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Early this morning it was wet, so our planned trip to Nevis was postponed. We decided to stay in St. Kitts and explore the Atlantic coast.

Sugar, rebellion, a pyroclastic flow and a missing Lion

Dorian Speakman
2006-02-23 14:04:23

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4 February Saturday

Early this morning it was wet, so our planned trip to Nevis was postponed. We decided to stay in St. Kitts and explore the Atlantic coast.

The air outside soon warmed up, and we dropped off the bikes at the bike shop. Firstly we visited the St. Kitts museum which has a very good description of the islands’s history.

Initially, the Carib chief of St Kitts had welcomed the British, but had apparently got nervous once the incomers totalled 80. The British and French settlers had heard of a plan to drive them off the islands and went on a bloody massacre of just about all the native inhabitants at Bloody Point. Though it didn’t stop a certain Sir Thomas Warner, leader of the settlers, having a son by one of the native women.

The processing of sugar cane was introduced by Jews emigrating from persecution (as usual) from Brazil. Seeing this as a golden opportunity, the British tried to bring in their own servants from Britain to harvest sugar cane, but the work was too hot and arduous. As a result they turned their attention to very cheap labour - slaves from West Africa. A very large proportion did not survive the first year or so on the plantations, and many had not survived the appalling conditions on the slave ships. But the plantation owners got extremely rich, as there was huge demand for sugar.

To protect that wealth, a policy of brutality was meted to stamp out any form of resistance from the slaves. Torture by burning of the body from toe to the head was one method. The plantation owners carried out a policy of divide and rule on a social structure based on status (owners, poor whites, mixed races, slaves).

However, some slaves did manage to escape and one band hid in the mountain forests and carried out periodic raids on the plantations. They were eventually hunted down by soldiers, but their leader had a reputation for invincibility as it took many attempts to shoot him (even ...