After 1655, when the English settled on the island, they concentrated on developing large sugar cane plantations with enslaved African workers.

[citation needed] St Elizabeth was the first parish to have electric power, where it was first introduced in a house called Waterloo in Black River in 1893.

The parish is located at latitude 18°15'N, and longitude 77°56'W; to the west of Manchester, to the east of Westmoreland, and to the south of St. James and Trelawny.

It reappears briefly in several surrounding towns, but reemerges near Balaclava and tumbles down gorges to the plain known as the Savannah, through the Great Morass and to the sea at Black River, the capital of the parish.

Mineral deposits include bauxite, antimony, white limestone, clay, peat and silica sand, which is used to manufacture glass.

The Meskito (corrupted to ‘Mosquito’) Indians brought to Jamaica to help capture the Maroons, were allowed to settle in southern St. Elizabeth in return for their assistance and given land grants in this parish.

This parish has also attracted Dutch, Spanish, Indian, Maroon, mulatto, English, and European inhabitants from the 17th century onwards, with the result that many observers feel that it has more people of mixed-race ancestry than can be found in any other part of the island.

In the 19th century Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, Scottish, Germans, Chinese, and East Indians migrated to Saint Elizabeth.

Port Kaiser, near a town called Alligator Pond, has a leading deep-water pier for bauxite export.

The parish also cultivates crops such as cassava, corn, peas, beans, pimento, ginger, tobacco, tomato, rice sweet potatoes and coffee.