polink

English

Etymology

From Spanish palenque (“palisade”).

Noun

polink (plural polinks)

(Jamaica, historical) One of several stockaded mountain farms established, after the invasion of Jamaica by England in the late 17th century, by people of colour who had lived on the island under Spanish rule.^[1]
(Jamaica, historical) A plot of land on a hill near a plantation, allotted to enslaved people for growing food.^[2]
- 1758, An Enquiry concerning the Trade, Commerce, and Policy of Jamaica, relative to the Scarcity of Money, cited in The Monthly Review, August, 1758, p. 140,^[3]
  360 polinks and provision plantations, containing each 200 acres […]
- 1774, Edward Long, The History of Jamaica‎^[4], London: T. Lownudes, Book 2, Chapter 7, Section 2, p. 44:
  About four miles North and North-west from the town is another range of hills; over which is scattered a great number of polinks, or places applied entirely to the cultivation of garden-stuff, fruits, and such sort of provision, for the town-market.
- 1790, William Beckford, A Descriptive Account of the Island of Jamaica‎^[5], London: T. and J. Egerton, page xxxii:
  […] he has a house in Spanish-town, a pen, or a farm, adjoining; and a polink, or mountain for provisions […]
- 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons‎^[6], London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 7, p. 218:
  Of the slaves that had joined the Maroons, the whole number appeared to have come from a few adjacent plantations and polinks;
- 1996, Barbara Bush, “Survival and Resistance: Slave Women and Coercive Labour Regimes in the British Caribbean, 1750 to 1838”, in Patrick Manning, editor, Slave Trades, 1500-1800: Globalization of Forced Labour‎^[7], Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, page 299:
  For one and a half days each week, Saturday afternoon and Sundays, the slaves were freed from formal plantation labour to work their provision grounds or “polinks” (as distinct from the tiny plots or yards close to their houses).

References

^ Michael Craton, Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982, pp. 70, 344.^[1]
^ Benjamin Núñez, Dictionary of Afro-Latin American Civilization, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980, p. 387,^[2]

Anagrams

Koplin, Plinko

[1] Michael Craton, Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982, pp. 70, 344.^[1]

[2] Benjamin Núñez, Dictionary of Afro-Latin American Civilization, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980, p. 387,^[2]

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