Carib background The Carib people migrated from
South America to the Caribbean circa 1200, according to carbon dating of artifacts. According to
Taíno testimonies, the Kalinago largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated the Taíno who were resident on the islands at the time, as well as the earlier
Igneri.
17th century The French missionary
Raymond Breton arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, and lived in
Guadeloupe and
Dominica until 1653. He took ethnographic and linguistic notes on the native peoples of these islands, including
St. Vincent, which he visited briefly. Because the
Carib people resisted working as laborers to build and maintain the sugar and
cocoa plantations which the French began to develop in the Caribbean, in 1636,
Louis XIII proclaimed
La Traité des Noirs. This authorized the capture and purchase of
enslaved people from sub-Saharan Africa and their transportation as labor to
Martinique and other parts of the
French West Indies. According to Young's report, the Africans aboard the shipwrecked vessels, largely from the
Ibibio ethnic group of modern-day
Nigeria, survived the wreck and reached the island, living independently. Contrary to some historical accounts, these Africans were never enslaved and were not captured by the Caribs. Instead, they formed independent communities that gradually integrated with Indigenous peoples of the island. Over time, these Afro-Indigenous communities developed into the Garifuna people, a distinct cultural group with a unique language, traditions, and identity.
Modern historiography Several modern researchers have rejected the theory espoused by Young. According to them, most of the enslaved people who arrived in Saint Vincent actually came from other Caribbean islands, and had settled in Saint Vincent in order to escape slavery, therefore Maroons came from plantations on nearby islands. Although most of the enslaved people came from
Barbados After arriving on the island, they were taken in by the Caribs, who offered them protection, assisted them and, eventually mixed with them. In addition to the African refugees, the Caribs captured enslaved people from neighboring islands (although they also had white people and their fellow Caribs as enslaved people), while they were fighting against the British and the French. Many of the captured enslaved people were integrated into their communities (this also occurred in islands such as Dominica). After the African rebellion against the Caribs, and their escape to the mountains, over time, according to Itarala, Africans 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. Conversely,
Sebastian R. Cayetano argues that "Africans were married with women Caribs of the islands, giving birth to the Garifuna". According to
Charles Gullick some Caribs mixed peacefully with the Maroons and some not, creating two factions, that of the Black Caribs and that of the Yellow Caribs, who fought on more than one occasion in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. According to Itarala, many intermarried between Indigenous and African people, which was that which caused the origin of the Black Caribs. In 1748, Britain and France agreed to put aside their claims and declared Saint Vincent to be a neutral island, under no European sovereignty. Throughout this period, however, unofficial, mostly French settlement took place on the island, especially on the Leeward side. African escapees continued to reach Saint Vincent, and a mixed-race population developed through unions with the Carib. 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. 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. 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 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. After settling in the Honduras, they expanded along 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 denominate in the mainland of Central America as "Garifuna".
19th century Large-scale sugar production and chattel slavery were not established on Saint Vincent until the British assumed control. As the United Kingdom
abolished slavery in 1833, it operated it for roughly a generation on the island, creating a legacy different from on other Caribbean islands. Elsewhere, slavery had been institutionalized for much longer. ==Language==