1. BRIEF HISTORY OF ST. KITTS Context for our country

2. A little back story to St. Kitts  Native population: Arawaks and Caribs  Named by: Christopher Columbus in 1493.  There is some doubt as to whether he named the island after himself, or after the patron saint of travelers, St. Christopher QUESTION:  Did Christopher Columbus colonize St. Kitts?

3. What’s the deal with St. Kitts?  For centuries, St. Kitts occupied a critical position in the European struggle for the islands of the West Indies, which were rich with sugar plantations and were considered the gateway to the Caribbean. As a result, the struggles and conflicts in and around St. Kitts shaped much of the history of the entire Caribbean.

4. First Settlers and Bloody Point  1623- Englishman Sir Thomas Warner brought his family and 14 other to inhabit the island. They arrived at what is now known as Sandy point.  Less than 2 years later- Pierre Belain d'Esnambue led a small group of French settlers to the island.  Within a year- early violence erupted and wiped out the entire native population of Arawaks and Caribs. It was an out and out massacre at what is now Bloody Point.  Once the English and French had the island to themselves, they could expand their sugar and tobacco plantations at will, and began bringing in African people to serve as slaves.  The main reason for the great influence of people of Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean itself.

5. Slavery  The labor intensive cultivation of sugar cane was the main reason for the large- scale importation of African slaves.  Most of the slaves in St. Kitts originated from West Africa  The importation began almost immediately with the arrival of the British and French, and was particularly heightened when the primary industry changed from tobacco to sugar cane in 1640.  The purchasing of slaves was abolished by an act of parliament which became law on August 1, 1834, but there was a 4 year apprenticeship put in place to protect planters from losing their labor force.  This day is now know as Emancipation Day.

6. Slavery  Some of the Europeans obtained slaves from black Africans who continued to sell their war captives or trade them goods  The slave trade took several triangular routes. Over one route, ships from Europe transported manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa.  There, traders exchanged the goods for slaves. Next, the slaves were carried across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies and sold for huge profits. This part of the route was called the Middle Passage. The traders used much of their earnings to buy sugar, coffee, and tobacco in the West Indies. The ships then took these products to Europe.  Many other slaves, of course, were kept in the West Indies for the purpose of working the sugar cane plantations  More than 10 million Africans were enslaved between the 1500s and 1800s.

7. Slavery  Africans were taken from all over the African continent, but especially from West Africa and Angola. They were gathered at points along the Western coast to be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. One of the principal points for shipment was Goree Island off the coast of Senegal. Nigeria 24% Angola 24% Ghana 16% Senegal/Gambia 13% Guinea-Bissau 11% Sierra Leone 6% Other 6%

8. A direct effect of slavery- Vervet Monkeys?  It is not known if slaves were brought directly from Africa to St.Kitts or first to other islands and subsequently dispersed. No doubt both routes were used. This detail may be important, for if monkeys followed slaves and plantation owners from island to island, one would reason that a hearty monkey arrived in St.Kitts, one which had been able to withstand the rigors of original capture, a long Atlantic trip, adaptation to a new environment, recapture, a short trip to St Kitts, and again adaptation to a new environment.

9. Monkeys  In 1700, Father Labat a French priest visited St.Kitts, and he was the first person to report the existence of monkeys on the island. According to Labat, the monkeys were already ‘wild’ and well established at the time of his visit. Labat also reports that they escaped from the homes of French settlers during one of the local wars between the English and the French, which suggest they had been pets and that the French were primarily responsible for their presence.

10.  That the St. Kitts Vervet was brought from West Africa seems highly likely for several reasons. One is that the Caribbean slave trade was essentially limited to West African coast during the mid-17th century. Another reason is found in the recent studies in the geographical distribution of this animal.