Within a few months of their conversation, the British government had put Jamaica under martial law and ordered the destruction of the foundry. Cort’s cousin told him how a Maroon named Kwasi had killed Three Finger Jack after taking the name of the owner of a major foundry, where black metallurgists had discovered a way to convert scrap into valuable new metal and huge profits. The banker-turned ironmaster was facing bankruptcy when his cousin, a West Indies ship’s master, arrived in Portsmouth with the latest news from Jamaica. Instead of making a profit he found himself surrounded by scrap and no way of working it up without making a loss. Cort had thought he would make an easy profit, but these hopes were dashed when he realised he had agreed to accept the Admiralty’s rusted scrap and exchange it for new metal. In fact, it was through the death of Three Finger Jack that Henry Cort first heard about the Jamaican foundry.Ĭort was a banker who had recently taken over an ironworks in Portsmouth, England, laying out a lot of money to win a contract to supply the Navy dockyard there. Their innovation and skill made John Reeder, the British enslaver who owned the foundry, an annual profit equivalent to 1,423 million Jamaican dollars in 2020.Īmong the Jamaicans who developed the process were enslaved men, Devonshire Mingo Mingo’s son Friday Captain Jack Matt George Jemmy Jackson Will Bob Guy Kofi (Cuffee) and a Windward Maroon called Kwasi (Quashie) from the original Nanny Town, the same Kwasi who killed the legendary freedom-fighter, Three Finger Jack, in 1781. They fed the bundles through grooved rollers like those only found in sugar mills and through this process ingeniously transformed scrap iron into cannon, sugar rollers and ships’ metal. But these Jamaicans were unbothered by European conventions. In the European tradition, smooth rollers were used to roll metal, and grooved rollers were used to crush sugar cane. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. They tied plantation scrap iron into bundles and heated the bundles in a furnace where the fuel is kept separate from the metal. These Jamaicans took inspiration from the way many West and West-Central African societies bundled iron blades as currency, and from the work of bundling sugar cane. For them and for other Jamaicans of African heritage, the skill to turn European scrap into useful tools, weapons, and objects of art and beauty was very important. Many of these Jamaicans were born in Africa and abducted from some of the most significant iron-working cultures in world history. It’s been called one of the 10-most-important innovations in the making of the modern world, but now new research has shown that the so-called “Cort process” was first developed in the 1770s by 76 black Jamaicans in a foundry just west of Morant Bay, Jamaica. Modern civilisation, I need not remind you, is due in no inconsiderable degree to cheap wrought iron and we owe cheap wrought iron to Henry Cort.” The Times newspaper told its readers to thank the “Cort process” for raising British manufacturers “to the position of millionaires”, while the Royal Society’s leading metals expert declared: “It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the effect of Cort’s invention upon the material interests of this country and I may add of the world. If you choose to do business with this business, please let the business know that you contacted BBB for a BBB Business Profile.Īs a matter of policy, BBB does not endorse any product, service or business.By the mid-19th century, the profits made from the innovation had helped transform Britain into a global power. BBB Business Profiles are subject to change at any time. When considering complaint information, please take into account the company's size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.īBB Business Profiles generally cover a three-year reporting period. However, BBB does not verify the accuracy of information provided by third parties, and does not guarantee the accuracy of any information in Business Profiles. BBB asks third parties who publish complaints, reviews and/or responses on this website to affirm that the information provided is accurate. BBB Business Profiles may not be reproduced for sales or promotional purposes.īBB Business Profiles are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment.
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