After the English captured Jamaica in 1655, they continued to fight a Spanish resistance mainly of freed Africans, the antecedents of the Maroons. Pirates helped the English defend the island, and for many decades after most of western Jamaica remained unsettled and open to attack and pillaging. After experimenting with European bond labour to grow tobacco and cocoa, the profits of plantation sugar and African slavery quickly outstripped all else. The exhibition tells of the region’s 17th Century rise as the stronghold of ‘King Sugar’.

It was during this time that the regions parishes and towns were established to spur settlement, development and the island’s security, especially for its largest estates. On display is a sugar processing installation and period utensils and tools.