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Black Carib
Depiction of treaty negotiations between Black Caribs and British authorities on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, 1773.
Upon arrival of the Europeans, the island of St. Vincent was populated by the indigenous Black Carib. It is said that the Black Carib were also excellent fishermen.
William Young's version
After the arrival of the English to St. Vincent in 1667, English Army officer John Scott wrote a report on the island for the English crown, noting that St. Vincent was populated by Caribs and a small amount of Blacks from two Spanish slave ships which had wrecked on its shores. Later, in 1795, the British governor of St. Vincent, William Young, noted in another report, addressed to the British Crown, that the island was populated by Black slaves from two Spanish slave ships that had sunk near the island of San Vincent in 1635 (although according other authors as Idiáquez, the two slave ships wrecked between 1664 and 1670). The slave ships were destined to the West Indies (Bahamas and Antilles). According to Young's report, after the wreck, slaves from the Igbo ethnic group from modern-day Nigeria, escaped and reached the small island of Bequia. There, the Caribs enslaved them and brought them to Saint Vincent. However, according to Young, the slaves were too independent of "spirit", prompting the Caribs to make plans to kill all the African male children. When Africans heard about the Caribs' plan, they rebelled and killed all the Caribs they could find, then headed to the mountains, where they settled and lived with other slaves who had taken refuge there before them. From the mountains, the former slaves attacked and killed the Caribs continually, reducing them in number.[3]
Current version
Several modern researchers have rejected the theory espoused by Young. According to them, most of the slaves arrived in Saint Vincent came, actually, from other Caribbean islands, who had settled in Saint Vincent in order to escape slavery in other islands. So, to Saint Vincent, came Maroons from all surrounding plantations from the islands, but were diluted in the strong culture of resistance Caribbean.[4] Although most of the slaves came from Barbados[3] (most of the slaves of this island were of present Nigeria and Ghana), but slaves also came from places like St. Lucia (where slaves were probably from the present Senegal, Nigeria, Angola (Ambundu) and Akan people) and Grenada (where there were many slaves from Guineas, Sierra Leone, Nigeria (specifically Igbo), Angolans, Yoruba, Kongo and Ghana). The Bajans and Saint Lucians arrived on the island in pre-1735 dates. Later, after 1775, most of the slaves who came running from other islands were Saint Lucians and Grenadians.[5] After arriving at the island, they were received by the Caribs, who offered protection,[6] enslaved them [7] and, eventually, mixed with them.
In addition to the African refugees, the Caribs captured slaves from neighboring islands (although they also had white people and their fellow Caribs as slaves), while they were in fighting against the British and French. Many of the captured slaves were integrated into their communities (this also occurred in islands like Dominica). After the African rebellion against the Caribs, and their escape to the mountains, over time, according to Itarala, the Africans from the mountains would come down from the mountains to have sexual intercourse with Amerindian women - perhaps because most Africans were men - or to search for other kinds of food.[6] The sexual intercourse did not necessarily lead to marriage. On the other hand, if the Maroons abducted to Arauaco-Caribbean women or married them, is another of the contradictions between the French documents and memory of the Garinagu. Andrade Coelho states that "whatever the case, the Caribs never consented to give their daughters in marriage to blacks".[8] Conversely, Sebastian R. Cayetano, argues that "Africans were married with women Caribs of the islands, giving birth to the Garifuna".[9] According to Charles Gullick some Caribs were mixed peacefully with the Maroons and some not, creating two factions, that of the Black Caribs and the Yellow Caribs, who fought on more than one occasion in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth.[10] According to Itarala, many intermarried between indigenous and African people, was which caused the origin of the Black Caribs.[6]
One datum in favour of the idea of Gullick is the physical separation between black Caribs and Yellow Caribs in the late 17th century. Perhaps because of its numerical dominance, the black community pushed the Yellow Caribs towards the leeward side of the island, staying them with the most flat and fertile part (but also more liable to be attacked from the sea) of windward. It also seems true that in 1700 the Yellows asked the intervention of the French against the Black Caribs, however, when visualized they should share their scarce land, preferred to give up the alliance.[11]
Carib wars
Joseph Chatoyer, the chief of the Black Caribs in St. Vincent, in an 1801 engraving.
When in 1627 the English began to claim the St. Vincent island, they opposed the French settlements (which had started around 1610 by cultivating plots) and its partnerships with the Caribs. Over time, tensions began to arise between the Caribs and the Europeans. The governor of the English part of the island, William Young, complained that the Black Caribs had the best land and they had no right to live there. Moreover, the friendship of the French settlers with the Black Caribs, drove them, even though they had also tried to stay with San Vicente, tried to support them in their struggle. All this caused the "War Caribbean". The First Carib War began in 1769. Led primarily by Black Carib chieftain Joseph Chatoyer, the Caribs successfully defended the windward side of the island against a military survey expedition in 1769, and rebuffed repeated demands that they sell their land to representatives of the British colonial government. The effective defense of the Caribs, the British ignorance of the region and London opposition to the war made this be halted. With military matters at a stalemate, a peace agreement was signed in 1773 that delineated boundaries between British and Carib areas of the island.[6] The treaty delimited the area inhabited by the Caribs, and demanded repayment of the British and French plantations of runaway slaves who took refuge in St. Vincent. This last clause, and the prohibition of trade with neighbouring islands, so little endeared the Caribs. Three years later, the French supported American independence (1776-1783);[12] the Caribs aligned against the British. Apparently, in 1779 the Caribs inspired such terror to the British that surrender to the French was preferable than facing the Caribs in battle.[13]
Later, in 1795, the Caribs again rebelled against British control of the island, causing the Second Carib War. Despite the odds being against them, the Caribs successfully gained control of most of the island except for the immediate area around Kingstown, which was saved from direct assault on several occasions by the timely arrival of British reinforcements. British efforts to penetrate and control the interior and windward areas of the island were repeatedly frustrated by incompetence, disease, and effective Carib defences, which were eventually supplemented by the arrival of some French troops. A major military expedition by General Ralph Abercromby was eventually successful in defeating the Carib opposition in 1796.
After the war was concluded and the Caribs surrendered, the British authorities decided to deport the Caribs of St. Vincent to Roatan. This was done to avoid the Caribs causing more slave revolts in St. Vincent. In 1797, the Caribs with African features were chosen to be deported as they were considered the cause of the revolt, and originally exported them to Jamaica, and then they were transported to the island of Roatan in Honduras. Meanwhile, the Black Caribs with higher Amerindian traits were allowed to remain on the island. More than 5,000 Black Caribs were deported, but when the deportees landed on Roatan on April 12, 1797, only about 2,500 had survived the trip to the islands. Since that this was too small and infertile a number to maintain the population, the Black Caribs asked the Spanish authorities of Honduras to be allowed to live on land. The Spanish are allowed to change the use them as soldiers. After settling in the Honduran coast, they were expanded by the Caribbean coast of Central America, coming to Belize and Guatemala to the north, and the south to Nicaragua. Over time, the Black Caribs would be denominated in the mainland of Central America as "Garifuna". This word, according to Gonzalez (2008, p.Xv), derived from "Kalinago", the name by which were designated by Spanish peoples when found them in the Lesser Antilles on arrival in the region since 1492.[3]
Demography
In 1805, the remaining Black Caribs in Morne Ronde on St. Vincent numbered 16 men, 9 women, and 20 children, although others remained on the island in hiding after the deportations of 1797.[14]:166[15] The 1844 census of St. Vincent listed 273 Black Caribs.[14]:166 The 1960 census listed 1,265 Black Caribs in St. Vincent.[14]:166 In 1984, anthropologist Michael Crawford estimated that 1,100–2,000 Black Caribs resided in St. Vincent.[16]:3
As of 2011, the Black Caribs make up 2% of the population of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.[citation needed] The Black Caribs currently have their villages flanking the volcano.[citation needed]
African origins of the Black Caribs
It is likely that the document was written for Young was written for expel Black Caribs rebels because in reality, we know that no slave ship came to the island ever directly from Africa. (nor did any of the dozens of registered vessels that crashed between 1630 and 1680 crash into the island or anywhere close. All of those registered vessels were marked "triumphant" and crashed during those years.) We also know that slave ships that came to the Americas were laden with slaves from different areas and ethnic groups from Africa with their own languages, to try to prevent slaves from speaking to each other and riot or revolt, which would endanger slavery. The slaves did not come from a single village, as Young tried to convince.
So, according to some authors, basing on oral tradition of the Black Caribs and Garifuna, they are descendants of Caribbeans with the African origins Efik (Nigeria-Cameroon residents), Ibo (Nigerian), Fons (residents between Benin - Nigeria), Ashanti (from Ashanti Region, in central Ghana), Yoruba (resident in Togo, Benin, Nigeria) and Kongo (resident in Gabon, Congo, DR Congo and Angola), obtained in the coastal regions of West and Central Africa by Spanish and Portuguese traders of slaves. These slaves were trafficked to other Caribbean islands, from where emigrated or were captured (they or their descendants) to Saint Vincent.[17]
In this way, the anthropologist and Garifuna historian Belizean Sebastian R. Cayetano says African ancestors of the Garifuna are ethnically West African "specifically of the Yoruba, Ibo, and Ashanti tribes, in what is now Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, to mention only a few."[18] To Roger Bastide, the Garifuna almost inaccessible fortress of Northeast Saint Vincent integrated constantly to Yoruba, Fon, Fanti-Ashanti and Kongo fugitives.[19] These African origins are true at least in the masculine gender. For the female gender, the origins comes from the union of black slaves with Caribs.[17] Based on 18th-century English documents, Ruy Galvao de Andrade Coelho suggests that came from Nigeria, Gold Coast, Dahomey, Congo "and other West African regions".[20]
At the beginning of the 18th century the population in Saint Vincent was already mostly black and although during this century there were extensive mixtures and black people and Carib Indians, they kept the existence of a ″racially pure″ Caribbean group, which was called Red Caribs to differentiate the Black Caribs.[3]
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, often simply referred to as Saint Vincent, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.
This article is about the demographics of the population of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, including population density, ethnicity, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The Kalinago, also known as the Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated language known as Island Carib. They also spoke a pidgin language associated with the Mainland Caribs.
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains. Its largest volcano and the country's highest peak, La Soufrière, is active, with the latest episode of volcanic activity having begun in December 2020 and intensifying in April 2021.
The Garifuna people, are a mixed African and indigenous people who are descended from the Black Caribs, who lived on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language.
Roatán is an island in the Caribbean, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) off the northern coast of Honduras. It is located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, and is the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras. The island was formerly known in English as Ruatan and Rattan.
Utila(Isla de Utila) is the smallest of Honduras' major Bay Islands, after Roatán and Guanaja, in a region that marks the south end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second-largest in the world.
Joseph Chatoyer, also known as Satuye, was a Garifuna (Carib) chief who led a revolt against the British colonial government of Saint Vincent in 1795. Killed that year, he is now considered a national hero of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and also of Belize and Costa Rica. Vincentian politician Camillo Gonsalves described him in 2011 as his country's "sole national hero".
Garifuna (Karif) is a minority language widely spoken in villages of Garifuna people in the western part of the northern coast of Central America.
Baliceaux is a small, privately owned Caribbean island and is one of the Grenadines chain of islands which lie between the larger islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada. Politically, it is part of the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Belizeans are people associated with the country of Belize through citizenship or descent. Belize is a multiethnic country with residents of African, Amerindian, European and Asian descent or any combination of those groups.
The Capture of Saint Vincent was a French invasion that took place between 16 and 18 June 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. A French force commander named Charles-Marie de Trolong du Rumain landed on the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies and quickly took over much of the British-controlled part of the island, assisted by local Black Caribs who held the northern part of the island.
Afro-Guatemalans are Guatemalans of African descent. Afro-Guatemalans comprise 1-2% of the population. They are of mainly English-speaking West Indian (Antillean) and Garifuna origin. They are found in the Caribbean coast, in Livingston, Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomas. During the colonial period, African slaves were brought in, but have mixed with the general population and can be referred to them as Afro-mestizos. So, due to miscegenation, the majority of black people became in Mulatto and Zambo and these in turn became in Quadroon and Cambujos. Due to centuries of miscegenation, Afro-Guatemalans today form part of the country's mixed race, non-indigenous ladino population.
Afro-Nicaraguans are Nicaraguans of African descent in Nicaragua. They make up 9% of the population and they're the largest group of African descent in in Central America. Numbering almost 600,000, according to the CIA factbook (2011), they primarily live on the southeastern coast, the Mosquito Coast, Bluefields and Managua. Creoles are from the Anglo-Caribbean and speak a dialect of Jamaican patois known as Miskito Coast Creole. Nicaragua also has a Garifuna population.
Afro-Hondurans or Black Hondurans, are Hondurans of African descent. They descended from Africans, who were enslaved from the West Indies and identified as Garifunas and Creole peoples. The Creole people were originally from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, while the Garifuna people were originally from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Garifunas arrived in the late seventeen hundreds and the Creole peoples arrived during the eighteen hundreds.
The Second Carib War (1795–1797) took place on the island of Saint Vincent between 1795 and 1797. The conflict pitted large numbers of British military forces against a coalition of Black Carib, runaway slaves, and French forces for control of the island.
Garifuna Americans or Black Carib Americans are Americans of Garifuna descent with origins from Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. They trace their ancestry to the Garifuna, who were descendents of Arawak, Kalinago, and Afro-Caribbean people living in Saint Vincent.
Afro-Vincentians or Black Vincentians are Vincentians whose ancestry lies within Sub-Saharan Africa.
Vincentian nationality law is regulated by the Saint Vincent Constitution Order of 1979, as amended; the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Citizenship Act of 1984, and its revisions; and various British Nationality laws. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Vincentian nationality is typically obtained either on the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to parents with Vincentian nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalisation. There is not currently a program in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for persons to acquire nationality through investment in the country. Nationality establishes one's international identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, for rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the commonwealth, have traditionally used the words interchangeably.
1 2 3 4 Marshall, Bernard (December 1973). "The Black Caribs — Native Resistance to British Penetration Into the Windward Side of St. Vincent 1763-1773". Caribbean Quarterly. 19 (4): 4–19. doi:10.1080/00086495.1973.11829167. JSTOR23050239.
↑ Charles Gullick, Myths of a minority, Assen: Van Gorcum, 1985.
↑ David K. Fieldhouse. Los imperios coloniales desde el siglo XVIII (in Spanish: Colonial Empires since the 18th century). Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1984, page 36.
↑ Gullick, C. J. M. R. (1984). "The changing Vincentian Carib population". In Crawford, Michael H. (ed.). Current Developments in Anthropological Genetics. Black Caribs A Case Study in Biocultural Adaptation. 3. Springer-Verlag. pp.37–50. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-2649-6. ISBN978-1-4613-2649-6.
↑ Crawford, Michael H. (1984). "Problems and Hypotheses: An Introduction". In Crawford, Michael H. (ed.). Current Developments in Anthropological Genetics. Black Caribs A Case Study in Biocultural Adaptation. 3. Springer-Verlag. pp.1–9. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-2649-6. ISBN978-1-4613-2649-6.
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