Barrouallie is a town located on the
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
of
Saint Vincent. Barrouallie was established by French settlers in 1719, the first European colony on St. Vincent. Once it was the capital of St.Vincent and the
Grenadines
The Grenadines () is a chain of small islands that lie on a line between the larger islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. Nine are inhabited and open to the public (or ten, if the offshore island of Young Island is counted ...
. With the rest of the island, it passed back and forth between the French and the British, finally remaining in the hands of the latter.
Within
Saint Patrick Parish Barrouallie is both the largest city and the parish capital. The area is known for fishing and is famous for "
blackfish
Blackfish is a common name for various species of fishes and cetaceans, including:
Fish
* Alaska blackfish (''Dallia pectoralis''), an Esocidae, esocid from Alaska, Siberia, and the Bering Sea islands
* Black fish (''Carassioides acuminatus''), ...
". Due to the surrounding mountains, the town is shaped into a hole that over time has protected the town from volcanic eruptions.
History
The
Native American Caribs who lived in what would become Barrouallie left a
petroglyph
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
which would become a well-known a local landmark. The figure depicted has a stylized head surrounded by a
halo
HALO, halo, halos or haloes may refer to:
Most common meanings
* Halo (optical phenomenon)
* Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head
* ''Halo'' (franchise), a sci-fi video game series (2001–2021)
Arts and en ...
of thirteen rays.
While the English were the first to lay claim to St. Vincent island in 1627, the French centered on the island of
Martinique
Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
would be the first European settlers on the island when they established their first colony at Barrouallie on the Leeward side of St. Vincent in 1719. The French settlers cultivated coffee, tobacco, indigo, corn, and sugar on plantations worked by African
slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
. In the time of
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, Barrouallie was the center of a
sugar cane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
-growing area on the leeward coast of Saint Vincent, with a number of flourishing estates on the nearby volcanic slopes. It was renowned for its beautiful little
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
Church with a distinguished bell tower and black and white marble tiles (brought as
ballast
Ballast is dense material used as a weight to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within ...
on the sugar ships) on the floor of its interior.
The
Emancipation of Slaves in the British Empire, resolved on by the British Parliament in 1833 and actually implemented in St. Vincent and other Caribbean islands by 1838, proved a mixed blessing - releasing people from bondage but also causing an economic crisis in a society hitherto based on slave labor. This was exacerbated by the rise of
beet sugar
Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula .
For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...
cultivation in Europe.
The local people's situation was precarious, and many of them emigrated to other islands in an effort to escape the poverty. Among these were Caroline Arindell, who was born in Barrouallie about 1850, and her husband John McShine - both of whom emigrated in the 1860s to
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
, where their descendants were to become well-known.
[Anthony De Verteuil, "The McShines of Trinidad", The Litho Press, Trinidad, 2006]
On September 11, 1898, six hours of a terrible
hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...
devastated St. Vincent in general and Barrouallie in particular. The Church and almost all houses were destroyed. A photo of Barrouallie taken in the direct aftermath shows only two or three houses still with their roofs.
It took considerable time for Barrouallie to recover from this blow, and the destruction of the Church's records was an irreversible blow to knowledge of local history.
See also
*
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, sometimes known simply as Saint Vincent or SVG, is an island country in the eastern Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies, at the south ...
References
Populated places in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines