CONTENTS

I. NATURAL HERITAGE

Greencastle: A “Tropical Stonehenge”?

Exploring Caves

Exploring Antigua and Barbuda by Sea

Nelson’s Dockyard National Park

Southern Treasures

St. John's Botanical Garden

The Lookout Trail: Environment and History

Wallings Forest Trail

Guiana Island: An Ecological Gem

II. HISTORICAL HERITAGE

Barbuda’s Heritages

Redonda: The Quiet Sister.

Prehistory of Antigua & Barbuda

A Wonderful Dictionary

Welcome to Waladli & Wa'omoni

The Oldest Building in Town

Nelson’s Dockyard: Our Common Heritage

Nelson's Dockyard: Pillars of Pride

Fort Berkeley

Fort James and its Recent History

Monk’s Hill – A Military Landmark

Deep Bay: Axes, Guns and Wrecks

Clarence House Revelations

Shipwreck History

III. PEOPLE’S HERITAGE

Old Time Antigua

Old Time Christmas

Fighting for their Rights

Life from a Colonist's Eye

Holberton – A Vital Need

The National Symbols

IV. SUGAR HERITAGE

Slavery’s Places of Memory

Betty’s Hope

Social History: The Sugar Factory

((90 pages)

SLAVERY’S

PLACES OF MEMORY

(Incomplete, sample only)

 One of UNESCO’s Atlantic Slave Route Project’s aims is to break the silence of slavery and to make known the subject of the transatlantic slave trade of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. 

ANTIGUA

The Cage -In 1702 an Act was passed to have various apparatus made for the punishment of offenders. There was to be a cage, pillory, stocks, whipping post and a ducking stool in St. John’s. According to a 1788 map of St. John’s a cage was placed in the middle of Market Street near to the Court House. Captured runaway slaves or those roaming from their plantations were locked up in this cage so that they might be recognised and claimed by their owners.

Stony Hill Gully - King Court (Klaas) planned the slave rebellion of 1736 in this secret place, (and it still seems to be a secret place today!). It is a gully well clothed in greenery on the north side of Stony Hill, which is said to be the centre point of Antigua, a little to the east of Miss-a-Link Corner at Clarke’s Hill. Whenever the slaves met in the Gully, a very old Obeah woman named Morah, usually attended to give her advice from Obeah magic. The attending slaves also worshipped their King, drank, danced and inhaled smoke from roasted cashews and they would utter “Death to our foes!” A traitor to the cause later carried news of this plot so the rebellion was foiled.

Slave Dungeons - On many of the Antiguan plantations Massa kept lockups or ‘dungeons’ in which to punish miscreant enslaved Africans. Two remain in Antigua today, one at Orange Valley, St. Mary’s and the other at Parson Maules, an estate on the south shore of Mercer’s Creek.

The one at Orange Valley Estate, the “Rock Dungeon” has survived; it is strong, fashioned from a small cave in rock. A stone wall with a door forms a façade for this lockup. Once a pregnant slave was locked up there and on giving birth, the baby was eaten by rats.

There were two dungeons at Parson Maules as the slave owner was enraged with the Court’s uprising, according to Papa Smith of “To Shoot Hard Labour” fame. They were named the “Bump off” and the “Torturer”. The latter is small and strongly built of stone. It still stands and is shaped like an old fashioned pill box with a rounded roof, while the other no longer exists. The “Torturer”, was so called being very small and dark, with only a small air hole. Massa was able to control the amount of air the slave could breathe according to the gravity of his “crime”.

The “Bump-off” was worse, as there was a hole in the roof through which a hangman’s rope was passed. The slave to be bumped-off had Massa choose which part of his body he wished the victim to be hung until death or near death. The threat of these dungeons gave more production amongst the slaves.

Boggy Peak – The highest point of the south-western Shekerley Mountains, is Boggy Peak. It is here that the runaway slaves congregated while hiding in the forest. In 1687, twenty-seven runaways were known to be encamped in a palisaded ‘maroon’ camp at Boggy Peak. There had been a revolt of slaves, hunted down and taken dead or alive. The Militia stormed the camp and the leaders were burned in the following year.

Today it would be most educational if the site of this camp could be found and an archaeological excavation made for the material items the slaves raided from the surrounding estates.

Dockyard - The “King’s Negroes” of the Antigua Naval Yard, whose labour and valuable skills as shipwrights, blacksmiths, sail makers and caulkers were the underpinnings of British naval successes in the Leeward and Windward Islands of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Black masons and workmen had also been responsible for building the facilities and the stone wharfs of the yard.

The blacksmith’s shop at the yard was responsible for forging iron parts of warships. The forge producing heat for rendering iron red hot, was always in operation. According to Papa Smith the Dockyard had the best branding shop in Antigua and never killed a slave. A relation of Sammy Smith, Minty, born into slavery had the numeral “104” branded on her hand and was known by her owner as that number. After the dockyard lost its importance, the blacksmith’s shop was closed down in 1826 and by law all branding of slaves was ended two years later.

BARBUDA HERITAGE

Just twenty-seven miles north of Antigua and sixty-two square miles in area, Barbuda is about fourteen miles long by eight miles wide. The highest point is approximately one hundred and twenty five feet. The longest beach, on the west side, is twelve miles long and seemingly endless - the far end of the beach dips below the horizon!

Barbuda’s beaches of white and pink sand are the greatest of her heritages, stretching unbroken and unpopulated along her shores, available for the peaceful wanderings of those lucky enough to sojourn there.

Barbuda is a fascinating island to visit in many ways. She is abundant and varied in marine and bird life, notably the thousands of magnificent Frigate Birds, which nest there. Wild boar and fallow deer may occasionally be seen roaming the island.

Probably the most valued asset to Barbuda's tourism, second only to the beaches, is the Frigate Bird Sanctuary. This is a significant nesting colony of the Frigate Bird (Fregata magnificans) situated in a mangrove environment in the Lagoon. This is said to be the largest Frigate Bird gathering in the world, with an estimated population of 2,500 (1971).

Then there are the beautiful reefs to discover when snorkeling, with the further chance of seeing the remains one of the abundant shipwrecks that have come to grief over the centuries. Other natural areas to explore are Darby and Indian Caves, and there are several historical heritage sites as well.

Barbuda's history has been intimately tied to that of Antigua for centuries, so the fortunes of Barbuda rose and fell with those of its larger neighbour. The first attempts to settle Barbuda, by both the British and the French, were failures, and it wasn't until 1666 that the British established a colony strong enough to survive the challenges of both the difficult environment and the Amerindians who were intent on keeping the Europeans off the island they had already been using for three thousand years.  

In 1685, the Crown granted Christopher and John Codrington a fifty year lease of Barbuda, in exchange for "one fat sheep on demand". With subsequent leases, granting them additional rights to the substantial ship wreckage along Barbuda's reefs, they became the island's main stakeholders.

For much of the eighteenth century, the Codrington land on Barbuda was used to produce food, equipment and sometimes slave labour for their sugar plantations on Antigua. Testament to the influence of the Codringtons remains today, both in the island's place names and in its architectural remains.

The Amerindian name for Barbuda was "Wa-omoni", as reported in Father Raymond Breton's Amerindian Dictionary, a copy of which is in the Museum. This is thought to mean "Island of Herons". Since the word could mean any large bird, this might possibly cover the Frigate or Weather Bird, so common in Barbuda. In 1628, settlers from St. Kitts named Barbuda "Dulcina" for its "excellence and pleasantnesse thereof", but it soon reverted back to the original English name of Barbuda.

The only settlement on Barbuda is named after the Codrington family that leased Barbuda for 185 years. In 1904, this village’s boundaries were established to the west by the lagoon, to the north by Sedge Garden, to the east by Indigo Piece and to the south by the Park. The population at that time was 700, but by the 2001 census this had increased to 1,417 (748 males, 669 females).

Old maps show Codrington village dominated by the ‘Castle’, once used as a strong and secure place guarding against Amerindian and French raids. It was rectangular in shape with crenellated stone watchtowers at the northeast and southwest corners. In the courtyard were the overseer’s house and a well.

A slave uprising occurred in 1745 when the manager was killed, as he had been mutilating imprisoned slaves in the Castle for stealing sheep and cattle. Slaves soon occupied the Castle and took possession of arms and ammunition. Soldiers were summoned from Antigua to put down the rebellion, after which two slaves, now forgotten heroes, were burned alive at the main gate of the Castle. No traces of the walls remain today; the Castle was badly damaged in the great earthquake of 1843. 

On Barbuda's highest point are the ruins of the Codringtons’ Highland House, built sometime after 1720. The Barbudans know this locality as "Willybob". This may be derived from the name of William Codrington, a former owner of the house.

On the island's south coast still stands the Martello Tower, a fortress that was used both for defense and as a vantage point from which to spot shipwrecks on the outlying reefs with a view to salvaging cargoes. Information about the position of a wreck would be signalled to the village of Codrington, several miles north. The design of the tower is derived from one at Cape Mortella in Corsica that the British had difficulty in taking in 1794, hence its’ name.

An interesting area of natural beauty is Spanish Point, the most southeasterly point of Barbuda. It is probably named after the wreck of a Spanish merchantman, "Santiago de Cullerin". She was lost there in 1695, and shortly afterwards maps began to appear with the name of Spanish Point. She was carrying 13,000 pesos to pay Spanish garrisons at Maracaibo on the Spanish Main, but all this and some of her other cargo was salvaged by divers at the time. In 1988, a dive-ship, contracted by the treasure hunter, Mel Fisher, began to map the site and recovered a few artifacts from the surf on the windward side. No coins were found, but large olive oil jars and a wooden comb are some of the many items recovered.

Spanish Point's history had begun much earlier, for maritime Amerindians from South America had settled in the vicinity about five hundred AD. Later, European colonists built a small lookout tower, probably as a precaution against marauding Amerindians from Dominica and St. Kitts who were jealous of European incursions. The remains of this tower may still be seen.

Let us for a moment become a spelunker on a speleological tour of the nation of Antigua, Barbuda and Redonda. I expect you would like the definition of these most uncommon words. A speleologist is a person who studies the physical, geologic and biological aspects of caves.

DARK CAVE

Let us begin with Barbuda, for I know of several caves in Barbuda. The most exciting I have explored is Dark Cave in the Highlands for it descends about thirty degrees into the bowls of the earth for about four hundred feet.

The cave is situated in the middle of the north end of the Barbuda Highlands about four miles east of Codrington. Its low entrance is at the north end of a shallow hollow, the bottom of which is covered with dry scrub.

The entrance of the cave is a narrow slit through which one has to crawl, and after about three hundred feet the bottom of a larger cavern is reached along a wide passage. It then descends about 400 feet obliquely downward, tortuously overhung by huge boulders under which one has to stoop at times.

At the bottom, is a sizeable cavern or rather several broadly connected chambers with alcoves on either side. At the very bottom is the first of a series of five fresh-water pools stretching back into the darkness. In the pool, rare blind shrimp (Typhlatya monae) known only from Mona Island off Hispaniola. Other shrimp-like organisms called amphipods of a species found nowhere else in the world live in the water.

This is a remarkable cave. It is advisable have a Barbudan guide with you. Even these gentlemen take a ball of string to unwind on proceeding, making it easy to find the way out again!

DARBY’S CAVE, BARBUDA

Darby's Cave is quite different as it is mostly open. It is not a true cavern but a vertical sided sink-hole formed by solution below Barbuda’s coralline crust and subsequent collapse. One side of the sink hole is undercut by a full 30 ft. hence the name "cave". The cliffs are about 70 ft high and the hole is about 350 ft in diameter.

The cave possesses very lush vegetation and is full of tall trees and other vegetation, the commonest of which is the palmetto palm. Over the cliff's rim descend thick roots of mighty lianas. The lianas interlace the trees, ferns cluster on the damp soil and birds are abundant; the scene is reminiscent of a tropical rain forest. This a great contrast from the surrounding dry bushland.

From the overhang of the cliff there is an intermittent drip of water, which, in time, has created stalagmites of calcium. There is a startlingly large flat-topped stalagmite eight feet high and not less than two feet in diameter. It belonged to the Pliocene period between two to four million years ago. This greenish white, almost translucent, mass of stalagmitic limestone is so smooth and solid that it would be difficult to find its counterpart in any other part of the world. Near this stalagmite the partial upper tooth of a shark (Carcharodon megalodon) was found in May 1997.

INDIAN CAVE

By far the most interesting prehistoric site in Barbuda is the cave at Two Foot Bay, a wild windswept part of north-east Barbuda. The entrance to this cave is close to a roofless stone ruin near the shore.

The entrance to the cave is small, and located near the top of the low cliff opposite the ruin. This entrance leads directly into a round chamber of a lower level called the Drop Cavern. Connected to this is Bat Chamber, about 35 ft high, with many bats hanging from the roof. To the side of the chamber is a small hole through which daylight enters and through which bats occasionally flit.

From the main entrance corridor there is a short narrow passage to the east in which two small Amerindian petroglyphs (rock carvings) may be observed. These are the only petroglyphs found in Antigua or Barbuda. The passage leads to yet another cave, which is flooded with daylight through loose fitting rocks, giving a somewhat glowing effect.

Indian Cave is small but it is a neat complex. Giving a mysterious feeling, it is not difficult to imagine that the Amerindians lived here long ago. The cave's outlook is along the northeastern windward coast. It may have been a lookout, for a large Amerindian site is close at hand on the lower plain.

BATS CAVE

This famous cave can be found in a rock outcrop of the Savannah in St. Paul's Parish, Antigua. It is in the grounds of the Medical School near Piccadilly.

Colonel Philip Warner owned the cave in 1676. It was then a very valuable natural resource for it produced saltpetre, an ingredient of gunpowder. In August 1897, the Antigua Observer newspaper published an article about the good effects of this manure and subsequent advertisements appeared to promote buying locally. It also said the guano gave "permanent" benefit to agricultural fields. The Government Analyst, Mr. F. Watts, reported it was a well balanced manure rich in nitrogen, potash and phosphate. A chemical analysis of 1985, showed the content of this fertilizer as 4.32% nitrate, 1.68% phosphate, 6.39% potassium, 0.5% magnesium, 105 mg/kg manganese, 25.45% moisture.

CENTAUR’S CAVE, REDONDA

The island of Redonda can be described as a rock about a mile long by about a quarter of a mile wide. For thousands upon thousands of years seabirds have been dropping their waste on this rock, so that in time this chemically rich substance has fossilised to contain phosphates and other elements.

In the 1860’s, Redonda was worked for its bird guano as there was then a worldwide demand for calcium phosphate. Later, aluminum phosphate was discovered beneath the guano, and operations were transferred to mining this mineral. In 1835, there were 130 Montserratians employed by the Redonda Phosphate Company, an American firm. The company paid the British government as represented in Antigua a royalty of 20 cents a

ton. After World War I quarrying never resumed and the caretaker staff left in 1929.

Left behind by the miners at the northern end of the island is a small cave that had been cut by the miners searching for phosphates in the interior of the rock after those covering the island externally had been exhausted. The cave is about twelve feet wide and extends about forty feet. Though not as exciting as the other caves of our Nation, it is a fine place to cool off after a long walk the length of Redonda!