When Banana Was King: The Jamaican Banana King In Jim Crow America

This work tells the legend of the banana king - the untold story of Alfred Constantine Goffe, Banana King of Jamaica. Few, including Jamaicans themselves, know anything about Alfred Constantine Goffe. Goffe, a black man, was an extraordinary figure. He was a hotelier, a shipping tycoon and a pioneer in the export of bananas and other fruit to the US in the late 19th and early 20th century. Amazingly, Goffe did this at a time when black people were only a few years removed from slavery. His own mother, Margaret, had been born a slave. Along with his brothers, Goffe helped make the Jamaican banana industry into the world leader in the early 20th century. His Lanasa and Goffe Steamship and Importing Company was among the first Jamaican firms to enter the international banana export trade and one of the last independent companies to remain in the field. Goffe was a controversial figure, loved by some and hated by many others. He was arrested in the US in 1908 and later charged with conspiring with the Mafia in the attempted murder of a banana rival. Years later in Jamaica, Goffe was on trial again, this time for the murder of a man who stole coconuts from one of his plantations.