HISTORY

The Old and the Unexplored
a Fresh Look at B.V.I. History

Government House (photo by Paul's Photo Services, copyright)

 During these years the Spanish retaliated with raids on Tortola; meanwhile, in 1625, the British made their claim to some of the islands when King Charles I authorized the Earl of Carlisle to colonize most of the Leeward Islands and Barbados. This had little consequence on the Virgin Islands since the British had not yet taken possession of the group. But, in 1672, when John Stapleton was asked by a group of Dutch settlers to defend Tortola he occupied the island and claimed the entire archipelago as a British conquest. The stage was set for a new phase: slowly but surely a growing number of British settlers came to the islands and in 1711, Captain John Walton unsuccessfully petitioned the Queen of England proposing to buy Virgin Gorda and the islands in the group.

 

During the 1730s a number of Quaker missionaries visited the islands proselytizing a large number of planters and their African slaves. When the seat of power was transferred from Virgin Gorda, John Pickering, a wealthy planter and leader of the Quaker community, became the first Lieutenant Governor of Tortola in 1741. He resigned a few months later because his religious philosophy prevented him from using firearms. Prominent local Quakers included the founder of the London Medical Society, John Coakley Lettsom, and Dr. William Thornton, the architect of the U.S. Capitol Building and the Octagon (Washington D.C.).

In 1773 the islands were granted a constitutional government with a fully elected House of Assembly and a partly elected, partly nominated Legislative Council in return for an impost of 4.1/2 percent. The first attempt to establish Courts of Justice was unsuccessful; a well orchestrated conspiracy headed by Lieutenant Governor Nugent and a number of affluent planters frustrated any attempt made by the newly appointed Chief of Justice, George Suckling. Only a decade later constitutional rule started to be implemented and, ironically enough, the first efforts of the legislators were to establish rigorous punishments for slaves and to settle ongoing land disputes.

The first post office was officially opened in Tortola in 1787; concurrently a packet boat service began to call at Tortola once a month to bring in and collect mails. That same year the first ever Royal Visit to the BVI took place when William IV (then Prince William Henry) sailed to the islands in the "Pegasus" frigate escorted by Captain Horatio Nelson of the "Boreas" and Captain Holloway of the "Solebay".

Following the American Revolution of 1776, the United States and France entered into an alliance; the French were scheming, with the aid of Spain, to capture the West Indies. Things got even more complicated with the advent of the French Revolution (1789) and the ensuing Napoleonic War. The threat was real and between 1760 and 1801, a number of fortifications were built and older fort houses were enlarged and reinforced. During the second part of the Eighteenth century, Fort Burt, Fort Hodge, Fort Recovery, Fort George, Fort Shirley, and the Dungeon (or Pockwood Pond Fort) were built. Fort Hodge was named after Governor Thomas Hodge Dowille who came to prominence in 1779 for capturing St Martin. Fort Burt and Fort Shirley were named after the governors of the Leeward Islands of the time. Fort Burt was built in 1776 on a site erroneously believed to have an earlier and smaller Dutch fortification on it. Sir Thomas Shirley, governor of the Leeward Islands, visited Tortola early in 1783; after staying in the island for three weeks he took the "Argo" frigate carrying 52 guns to cruise in surrounding waters. As he reached the sea off Sombrero Island he was confronted by two French frigates during a bad storm which prevented the "Argo" from opening her lower tier of guns. Although the French suffered 32 casualties and heavy damage, by night time they were able to seize the "Argo"; but as the weather moderated vessels from the British Navy in Tortola headed by the "Invincible" came to Shirley's rescue while the French favoured by the darkness found an easy escape.

Throughout the 1700s the plantation system had been the backbone of the local economy. The black population largely outnumbered the white settlers. Slave labour provided a cheap and cruel way of extracting wealth from the islands.

Slave rebellions became more common; in 1789 slaves on the Pickering Estate at Josiah's Bay, Tortola, attacked Colonel Thomason and the estate overseers. The siege on the great house continued for hours until help came from other estates. Several slaves were tried and two were condemned to death and executed. In 1819, shortly after a dreadful hurricane, another slave rebellion took place on the same estate; the Royal Navy was called in but the overseer's fear of retaliation and the intervention of one legislator brought things back to some kind of normalcy. In 1821, a dungeon was erected on the estate but it was immediately destroyed by the slaves; later on it was rebuilt and demolished twice. In 1823, as Isaac Pickering, the proprietor, was planning to remove all of his slaves to Trinidad the slaves attacked the overseer and the watchman and threatened them to death with cutlasses,bayonets and sticks. A squadron of hunters was put together and the rebellion was brought to an end. Three slaves were found guilty for the uprising and sentenced to 63 lashes. All the rebellious slaves were eventually removed to other islands. In 1827, an insurrection flared up on the estate of Georg eNibbs, and commissioned hunters were sent out to capture the leaders. A few years later, in 1830, another rebellion took place on the Lettsom Estate at Cane Garden Bay, Mount Healthy and Lower Estate. The following year,1831, a plan contemplating the murder of all white males in Tortola was discovered. The BVI President succeeded in getting a Danish warship fromSt Thomas to prevent an uprising.

Meanwhile, the local economy had received a fatal blow in1808, when Britain abolished the slave trade. As the white planters returned to England a number of free blacks began to buy land and this pattern continued throughout the century. In the meantime the British Navy had seized a number of ships with illegal slave cargoes in BVI waters. Over 1000 Liberated Africans were assigned to masters whose job was to see them through a number of years of apprenticeship. August 1st, 1834 the Emancipation Proclamation brought freedom to 5,133 slaves. A few days later, William Roger Isaacs, President of the Virgin Islands, informed London that the proclamation day "passed off very quietly and the Negroes throughout the island have, contrary to the expectations which were entertained, with a very few exceptions, commenced their labour under the new system in an orderly and peaceable manner."(Copies of the Emancipation Proclamation donated by Vernon Pickering can be viewed at St. George's Episcopal Church, the Road Town Methodist Churchand the St William's Roman Catholic Church - all on Main Street, Road Town- another copy can be viewed at the Legislative Council Chambers).

The locale for Stevenson's "Treasure Island" is said to be Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands. The island got its name from a buccaneer. Hand painted essay for the finished design for the 4c. stamp issued in 1969 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the death of Robert Louis Stevenson. Design by Jennifer Toombs. (courtesy of the BVI Postal Authorities, copyright)

The history of slavery in the BVI cannot be complete without mentioning two historical events of paramount importance. In 1776 Samuel Nottingham emancipated his slaves in a practical way by giving them his 50 acre estate in Long Look - Tortola. In 1811 Arthur Hodge, one of the richest planters in Tortola and a member of the Council, was tried and condemned to capital punishment for the murder of several slaves. Martial Law was enacted to execute the first white man ever to be executed for the murderof a black person.

After the 1834 emancipation the downward trend of the economy was accelerated by the total neglect of the few remaining planters. Revenue had severely dropped and the government resorted to oppressive taxation. In 1853 a taxon cattle sparked a peasant insurrection: the riot had a devastating effect and practically all the buildings in Road Town were burnt down. The following year, 1854, the representative system of government was abolished and supplanted by a unicameral legislature as apposed to the pre- existing bicameral system of Council and Assembly. In 1867 the elections were abolished and the Council consisted of nominated members only; finally, in 1901 the legislature surrendered the last vestiges of its constituent powers. During the last thirty years of the 19th century the economy touched the bottom and to save on expenditure and salaries the President also acted as magistrate and treasurer. In 1884, former postmaster and president's clerk, Fredrick Augustus Pickering became the first coloured British Virgin Islander to act as President.

 

 

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Inside view of the entrance to one of the breath-taking pirates' caves in the vicinity of Treasure Point at Norman Island, one of the many beautiful islands dotting the Sir Francis Drake Channel known in the old days as "Freebooter Gangway". (Photo by Giorgio Migliavacca, copyright)

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