THE AFRICANS, EAST INDIANS AND NORTH AMERICANS AT VIEUX FORT

The disappearance of the Caribs who, in course of time were either killed off or migrated elsewhere and the introduction of sugar cultivation, the need arose for imported labour. A supply was available from the West Coast of Africa which had been explored by the Portuguese. So as the years went by many thousands of African were brought over the ocean under deplorable conditions to work on the plantations of the Caribbean and North America.

Time has worked in their favour. Occasionally freedom from servitude was either granted or bought and eventually the whole system was done away with. As a result of the effects of climate and disease, the break up of the estates at the time of the French Revolution, and a lower birth rate, the number of persons of European origin declined while that of the African origin increased. Thus today the latter are vastly preponderant.

The whirligig of time has certainly brought its revenges.

After emancipation in the 19th century, many people came from India under a system of indenture, though their presence is less evident here than in places like Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica.