In April 1938, the Poor Man’s Improvement and Land Settlement Association sent a petition to the Governor of Jamaica demanding a minimum wage for agricultural workers and peasants, and to bring an end to exploitation by the landowner, Lord Penrhyn, who managed his properties through agents in Jamaica from his home at Penrhyn Castle in North Wales.

Chaired by Robert Rumble, the campaign succeeded in causing the plantation-owning family to sell to a Jamaican, who then sold it to the Jamaican Government, which then arranged to sell land packages to local people.

Eighty-five years on, the Pennants Local History Project in association with the Jamaica Wales Alliance is holding an online conference to mark the event. It will take place on Friday 21 April – the day on which the petition was submitted – and all with an interest are invited to participate. Titled ‘The 85th Anniversary of Robert Rumble and the PMILSA Petition Submission to the Governor of Jamaica’, the event will be number 101 in series 9 of Black History Conversations.

The event is supported by a grant from the Society for the Study of Labour History. Find out more about SSLH grants.

Presenters / speakers invited include:

• Members of the Pennants CDC Local History Research Group
• Community researchers from the Jamaica Wales Alliance
• Professor Anthony Bogues – Brown University
• Jose Andres Fernandes Montez de Oca – University of Costa Rica
• Bernard Jankee – Jamaica Memory Bank
• A Henry George Foundation representative
• Elen Simpson – University of Bangor Archives
• And a welcome by the Custos of Clarendon

The conference begins at 3pm in the UK and 9am in Jamaica (organisers request that you join from 2.30pm/8.30am for introductions and updates). Join the meeting on Zoom.
Meeting ID: 864 1393 3927  Passcode: 998742    

Register online here.