In The Black Carib Wars, Christopher Taylor offers the most thoroughly
researched history of the struggle of the Garifuna people to preserve
their freedom on the island of St. Vincent.
Today, thousands of Garifuna people live in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala,
Nicaragua and the United States, preserving their unique culture and
speaking a language that directly descends from that spoken in the
Caribbean at the time of Columbus. All trace their origins back to St.
Vincent where their ancestors were native Carib Indians and shipwrecked
or runaway West African slaves--hence the name by which they were known
to French and British colonialists: Black Caribs.
In the 1600s they encountered Europeans as adversaries and allies. But
from the early 1700s, white people, particularly the French, began to
settle on St. Vincent. The treaty of Paris in 1763 handed the island to
the British who wanted the Black Caribs' land to grow sugar. Conflict
was inevitable, and in a series of bloody wars punctuated by uneasy
peace the Black Caribs took on the might of the British Empire. Over
decades leaders such as Tourouya, Bigot, and Chatoyer organized the
resistance of a society which had no central authority but united
against the external threat. Finally, abandoned by their French allies,
they were defeated, and the survivors deported to Central America in
1797.
The Black Carib Wars draws on extensive research in Britain, France,
and St. Vincent to offer a compelling narrative of the formative years
of the Garifuna people.
