Seaford Town

Seaford Town is a cultural anomaly deep in the hills of Westmoreland. Founded in 1835 under a township act aimed at populating Jamaica's interior with Europeans, Seaford Town became the isolated home for 249 individuals transplanted from Germany. Jamaica's landed elite had feared the country's interior would be captured or settled by slaves, who were to be given full freedom in 1838. Baron Seaford thus allocated 202 hectares of his Montpelier Mountain Estate to the cause, and Jamaica's first German township was soon founded. The immigrants didn't find in Jamaica exactly what they had expected, however, and many died within the first weeks due to food shortages and their vulnerability to tropical diseases. The majority survived, however, adopting Jamaican food and customs and all but losing their connection to their homeland.

To this day many residents in Seaford Town have a light complexion, Catholicism is still an important religion, and some residents can still recall a few words of German. A small museum in the center of town features the area's unique history. The African Caribbean Institute recently launched a project called The Seaford Town Community History Project with support from the German Embassy to produce a comprehensive history of the community from 1835 to the present, including an audio documentation as part of the Jamaica Memory Bank (JMB).

To get to Seaford Town, head east in Mackfield toward Struie, continuing straight through Lambs River