Kingstown reminded me in many ways of other island capitals I had recently visited- St John's (Antigua), Basseterre (St Kitts) and Roseau (Dominica).
Located in a sheltered harbour setting, with a centre small enough to walk around, cottages thinning out into the green hills, bustling street life with fruit markets and dvd hawkers, colonial stone buildings interspersed amongst more modern and less beautiful concrete ones, broken pavements and open drains, ferries arriving and departing, chinese restaurants and roadside shacks selling friend chicken and cold beers, minibuses carrying passengers, the chatter and shouts in island accents, little breeze, a burning sun. These are towns that fill the senses.
Both the French and British tried to settle St Vincent in the 1600s, but the resistance from the Caribs was too strong. Eventually, the French were allowed to set up small settlements on the leeward west coast in the early 1700s. However, the British and French, like in much of the Caribbean, still continued to fight over gaining total control of the island.
In 1748 it was declared a neutral island, but the 1763 Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years war meant that the French ceded St Vincent, Grenada and the Grenadines to the British.
In the next 30 years, there was fierce resistance from the Caribs and a war between them and the British. In 1796, the Caribs eventually gave in and five thousand of them were expelled from the island to Roatan in Honduras, where to this day descendants of the Black Caribs still live.
In 1748 it was declared a neutral island, but the 1763 Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years war meant that the French ceded St Vincent, Grenada and the Grenadines to the British.
In the next 30 years, there was fierce resistance from the Caribs and a war between them and the British. In 1796, the Caribs eventually gave in and five thousand of them were expelled from the island to Roatan in Honduras, where to this day descendants of the Black Caribs still live.
Free of Carib resistance, the British expanded the production of sugar, cotton, coffee and cocoa on the island. Slavery was abolished in 1834 and indentured labourers from the Portuguese island of Madeira and India were brought in.
Walking around Kingstown, you see the mix of African, Carib, British, French, Portuguese and Indian in the faces of people.
St Vincent and the Grenadines remained in the hands of the British until independence in 1979.
In town, grand churches built from the colonial period still stand. The Anglican and Catholic churches face each other and the Methodist is just across the road, all competing for congregations.
Anglican:
Catholic:
Methodist:
After an immersion in natural history at the botanic gardens and then history and culture in town, it was now ten in the morning and time for a coffee and a couple of Jamaican patties.
