Antigua and the Antiguans : A Full Account of the Colony and its Inhabitants

A two-volume portrait of the first two hundred years of Antiguan history since British colonisation. Memoirs, legends and documents are used to follow the British aristocrats who established the infrastructure of the island during colonisation and the rise of the slave trade, and show how Antigua's identity was shaped.

Antigua was named by Columbus in 1493, and permanently colonised by the British in 1632. The next two hundred years were full of upheaval that shaped the Caribbean island's identity: bloody battles, agricultural progress, British immigration and the establishment and then the abolition of the slave trade. The British-born author adopted Antigua as her home, and her love for the island is evident in both volumes. Legends, stories and particular island features of interest are introduced through the author's experiences and anecdotes, giving a full picture of Antigua at the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, when the island's population and landscape changed rapidly and irrevocably. Volume 2 focusses on the island's natural history and the customs, character and changing position in society of the Caribs and the imported black slave population. An overview of the changes during the period of the slave trade in the Caribbean.