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Following her father's death, Noel is drawn to a life of public service. After completing her education, she becomes a teacher for poor black children. As she gets closer to adulthood, however, she begins to dream of marriage, but feels torn between her personal desires and the needs of her students.
Becka's Buckra Baby (1904) is a novel by Thomas MacDermot.
About the author
Thomas MacDermot (1870-1933) was a Jamaican poet, novelist, and newspaper editor. Born in Clarendon Parish, he was raised in a family of five children in Trelawny. After receiving his education at Falmouth Academy and at the Church of England Grammar School in Kingston, he remained in the capital to teach and become a journalist. Starting at
The Jamaica Post and
The Daily Gleaner, he moved to the
Jamaica Times, where he would serve as editor for twenty years. In 1899, he launched a popular short story contest for young writers, helping further the careers of famed poet Claude McKay and journalist H. G. de Lisser. By 1903, he established
All Jamaica Library, a low-cost series of short fiction by Jamaican authors. MacDermot also wrote his own works of fiction under the anagrammatic penname "Tom Redcam."
Becka's Buckra Baby (1903) is considered a landmark of Jamaican literature and helped distinguish the Caribbean as a hotspot for modern writing. Following his death in England, MacDermot was posthumously appointed Jamaica's first Poet Laureate.
