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By Eugenia O’Neal
If the remains of the Amerindian village unearthed at Belmont, West End, are anything to go by, the early inhabitants of what became the British Virgin Islands had a good life.
Successive waves of Amerindians are thought to have made their way up from South America and settled in various parts of Tortola — and the archaeological finds at Belmont reveal the rich complexity of the life they made in this area. A cassava griddle, zemis (religious artefacts), clay pots and more are a powerful testimony of the villagers’ lives — but it is the evidence of a ball court, a site of deep religious significance, that reveals just how important Belmont was.
When Christopher Columbus passed through the islands on his second voyage in 1493, he named them Las Vírgenes (the Virgins) in honour of the story of St. Ursula, said to have been martyred along with her 11,000 attendants by the Huns. St. Ursula is now depicted holding a lamp on the national flag of the Virgin Islands. Each of the other 11 lamps around her represents 1,000 of the virgin maids.
Columbus never stopped to explore, but he wasn’t the only one to see the islands as little more than beautiful watering holes. Sir John Hawkins sailed through in 1563 on his way to Hispaniola, and Sir Francis Drake launched his ill-fated attack on the rich Spanish colony of Puerto Rico from Virgin Gorda, sailing through the channel that now bears his name in 1595.
Almost a century passed before a hardy and determined band of Dutch settlers arrived in 1649 and established small cotton, coffee and indigo plantations. The English drove them out in 1665, but they returned only to be evicted again in 1672 by their old nemeses. This time, the English asserted their claim and the islands never changed hands again.
By the mid-1700s, much of the indigenous vegetation had been cut down and rolling waves of sugarcane covered the land. The Europeans brought in thousands and thousands of African men, women and children to cultivate the lands. The industry and labour of those who survived the Middle Passage built the forts that soon dotted Tortola. Fort Burt in Road Town, Fort Charlotte overlooking the harbour, and “The Dungeon” at Pockwood Pond are among the best known, but the ruins of several others can still be found.
The small territory flourished, drawing many to its shores. The first of the major religious sects to arrive were the Quakers — the Society of Friends — many of whom soon realized they had no stomach for slavery and freed their slaves. (Several prominent Quakers such as Thomas Chalkley and John Estaugh are buried in the Quaker Burial Ground in Fat Hog’s Bay.) The Church of England began services in 1745 — but it was the Methodists, arriving last in 1789, who went on to have the greatest influence among the black population. Hundreds joined the Methodist church, and scores of men and women rose to become leaders of the various congregations scattered around Tortola and the other islands.
On 1 August, 1834, when the British abolished slavery, 1,944 men and 2,207 women were freed. Emancipation is now celebrated with an annual parade on the first Monday of August. The remains of the great sugar estates can still be seen in several places, most notably at Mount Healthy on Tortola and Nail Bay on Virgin Gorda.
The majority of the former slaves chose to work for themselves and left the plantations in droves. By 1845, only 900 men and women were working on the 30 sugar estates still functioning on Tortola.
The economy plunged into the doldrums, as sugar prices dropped and a series of hurricanes devastated the islands. In 1853, the passage of a bill to raise the cattle tax struck the match to the cinder and Road Town went up in flames, destroyed by rioters protesting their taxes. (The building opposite the Road Town Methodist Church once had copper-sheathed doors and windows, and was dubbed The Fireproof after it survived the fire.)
By 1859, only 201 Europeans were left. The passage of the West Indies Encumbered Estates Act in 1864, which allowed for the sale of encumbered estates, sounded the death knell for plantation society in the British Virgin Islands. Thousands of acres passed into black hands, and most of the remaining Europeans departed.
From then on, the former slaves and their descendants concentrated on farming and fishing. Ignored by the colonial officials across the Atlantic, the islanders quietly set about forming a society founded on self-reliance and independence. Though hundreds left to find work on the sugar plantations of the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands), the ones who stayed behind were able to grow enough fruits and vegetables to feed not only themselves but also to export to neighbouring islands.
In the 1920s, W. C. Fishlock, an enterprising agricultural official sent out from Great Britain, encouraged the production of Sea Island cotton and established a cotton ginnery on the grounds of a former sugar estate. The building has now been restored as the Lower Estate Sugar Works and is open to visitors five days a week. Besides cotton, other exports included pimentos, aloes, turtle shells (now prohibited), limejuice, ginger and indigo.
Islanders continued to migrate in high numbers, however, until the 1960s, when tourism suddenly became the Territory’s primary money earner. A change in the constitution restored representative government to the islands (removed in the late 1800s), and the local politicians concentrated on improving infrastructure and on attracting investment. Their gambit paid off. Developers, including Laurance Rockefeller, grew interested in the sleepy Virgins; by the early 1970s, several marinas, hotels and resorts had opened their doors. Construction and tourism took off, and the islands haven’t looked back since.
In 1984, the International Business Companies Act was passed, jumpstarting the offshore financial industry, and the Territory is now a leading business centre, recognized around the world for its probity.
New developments planned for some of the smaller of the Virgin Islands, like Mosquito, and the expansion of many of the existing big players in tourism, like the Moorings, guarantee the Territory’s continuing growth, even as environmental awareness has resulted in a necessary rethinking of tourism objectives.
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If the remains of the Amerindian village unearthed at Belmont, West End, are anything to go by, the early inhabitants of what became the British Virgin Islands had a good life.
Columbus never stopped to explore, but he wasn’t the only one to see the islands as little more than beautiful watering holes. Sir John Hawkins sailed through in 1563 on his way to Hispaniola, and Sir Francis Drake launched his ill-fated attack on the rich Spanish colony of Puerto Rico from Virgin Gorda, sailing through the channel that now bears his name in 1595.
The small territory flourished, drawing many to its shores. The first of the major religious sects to arrive were the Quakers — the Society of Friends — many of whom soon realized they had no stomach for slavery and freed their slaves. (Several prominent Quakers such as Thomas Chalkley and John Estaugh are buried in the Quaker Burial Ground in Fat Hog’s Bay.) The Church of England began services in 1745 — but it was the Methodists, arriving last in 1789, who went on to have the greatest influence among the black population. Hundreds joined the Methodist church, and scores of men and women rose to become leaders of the various congregations scattered around Tortola and the other islands.
By 1859, only 201 Europeans were left. The passage of the West Indies Encumbered Estates Act in 1864, which allowed for the sale of encumbered estates, sounded the death knell for plantation society in the British Virgin Islands. Thousands of acres passed into black hands, and most of the remaining Europeans departed.
Islanders continued to migrate in high numbers, however, until the 1960s, when tourism suddenly became the Territory’s primary money earner. A change in the constitution restored representative government to the islands (removed in the late 1800s), and the local politicians concentrated on improving infrastructure and on attracting investment. Their gambit paid off. Developers, including Laurance Rockefeller, grew interested in the sleepy Virgins; by the early 1970s, several marinas, hotels and resorts had opened their doors. Construction and tourism took off, and the islands haven’t looked back since.
