I’m a history enthusiast and one of the reasons I became interested in living in Panama was to study the history of Africans brought to the Caribbean, and Central & South America. In fact, two-thirds of those transported in the slave trade from Africa landed in places other than the United States.
With that in mind, picture ships, two to three football fields long, passing through the mammoth Panama Canal locks at Miraflores, just west of Panama City. Witnessing one of the greatest engineering feats in history, I was duly impressed.
The viewing tower, about eight stories high, allows you to look down on the locks in operation as ships of all sizes pass through the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914, and will celebrate 100 years of operation in 2014.
But, who actually built it? The Spanish tried, and so did the French. By the early 1900′s the Americans stepped in during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt. The completion of the canal in 1914 helped elevate America’s status as a world power. But at an enormous human cost.
Early on, I was surprised to discover that a large number of those who worked on the Panama Canal, in the early 1900′s, were Caribbeans of African decent.
The canal project attracted workers from around the world, China, Europe, and America. However, the largest number of those who worked on the canal were Afro-Caribbeans, mainly from Barbados. These workers were among the greatest number to
