Heritage Research Group Caribbean (HRGC)

We’ve been working on several upcoming blog posts, but given that it’s been a while since we last posted —and that today is “Carnival Tuesday” (cancelled or not!)—here is a link to one of our favorite references on the subject: Frederic Fenger’s “Black Mardi Gras” article in Harper’s Magazine (1916). https://archive.org/details/harpersnew134various/page/722/mode/2up Note that the writing is completely pejorative and condescending — he was a white American guy sailing across the Lesser Antilles in his own small boat which he also chronicles. The article starts out with him loafing at the whaling station on Isle de Caille, when one of the whalers gets a light signal from Sauteurs to come over. What ensues is one of the earliest, most detailed descriptions available on carnival in Grenada.  As is clear to any Grenadian, the piece is entirely about what we generally call Shortknee Mas, but this version is similar to Carriacou's Shakespeare Mas (without the Julius Caesar stuff), given...

What do the ruins in this village tell us about Grenada's history?  The name “Marquis” was quite common in 17th century France (also used as a title for nobility), and several colonists of the La Grenade colony carried the name. For instance, “Fort Marquis” in Beausejour (yes, Beausejour) was named after its commander Lieutenant Le Marquis (later convicted for assisting a rebellion with one Major Le Fort). It was also the name given to an indigenous “Captain” on the eastern side of the island who presumably lived in the area of Marquis, St. Andrew today. 1 The remains of his village were mostly destroyed when the French town of Grand Marquis was built, but there are still some remnants left. Indeed, unbeknownst to most people, the pre-Columbian site at Grand Marquis is one of only a handful that date before ~AD 500 in Grenada. Figure 1: Some artifacts from the Grand Marquis site (GREN-A-2, Hanna 2019) The Earliest Human Presence In 1992 (and again in 1994), archaeologi...

Figure 1: Du Chaffault’s Plan de la Petite Ance , 1751. This bay, known today as Tyrrel Bay, was referenced by Father DuTertre in 1656 (courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) The name Carriacou has intrigued us all, especially because its origin, like Camáhogne for Grenada, is indigenous and remains one of several islands that have retained or reverted to their original names (or some version of it, including Bequia, Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti). Carriacou is, in fact, the Anglicized spelling of the Carib/Kalinago name for the island, which was recorded by Father Jean-Baptiste DuTertre as Kayryouacou in 1656 when he sailed past the island on his way to Grenada and observed: “The most beautiful of all the little isles is Kayrioüacou, where I stopped long enough to note its peculiarities. It is a very beautiful and good isle, capable of supporting a colony: it is about eight or nine leagues in circumference, and on a line of land to the north (sic) it has a v...

The southern Caribbean and northern South America, with Grenada and the Grenadines, 1760 The Grenadines, from Bequia to Carriacou, were once entirely owned and administered by Grenada, hence their original name  Granada y Granadillos (<AmSp Granada + illos : “little Grenadas”). A few of the approximately 125 small islands, islets, and rocks were first settled by the French in the mid-1700s, the last islands to be colonized by Europeans, most likely due to their small size, arid landscape, and the absence of yearlong streams. Today, Carriacou, Petite Martinique, Ronde, and some 30 small islets are dependencies of Grenada. The rest are now part of St. Vincent. Map of the southern Caribbean by Johannes van Keulen, 1684, showing the Grenadines’ early association with Grenada  (note, the top is facing west; Grenada is colored red).  In 1784, the Grenadines were officially partitioned on the recommendation of Lieutenant Governor Valentine Morris of St. V...

A "Zemi" from the St. John's River Site (GREN-G-8) that has never been published or featured anywhere All of us in HRGC are academics, so we do a lot of writing. And yet, a lot of this writing never goes anywhere-- it ends up as outtakes or shortened footnotes. Like this zemi from the St. John's River site (above), so much work never sees the light of day. There are also lots of common questions people often ask that would not normally go in academic writing (e.g., it's "St. George 's Town" but "St. George Parish"-- we'll get to that later). So we thought a blog would be a good place to deposit these sundry scraps of knowledge. Hope you enjoy! -JAH

Test Post -- first one...