Jamaican Lacebark: From Tree to Adornment

Steeve Buckridge
BCDSS Conference Keynote Speaker

Throughout much of the Caribbean island of Jamaica’s British colonial history, the fibrous lacebark tree (Lagetta lagetto) was known as the “wonder tree of Jamaica”[1] due to the many properties derived from its bark for use in industry, agriculture, and the home (fig. 1 + 2).

Fig. 1: Map of the Caribbean (map: A. Schüssler 2024, based on a template by S. Buckridge n. d.).

Introduction to Jamaican Lacebark

The most common use of lacebark was in the production of household items and clothing manufacture.[2] Many colonized and enslaved people in Jamaica who could not afford the cost of imported European and Indian textiles looked for affordable and more accessible clothing. Numerous enslaved people in Jamaica who came from bark-cloth-producing areas of West and Central Africa utilized their ethnobotanical knowledge to obtain plant materials for clothing from local forests. They acquired some knowledge of native plants from the indigenous people, the Taínos, and developed it further.[3] Beginning in the seventeenth century, many enslaved women in Jamaica began producing bark cloth for local trade and clothing manufacture. They produced bark cloth as their ancestors had done in Africa and they passed these skills down to their descendants. The most popular bark cloth produced in Jamaica was a form of natural lace from the lacebark tree called the Lagetta lagetto,[4] one of three species of the genus Lagetta, belonging to the Thymelaeaceae plant family.[5] In Jamaica, the tree is simply known as lacebark and the cloth obtained was called lacebark cloth.[6]

Fig. 3: Leaves of the lacebark tree (photo: D. Golembeski, n. d.).

Description of the Jamaican Lacebark Tree

The lacebark tree has laurel-like leaves of ovate shape and rounded at the base (fig. 3). The tree ranges in height from six to thirty-two feet, the trunk as wide as two feet, taking fifteen to twenty-five years to reach full maturity. The tree blossoms in April and May, and the flowers are white and produced in terminal racemes (fig. 4).[7] The lacebark tree grows in wet limestone forests far from the coast at an altitude above 1,500 feet, where the annual rainfall is over 75 inches. Within wet limestone forests, the lacebark tree grows on the hillsides where the soil is graded to bare rock on slopes that form part of the sub-canopy of the forest, which makes it challenging to access the tree for lacebark harvesting (fig. 5).[8]

Fig. 2: Specimens of the lacebark tree (Lagetta lagetto), together with a sample of lacebark cloth and a whip made using lacebark. Plate IV from William Hooker’s Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany, vol. II, 1850 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hooker-Lagetta_lagetto.jpg?uselang=de).

Fig. 4: Flowers of the lacebark tree ( Lagetta Lintearia) (photo: Curtis’s Botanical Magazine Volume 76, Page 4502 (1850), Biodiversity Heritage Library).

Fig. 5: Distribution of lacebark in Jamaica (map: A. Schüssler 2024, based on a template by S. Buckridge n. d.).

Harvesting Lacebark

The production of lacebark was not strenuous. The large branches and trunks of mature lacebark trees were cut for processing and narrow strips of bark were cut longitudinally from the bole of the tree. Often entire sections of the bark were removed, thus preventing the tree from regeneration and killing the tree. At times whole trees were cut down for their entire bark. The inner bark of the lacebark tree was of a fine texture, almost elastic, very strong, but could be divided into several thin filaments. The inner bark was soaked in water, then teased out with the fingers, thus spreading the lacy fibers more than five times wider than the original width of the bark strip. The fibers were then dried and stretched in the sunlight. The final product resembled lace or linen.

Uses of Jamaican Lacebark

Numerous enslaved and freed people in Jamaica found lacebark appealing. Lacebark clothing kept the body cool in the warm climate and was more accessible. Seamstresses found lacebark desirable because the lace could be dyed, and it was pliable, durable, and could be sewn into fashionable outfits for customers. Lacebark clothing reflected creativity and sophistication in dress design and style among Jamaican women. In addition to making dresses, lacebark was also used for clothing accessories such as bonnets, fans, wedding veils, shawls, and slippers overlaid with natural lace (fig. 6 + 7). Apart from clothing, lacebark was used to make doilies and runners to decorate tables and home furniture. Lacebark was used for window curtains and space dividers in the home and as a sieve during cooking. Natural lace was used as bandages and even as protective covering or mosquito nets for cradles.[9] In addition, lacebark was a great substitute when manufactured European lace was scarce or too expensive.[10] The lace produced was so exquisite and popular that Sir Thomas Lynch, Governor of Jamaica from 1671 to 1674, presented Charles II of England (1660–1685) with a cravat made of the material.[11] The event shed light on the informal lacebark industry and brought the sector some prestige and praise for black women’s superb craft skills.

Fig. 6: Lacebark bonnet from Jamaica, donated in 1833 by Marchioness Cornwallis, SAFWM: 183

Fig. 10: Lacebark dress, donated in 1833 by Marchioness Cornwallis (photo: S. Hilton-Smith, 2024, © Saffron Walden Museum, Essex).

Jamaican Lacebark Today

As ready-made European apparel and manufactured lace became more accessible and affordable in the post-emancipation period, the demand for lacebark clothing declined. Many freed black women chose not to wear lacebark because it was associated with slavery, poverty, and the lower classes. Others were lured and seduced by the abundance of imported fabrics that was once denied to them and the ease with which these items could now be purchased. Some freed Jamaican women embraced European imported fabrics as a means of elevating their status in the new Jamaican social order.[12]

Lacebark became unsustainable and by the late nineteenth century the lacebark industry collapsed as the tree had become scarce from overharvesting.In the 1890s, the emergence of a tourism industry in Jamaica led to revived interest in Jamaican lacebark for use in craft items for the tourist market. The natural lace also received some international recognition during the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, which highlighted Britain’s imperial power and celebrated the industrial achievements of all nations. Jamaica made its debut at the exhibition with a small exhibit of indigenous plant fibers and materials. During the exhibition, Queen Victoria was presented with an entire dress made from Jamaican lacebark.[13]

Despite the international recognition, the lack of oversight by the colonial authorities and local producers, plus poor harvesting methods, led to the depletion of lagetto trees from Jamaican forests. Today, the knowledge and the skill of making lacebark cloth has been lost. In fact, most Jamaicans, except for a few specialists, have never heard of lacebark. In recent years, several lacebark trees have been spotted in the Cockpit Forest region of Jamaica, but these trees are now threatened with extinction from mining and deforestation.[14] Although the future of the remaining lacebark trees is uncertain, the once vibrant lacebark industry is a fine example of an ethnobotanical tradition that transformed the lives of Jamaican people.

Footnotes

[1] Inez K. Sibley, “Jamaica’s Wonder Tree,” The Jamaican Gleaner, June 6, 1968.

[2] Sir Hans Sloane, A Voyage to the Islands of Madera, Barbados, Nevis, St. Christopher and Jamaica, with the Natural History of the Herbs and Trees, Four-Footed Beasts, Fishes, Birds, Insects, Reptiles, Etc. of the Last of Those Islands. 2 vols. (London: B.M., 1707-25, vol. 1, 131.)

[3] The skill of making hammocks was passed on to Africans by the early inhabitants.

[4] Long, The History of Jamaica, 3:858.

[5] C.D. Adams, Flowering Plant of Jamaica (Kingston: The University of the West Indies Press, 1972), 454.

[6] Additional names of the lacebark tree were obtained in interviews with Maroons, Accompong Town, July 2003 and July 2014.

[7] Adams, Flowering Plants of Jamaica, 454.

[8] G.F. Asprey and R.G. Robbins, “The Vegetation of Jamaica,” Ecological Monographs 23, no. 4 (Oct 1953): 384–85.

[9] Steeve Buckridge, African Lace-Bark in the Caribbean: The Construction of Race, Class and Gender (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2016), 75–78.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Georgina Pearman, “Plant Portraits” Economic Botany 54, no. 1 (Jan–Mar 2000): 4–6; Sloane, A Voyage to the Island of Madera, 2:22–23.

[12] Buckridge, African Lace-Bark, 119–121.

[13] B. Palliser, A History of Lace, 4^th ed. (London: Sampson Low, 1902).

[14] Owen B. Evelyn and Roland Camirand, “Forest Cover and Deforestation in Jamaica: An Analysis of Forest Cover Estimates Over Time,” International Forestry Review 5 (2003): 354–63.