BUILDING HISTORY
Photo credit: ACP
Caribbean Blacks Built the Panama Canal By Kristen Jones
8
BAVUAL:
The African Heritage Magazine
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
In 1904, construction began on the Panama Canal, which was completed in 1914. The brainchild of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who engineered a revolution to create the country of Panama in order to accomplish the feat, it connected the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, saving sailors about 8,000 miles of travel. The canal was intended to reduce the distance, cost and time for ships to transport cargo between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Before its existence, ships would have to go around nearly the entire continent of South America and through the Strait of Magellan in Argentina and Chile. Black labor was used to complete the daunting task because of the endurance shown by Afro-West Indians in the construction of railroads and other projects in Bocas del Toro, Panama, and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. According to Panamanian author Francisco Marrero Lobinot, many of the West Indians who arrived in Panama during these years were from the French Antilles of Martinique and
| Spring 2022
