 (it technically remains a protectorate of the British crown), redevelopment along the harbor was slated as a priority. Unfortunately for the waterfront area, most of the economic development that ensued took place along the city's new hip strip, Knutsford Boulevard, in New Kingston, and farther uptown in Half Way Tree and along Hope Road.

Violent political campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s gave Kingston international notoriety, but visitors today rarely find themselves subject to or even observers of violent crime.