Jamaicans

a nation (natsiia, nation in the historical sense) and the indigenous population of Jamaica. According to a 1977 estimate, there are 2 million Jamaicans. The overwhelming majority are Negroes and mulattoes; the former are descended from the Africans brought to the island as slaves, primarily between the 16th and early 19th centuries. After the mid-19th century, workers were brought from India and China to labor on the plantations; their descendants have for the most part intermingled with the Negro population. The majority of Jamaicans speak a creolized form of English. Most religious believers are Protestants, chiefly Anglicans or Baptists; many elements of African religions have been preserved.