BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY: SLAVERY AND SLAVE TRADE IN SAINT LUCIA :

European first landed in the island either in 1492 or 1502, during the early Spanish exploration of the Caribbean. In 1643 in French expedition under the direction of Jacques du Parquet the Governor of Martinique established a permanent settlement on the Island under the Governor De Rousselan who took a Carib wife and remain in post untill his death in 1664. In 1664 Thomas Warner the son of the Governor of St Kitts claimed Saint Lucia for England, he brought 1000 men to defend it from the French, but after two years only 89 survived mostly due to disease. In 1666 the French administration return and resumed control of the Island. For years after this, the Island was officially traded back and forth between the English and the French in various  treaties, as a bargaining chip in negotiations although the French settlement remained and the island was a defector French colony well into the eighteen century.

The French introduce a successful sugar can industry, but in 1790-1 the slaves walk off their jobs to work for them selves bringing the ideas of revolution to Saint Lucia. Years of fighting between the French and British the British eventually triumphed in 1803 and acquired Saint Lucia permanently in 1814.  In 1807 the British abolished Slave Trade in all its colonies including Saint Lucia but not until 1834 that they abolished the institution of slavery. In 1838 all slaves on the Island they achieve full freedom.