Birthplace of Alexander Hamilton: St. Kitts and Nevis

In today’s episode, Mireille explores the history and culture of St. Kitts and Nevis, detailing the colonization, slavery, emancipation, and modern-day traditions of the twin island Caribbean nation. Topics covered include indigenous peoples, European colonization, slave trade, national dishes, and cultural celebrations. Hema shares the national dish and the history behind some of the ingredients used.

Resources

https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Kitts-and-Nevis

https://www.visitstkitts.com/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/amberlovebond/2022/07/27/this-unexpected-west-indies-island-is-the-mango-capital-of-the-caribbean/?sh=4cd2bf87655b

https://ntbg.org/breadfruit/about-breadfruit/history/

https://www.historicstkitts.kn/timeline-history-of-st-kitts

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/st-kitts-and-nevis-virtual-jewish-history-tour

https://mystkittstouristinformation.com/history-of-st-kitts-and-nevis/

https://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Saint-Kitts-and-Nevis.html

https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/pre-colonial-history/4235/

https://tracingafricanroots.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/st-kitts-anguilla-slave-census-least-informative-of-african-roots/

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/archaeologyofslavery/slavery-caribbean

https://www.audleytravel.com/us/saint-kitts-and-nevis/practical-info#:~:text=This%20English%2Dbased%20creole%20is,Caribbean%20by%20the%20 slave%20trade.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-20032548

https://www.culturamanevis.com/events/

https://press.fourseasons.com/nevis/trending-now/st-kitts-and-nevis-40th-anniversary/

Recipes:
https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/cuisine/recipe-national-dish-st-kitts-nevis/

Transcript

Hema: Hi, Mireille, we're back with another episode of The Moreish Podcast. We ended last week with a little hint of the country we're covering today. We said this two island country is the smallest country in the Americas. Where are we going today, Mireille?

Mireille: We're going to St. Kitts and Nevis.

Hema: So exciting. I don't know a whole lot about St. Kitts and Nevis, or say I didn't know a whole lot before I started researching this episode. So I'm really excited to hear what you've come up with in your research on the history. 

Mireille: Absolutely Yeah, I was pretty clueless about the island myself but let's just get right into it. St. Kitts and Nevis is a twin island Caribbean nation. As Hema mentioned, they are the smallest country in the Americas in both land and population. located in the Lesser Antilles.

The two islands are located just north of Montserrat and south of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. But before we get a deep dive into the history, I have a little trivia for you to start with. Did you know that Alexander Hamilton one of the founding fathers of the United States was actually born in Nevis.

Hema: I didn't know that. I wonder if anybody else did.

Mireille: I know that was total news to me, but I haven't seen the show Hamilton. I don't know if you have.

Hema: I have not.

Mireille: So St. Kitts is a volcanic island, although Mount Misery, which we're going to get into later, hasn't erupted since around the year 300. Nevis is a round island located about three miles southeast of the larger St. Kitts. A mountain also makes up the majority of the island of Nevis, Nevis Peak. The Saladoid people, these are new indigenous people we haven't discussed before, migrated from South America to the Caribbean around 500 BC.

When they arrived in St. Kitts, they named it Liamuiga, meaning fertile land. The Saladoid people were known for their very decorative ceramics and pottery and it's because archaeologists found all of this stuff. That's how they discovered the evidence of the Saladoid people. When Columbus first saw St. Kitts and Nevis on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, he named the larger island San Cristobal, but British settlers would later shorten it to St. Kitts.

Present day Nevis, he named Saint Martin. The Spanish would later rename it Santa Maria de las Nieves, referencing the clouds above the island, referencing Snow, because nieves in Spanish is snow. Around the year 1600, the Kalinago arrived and settled on both St. Kitts and Nevis. It was really challenging to find some information on what exactly happened to the Saladoid after this point, but based on history of other islands, I'm going to take an educated guess and say that the Kalinago got rid of them. Most likely, as is evidenced in other islands, they killed off the men and kept the women.

At this point, there had been visits to the islands by other English and French, including loggers. But they did not encounter any people. The indigenous people knew how to hide up in the higher elevations.

 Around 1618, it is believed that a group of French Huegenots escaping religious persecution, attempted to settle on St. Kits. On January 18th, 1623, the first British settlers arrived with Thomas Warner on a ship called the Marmaduke, and were initially welcomed by the Kalinago.

St. Kitts was the first British colony in the Caribbean as a result of Thomas Warner here. St. Kitts was set up as a plantation island growing tobacco, cotton, and indigo. Now in 1625, some French pirates fighting with the Spanish found refuge in St. Kitts after their ship was damaged. Pierre D’Esnambuc and Urbain Du Roissey would settle and stay in St.

Kitts. In 1626, it's reported that a Kalinago woman warned Thomas Warner of an impending attack. The French and the English joined forces and they defeated the Kalinago. So, at this point, because of the Kalinago trying to overpower them and also refusing to basically become enslaved, the British and the French, they joined together and decided to get rid of the Kalinago and pretty much killed them off.

Soon after this, the first enslaved people from Africa arrived on the island off of a Spanish ship that was on its way to the Spanish islands. On May 13th, 1627, the island was divided with the British in the middle and the French having the two ends. Now in 1628, Warner allowed about 80 settlers to start plantations in Nevis, because at this point they were only in St.Kitts. From here, the history of Nevis pretty much follows the history of St. Kitts. So, I may only say St. Kitts, but generally I'm referring to both islands.

So now they were both in Nevis and St. Kitts. In the same year, they started both the British and the French establishing large plantations. In 1629, the Spanish attacked the island under Don Fadrique Alvarez de Toledo. The French left the island. The English tried to resist, but they were defeated and ordered off the island, although a few hid out in the mountains.

Now the French had found refuge in Antigua, but in 1630, with the end of the Anglo-Spanish War, the Spanish agreed to return the island back to the British and the French. D’Esnambuc returned with about 350 settlers. Now, the British started to encroach on the French part of the island, and the French even armed their enslaved people to fight the British.

But the original borders were soon restored. And during this period, a lot of little squirmishes like that happened. D’Esnambuc remained a presence in Saint Kitts, and would also set up French settlements in Guadeloupe before his natural death in 1636. In 1639, Philip de Lonvilliers de Poincy was appointed as Governor General of the French colonies.

So at this point, it was also including Martinique and Guadeloupe. Due to a drop in the tobacco market, he and Warner decided to start sugarcane cultivation on the island.

The first French settlement was around Mount Liamuiga, a volcano, which locals at the time called Mount Misery due to the unprepared English for the Caribbean tropics and the life that greeted the enslaved Africans on the island.

One thing I noticed compared to the other islands we've researched like the English and the French really did not survive here. They would come with hundreds and within short order because of disease, they'd be back down to like 40 people. It was very difficult for them on this island.

Hema: I would imagine the English and the French colonizers. in general, probably weren't prepared for the heat and the humidity and the tropical conditions, and that probably also played a role in their ability to thrive.

Mireille: Yes, and then I think if they had any of those diseases like yellow fever, et cetera, because they're in circumstances that are unnatural to them, their body doesn't have the defenses, I think, to fight them off as much as they may have had if they were in Europe,

Hema: I agree. And on the flip side, the Europeans brought diseases to the islands. So they brought diseases that decimated the indigenous population, but also, as you mentioned, because they probably were already weakened due to the tropical conditions, the diseases that they brought to them with them would have been even more detrimental.

Mireille: Yes, so them being prepared for the harsh Caribbean tropics and the life that greeted the enslaved Africans when they arrived are the two reasons why this was called Mount Misery.

 The French set up the first settlement along its coastline, including sugar plantations. Sugar would become a national crop for the island until 2005. Once sugar demand decreased other agricultural products began, and coconut became the primary crop of the islands.

Since the Europeans stayed away from the higher elevations of the volcanic mountain, it was a great place for runaway slaves to escape to. In November 1639, the first group of 60 slaves tried to escape in the first attempt to try to set up a maroon community in Capisterre on St. Kitts, but they were caught.

However, runaway slaves often escaped to the higher elevations of Mount Misery, never to be found. There was one notorious runaway slave named Marcus, who lived on his own for three years and even after emancipation, he would never be found. Like there would be occasional sightings, but he never returned to like live among everyone else.

Hema: Smart. As we know from other islands, emancipation didn't mean complete freedom, so he was a smart one to just stay away.

Mireille: Exactly. As I said earlier, the mountain hasn't erupted since the year 300. And today it is a landmark that attracts hikers. It is one of the primary tourist attractions of the island to go for hikes and nature walks, up to Mount Misery

Thomas Warner was in charge of the English and de Poincy was in charge of the French on the island. However, the English planters were starting to rebel against the government, which placed limits on which crops they could grow. It was akin to the American Revolution, where people were fighting about government and the islands by the British without any local representation.

There was a lot of infighting at this time between the settlers on the islands, their governments in Europe, and between the English and French on the island.

 I'm skipping all over a lot And jumping to March, 1706 when a French fleet arrived, burning plantations and stealing enslaved people. They were defeated by the British. On April 11, 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, ceding the island to the British.

In the 1650s, when sugar took over from tobacco as the primary crop, enslaved people made up about 20% of the population. And by the 1700's, the African population grew to 80% in the 1700's. With sugar being a primary crop, slaves began to arrive directly from Africa, especially during the period of 1726 to 1775.

 The majority of the slaves arriving in St. Kitts and Nevis came from Congo, the Igbo people of Nigeria, the Gold Coast, and Upper Guinea, which includes present day Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast.

Mireille: Slaves would be classified as either African or Creoles. Meaning those classified as Creoles were born in the Americas.

I found a great article detailing what life was like for them and what they ate, which will be linked in the show notes, but here's just a little bit of it. They were given small rations of salt herrings or mackerel, sweet potatoes and corn, and sometimes West Indian salted turtle.

On Sundays, they were given the day off, although many of these people were not Christian. They would garden their little plots of land, and also they were given provision grounds, which is usually inferior land, often stony and mountainous, where they could grow yam and other vegetables as well as plantain.

On all Caribbean islands today, Saturday is Market Day, and this stems from the tradition tracing back to slavery, although back then it was on Sunday. By the 18th century, the enslaved people dominated the Saturday market, from sunrise to 9 a. m.  “The Negroes bring fowls, Indian corn, yams, garden stuff of all sorts, etc.”

Hema: I love market day in many Caribbean countries when I go, if I'm there on a Saturday, I will go to the market because you can find so many delicious things and meet some incredible people.

Mireille: Also the street food that they're preparing like fresh roasted corn and different things, as you're perusing your produce. I love it.

Hema: it's a fun time all around. Not always for the faint of heart because people are there for serious marketing and serious business. If you go with an open mind and try some things and talk to people, you will enjoy it.

Mireille: Absolutely. Now, this provision ground that they were provided is likely where we get ground provision from. In the Caribbean ground provision is any variety of root vegetables, like yam, cassava, plantains, sweet potatoes, and breadfruit.

Hema: That catch all term of provision. Sometimes my mother would say to me when I ask what we're eating, she would say provision soup. I'm like, but what does that even mean? it? And she would just say provisions.

Mireille: This is so interesting to learn about because I used to always think that the reason it was called ground provisions was that it was provisions mostly from the ground like that the land provided. So when I read this, to tell you the truth, I found this the most interesting. In addition to using the supplements to feed themselves, they would also sell extra vegetables that they didn't need to buy chickens or pigs for meat.

On September 3rd, 1783, the Peace of Paris Treaty was signed, ceding St. Kitts and Nevis to the British. On November 29th of that same year, the first law protecting enslaved people in the British West Indies in any way was passed. The Act to Protect the Mutilation of the Enslaved had a penalty of 500 pounds or six months imprisonment.

 In March 1805, the French invaded St. Kitts and threatened to burn plantations unless a ransom of 50, 000 pounds was paid. But they went away after they were paid 18, 000 pounds. March 25th, 1807 marked the end of the slave trade in the British West Indies.

As of 1816, the islands of St. Kitts, Nevis Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands were administered as a single British colony. So it wasn't separate governments like it is today. On August 1st, 1834, the slaves received emancipation. In 1962, at this point, St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla were still joined together, became a self-governed state under the British crown. Anguilla was dissatisfied with the dominance of St.Kitts. In 1971, they separated and Anguilla returned to a colony state under Great Britain while St. Kitts and Nevis remained self- governed. They gained independence on September 19th, 1983 as a constitutional monarchy remaining a Commonwealth country. I think a lot of people don't realize how recently many countries got their independence.

And I think that led to not a lot of mourning in the Caribbean when Queen Elizabeth died. Let's just put it that way.

At this time, the Federation of the Two Islands of St. Kitts and Nevis was established.

Now before we get a little more into the culture and the people, I did want to mention the only other group of people I found coming to St. Kitts or Nevis were some Jewish people who came from Brazil. In the 1600s, Brazil expelled its Jewish population, who escaped to several islands of the Caribbean including St.Kitts. At its height, the Jewish population was about 25 percent of St. Kitts. Although abandoned today with only 19 remaining markers, a Jewish cemetery had been built in Charlestown. At the end of the 18th century, most of the Jewish people left the island.

Today, most of the people are Black, with small minorities of mixed South Asian and White people. Most are Anglican or Methodist, with a Catholic minority. English is the official language, but they also speak a local Creole language. It is an English based Creole, influenced by West African languages.

Like other Caribbean islands, Carnival is celebrated. But there's also a month long celebration from July to August on Nevis called Culturama. It celebrates the emancipation from slavery and the island's Indigenous people, with people dressing in costumes and enjoying local music.

It is a vibrant representation of the island's history via storytelling and traditional arts and crafts that would include wood carvings and batik textiles. There's many different types of local art forms found in St. Kitts and Nevis, one being the home of Caribelle Batik on St. Kitts. This traditional textile art dates back 400 years.

This involves applying wax and dyes to usually silk or cotton fabric to create intricate and detailed patterns. All of this is still done by hand. Of course, music and food play a big part of Culturama. In addition to Soca and Calypso, jam bands, also known as wilders or Wailaz, are the primary music genres.

The music combines African rhythms with steelpan and shakshaks, a traditional instrument. Of course, local food would be there, and there's also a mango festival. Speaking of food, Hema, over to you.

Hema: I'm so excited to talk about food, but Mireille, I'm going to just mention, you talked about shak-shaks being a traditional instrument. As a child, I thought maracas were called shak-shaks. I didn't learn the word maracas until I was maybe six or seven, because that's just what we called it at home, was a shak-shak.

Let's go on to the food. So Mireille already talked about St.Kitt's being known as fertile land. What I didn't know is St Kitt's is home to 44 different varieties of mango. If you're interested in mangoes, St. Kitts and Nevis is the place for you. The land is so fertile on both islands that there are a plethora of things grown. You'll find soursop and breadfruit, and spices like ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and clove. If you're there in July, that's when the Mango Festival is In Nevis, and you will find mango everything, including foods, food demonstrations, cooking classes. If mangoes are your thing, go to Nevis in July. 

Sugar was such a big industry that by 1776, the island became the richest British colony in the Caribbean due to sugar production. This remains a big part of current day culture with Carnival also being referred to as Sugar Mas. As with Carnival all over the Caribbean Sugar Mas includes song dance and folklore, and was influenced by the revolt of the enslaved people. 

When it comes to the national dish, there are a few different components, and we'll talk about all of them. It is stewed saltfish. plantain, breadfruit and coconut dumplings. We talked about saltfish in the last episode, so I'm not gonna go into the history of the transatlantic slave trade, and the connection to saltfish. But if you are interested, go back and listen to the episode on Jamaica.

Plantain is another ingredient that is a part of the national dish that was brought to the Caribbean. They are native to Southeast Asia and made their way to many regions around the world. It is believed that the Arab traders took plantain to Africa. They may have been then taken by the Portuguese or the Spanish who found them in Western Africa and took them on the ships as part of the transatlantic slave trade to the Caribbean. 

If you haven't seen breadfruit before, it is a green fruit with a bumpy or slightly spiky skin that is grown in tropical conditions. It's around the size of maybe a cantaloupe. As it ripens, the skin starts to turn a lighter, greeny yellow and might start to look a little bit dried out. That's still fine to eat. Inside is the starchy, cream coloured flesh that is the part that you eat. It can be eaten ripe or unripe. As it ripens, the flesh gets softer and sweeter, and it is said that when it's roasted, breadfruit looks and smells like freshly baked bread. Mireille, I've only had the firmer, unripe breadfruit. Have you eaten it ripe?

Mireille: Not directly, but I use it for making things. When it's super ripe,the inside becomes like mush and then you can put it in like pancake batter, sweet bread. I have like a sweet cake on my website that uses it when it's ripe like that. You can use it to make smoothies. You can also make ice cream with it. So all of those things you can do when it gets so ripe I wouldn't eat it just like that, but it's great for making, like, sweet things.

Hema: Yeah, I think that most Caribbean people, people can correct me if I'm wrong, typically eat it when it's a little bit starchier and firmer.

Mireille: Absolutely.

Hema: In our Grenada episode, we did talk about breadfruit and its connection to the times of slavery. Captain William Bligh brought breadfruit to the Caribbean from Tahiti in the 1700's as a carbohydrate rich filling and inexpensive item to feed the enslaved people.

There is a whole story about Captain Bligh, the HMS Bounty and the Mutiny, which resulted in hundreds of breadfruit plants from Tahiti being thrown overboard. I will link that story in the show notes. The French also took a variety of breadfruit from the Philippines to the French colonies in the Caribbean.

So breadfruit got to the Caribbean in a couple of different ways.

We will leave some links to recipes in the show notes if you're interested in making the national dish, but I do want to talk about it briefly in a nutshell. The saltfish is boiled and then cooked with bell peppers, onions, garlic, and tomatoes into a sort of a stew. And the preparation can be seen as similar to Jamaican ackee and saltfish. No ackee. There's tomatoes, which tends to make it a little bit saucier. The plantains are tossed with ginger, onion, hot peppers, and then fried, and sometimes people will call it spiced plantain. The breadfruit is used in the unripe version. It's peeled and cut up and then either boiled in salted water and served in a simple plain version, or most often cooked up with aromatics like garlic and thyme. Maybe a little chicken broth with onions and bell peppers. And the coconut dumplings are simple dumplings with the addition of coconut flakes.

Mireille: Are they using ripe plantains or green plantains in this preparation?

Hema: I believe, you know, that's a really good question, Mireille. I believe that it is ripe, but I didn't find any definitive answer. And I looked up several different recipes and everybody just said plantain.

Mireille: Because again, we're always talking about these connections to the people who came here and there is a really popular Ghanian dish called Kelewele where they take ripe plantain and it's tossed with ginger onion, hot peppers, and I think cinnamon they use too, and then it's fried. And I'm thinking that this may have come from them.

Hema: It sounds very similar and it wouldn't surprise me that with the African influences that this dish that is a part of St. Kitts and Nevis national dish has the influences in the African enslaved people. This national dish all together is saucy stewed saltfish, the slight sweetness of the coconut dumplings, and the heartiness of the plantain and the breadfruit all comes together to make a delicious meal. 

As with other national dishes that we've talked about, the stewed saltfish, plantain, breadfruit, and coconut dumplings of St.Kitts and Nevis is influenced by the history of the people, where they came from, and also the ingredients that were brought to the island that are not endemic to the islands. That's it for today's episode on St. Kitts and Nevis.

Mireille: Thanks for joining us this week as we explored St. Kitts and Nevis on The Moreish Podcast.

Hema: Come back next week to find out which Caribbean nation we are tackling next. As usual, here's a hint. One of the indigenous names for this island is now the name of its international airport. If you know what we're talking about, leave us a comment on Instagram or TikTok. Bye!