Helen of the West Indies

Roxanne above, represented St. Lucia at the 
Miss Universe Pagent, 2015

St. Lucia has a tumultuous and interesting past. It is part of a string of islands between Florida and Venezuela that encloses the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The closely situated group at the southern end of this chain provided stepping stones to the three largest islands - Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba. From the second millennium BC, humans made their way along this chain from south America. The first were the Ciboney, a group of hunter-gatherers. Then, between 1000 and 500 B.C., the peaceful Arawak migrated from South America and moved gradually north through the islands pushing the Ciboney ahead of them. The Arawaks were adept potters, weavers, builders, farmers and shipbuilders. Records indicate that they enjoyed nearly 800 years of peace before they were pushed out by the Kalinago or Caribs.

Carib warrior

The more primitive and aggressive Caribs are believed to have migrated from South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 - 800 AD. They expanded their territory by ruthless warfare, assimilating the women into their own society and killing, or as legend has it, eating the men. Their war canoes could hold more than 100 men and were fast enough to catch a sailing ship. They were fierce in battle and were feared by the invading Europeans. By the time Columbus reached the Bahamas in 1492, the northern islands were settled by the Arawak with only a few pockets of Ciboney still surviving, but the smaller islands in the south, were, by then, largely Carib.

Petroglyphs left by early settlers.

The European discovery and settlement of the St. Lucia is disputed, but many historians now believe the island was actually discovered by Juan de la Cosa, Columbus' navigator, in 1499. The Spaniards did not bother with St. Lucia because the island had no gold and it wasn’t worth the effort to battle with the Caribs. It is generally believed that the first European to settle in St. Lucia was a French pirate, Francois le Clerc, commonly known by his pirate name ‘Jambe de Bois’. In 1550, he settled on Pigeon Island from where he could easily spot and then attack passing Spanish ships.

Modern day Pigeon Island.

Around 1600, the Dutch established a fortress at Vieux Fort and in 1605, an English ship called the Olive Branch was blown off-course on its way to Guyana and the 67 colonists started a settlement near Vieux Fort. At first, the Caribs left the new comers alone, but soon conflict erupted and disease took its toll so that after only five weeks just 19 remained alive. The survivors fled in a canoe.

1778 battle (Wikipedia)

  

The French officially claimed the island in 1635 but didn't colonize it. It was the English who attempted the next European settlement in 1639, but that was wiped out by the Caribs. In 1643, a French expedition was sent out from Martinique to establish a permanent settlement on the island. At its head was a French officer named Rousselan, who was appointed the island's governor and married a Carib woman. He made peace with the Caribs. but after his death in 1654, the Caribs resumed their attacks on the colony.

In 1664, Thomas Warner (son of the governor of St Kitts) claimed Saint Lucia for England. He took 1,000 men to the island to protect it from French attack, but after two years, only 89 survived, mostly due to disease. Then, in 1666 the French West India Company resumed control of the island, which in 1674 was made a French colony as a dependency of Martinique. The battle for the island between the French and English continued for almost two centuries. The island changed hands a total of 14 times before it was finally ceded to the English in 1814. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia became known as the "Helen of the West Indies".  

photos above are copies of old postcards

La Dauphine Estate, main house: an old cocoa plantation dating back to the 18th century.

Both the British, with their headquarters in Barbados and the French, centered in Martinique, found Saint Lucia attractive after the sugar industry developed. And despite the wars and flag changes, St. Lucia did become an important sugar-producing island. The first plantation was started by two Frenchmen in 1765. Fifteen years later, there were nearly 50 estates in operation. African slaves were imported to supply the necessary manpower required by the huge sugar plantations as well as coffee, cotton and cacao plantations. When the slaves were finally emancipated in 1838, they accounted for almost 90% of the population.

A 1924 constitution gave the island its first form of representative government. St. Lucia continued to move towards independence, and in 1951 suffrage was granted to all citizens over 21. In 1967, England granted the island full self-government and in 1979, St. Lucia became an independent nation. St. Lucia continues to recognize Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and is an active member of the Commonwealth of Nations. English was established as the official language, but the influence of French culture on the island remains strong. Even today, almost every St. Lucian speaks patois, a Creole version of French and Jounen Kwéyòl (a week long celebration of Creole heritage) is celebrated everywhere in Saint Lucia toward the end of October. Many of the names of the island's cities and villages are French the population is still primarily Roman Catholic.