Dominica
Island country between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about one-half the distance between Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago, south of Guadeloupe and north of Martinique.Dominica is nicknamed the Caribbean's “nature island” because of the lush foliage, green mountains, and abundant farms that cover the country. These natural resources are now touted as a tourist attraction, but in the centuries following European colonization, they also provided a fortunate haven for many indigenous and enslaved Dominicans. The rugged terrain made it difficult for white colonists to establish permanent settlements on the island, and then difficult for them to cultivate large plantations there. The mountains and forests even made Dominica a refuge for slaves from other islands who knew its terrain could provide a safe hiding space. Even today, Dominica is one of the least overdeveloped islands in the Caribbean. Dominica is home to one of the last remaining indigenous communities in the Caribbean, and it is among the few islands on which most of the land is owned and worked by individual farmers.
Dominica's first permanent inhabitants were Arawak Indians, who migrated to several Caribbean islands from South America about 1000 B.C.E. In approximately 900 C.E., the Dominican Arawaks were invaded by the more aggressive Caribs, who named the oval-shaped island Wai'tukubuli, which means “tall is her body.” When Christopher Columbus first sighted the island on November 3, 1493, he named it Dominica after the Spanish word for Sunday, the day of his “discovery.” He and his men were in the middle of their second voyage to claim the entire New World for
Spain, and they planned to add Dominica to their list of possessions. But the island's terrain was so rugged, and the Carib resistance so fierce, that the Spanish were unable to establish a permanent settlement there.
Instead, over the next 100 years, European ships were allowed to stop on Dominica only long enough for the sailors to gather wood and water and to trade their knives, glass, and tools for Carib plantains, fruit, and tobacco. But Spain,
Great Britain,
France, and
Holland were each establishing successful colonies on other Caribbean islands, and Dominica's lush soil remained tempting. In the seventeenth century, European countries tried again to claim Dominica—first England in 1627, and then France in 1632, although neither attempt was successful. Dominican Caribs, meanwhile, not only continued to defend their own home but also joined Caribs from other islands to attack colonists in
Saint Lucia,
Antigua and Barbuda, and
Montserrat. By 1686, England and France were both frustrated enough with the situation that they signed a neutrality treaty pledging to allow Dominica to “be inhabited by the savages to who [sic] it has been left.”
A View of Roseau This image shows the busy port city of Roseau, the oldest settlement on the island as well as its capital.
Library of Congress
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By the same period, however, the Dominican Carib population had begun declining sharply as a result of the years of battle and the diseases carried by the colonists. As their numbers dropped, French lumber workers quietly began settling the island, and soon English, Spanish, and Portuguese families followed. It was the French, however, who were to have the most lasting impact on the colony—largely because they were the first to import African slaves to work the land. By 1750, half of the island's 3,000 inhabitants were enslaved West Africans, and these first black Dominicans would quickly become the island's majority.
France and England continued fighting over the island. Despite a 1748 treaty that reaffirmed Dominica's neutrality, it was declared a British territory in 1763, a French one in 1778, and reclaimed by the British in 1783. After two unsuccessful French attacks in 1795 and 1805—during which the main city,
Roseau, was burned to the ground—Dominica ultimately remained a British colony until independence in 1978, although French patois and Roman Catholicism remain predominant even today. Slavery developed very differently in Dominica, however, than in the French or English Caribbean colonies, mainly as a result of the differences in topography.
The densely forested, hilly land made it impractical to operate massive sugar plantations such as those found on neighboring islands. Instead, most slaves lived on smaller estates that grew cotton and tobacco and that set aside land for slaves to grow their own gardens and raise their own livestock. Many slaves then brought their extra produce to the island's Sunday markets, and some Dominican slaves were able to earn enough money from this extra labor to purchase their freedom. This led to the evolution of a class of free blacks on the island called affranchis, who often went on to buy estates and slaves of their own.
Dominican society was also enriched by the presence of several other groups, most notably the surviving Dominican Caribs and runaway slaves from other islands. By the 1770s, the Caribs had been pushed to a 232-acre “reserve” on the east coast, but they succeeded in reestablishing their communities there and coexisting with the white colonists who had taken over their home. Meanwhile, before the French and British had even begun to settle the island, slaves on nearby islands had been able to see that Dominica's trees and mountains made it an excellent place to hide. For decades some had braved the short water crossing to escape into the Dominican hills, and by 1785 there were thirteen camps of maroons, or runaway slaves, established around Dominica's center. After several camps tried to recruit Dominican slaves, four chiefs were found and executed in 1786, but those who survived continued leading their free black colonies.
After the 1795 French attack, British slaveholders devised a new use for their black slaves, as military recruits. By 1797 slaves from several estates had been drafted to serve in the army, in which they were called the Black Rangers. Soon afterward, the governor of the colony purchased 200 African slaves expressly to form an extra regiment, the Eighth West Indian. These slave-soldiers were treated so harshly that they revolted in 1802, and while many of them were able to escape to maroon communities, thirty-four were court-martialed and hanged. The period of such blatantly cruel mistreatment of Dominican slaves was nearly over. In 1807, Great Britain abolished the slave trade, and it was clear that full abolition in its colonies would eventually follow.
In Dominica, it was also clear that the large numbers of free black farmers were not content with a political system that did not allow them equal franchise. An appointed council and a popularly elected House of Assembly ruled the colony, and black Dominicans wanted to participate in the elections. By the 1830s, the island's black majority experienced dramatic changes. In an historic advance, the 1831 Brown Privilege Bill gave property-holding free blacks the right to vote and seek political office. Three black Dominicans were elected to the House of Assembly the very next year, and by 1838 the Assembly had a black majority, making it the only British Caribbean colony to have a black-controlled legislature in the nineteenth century. This new majority came about because on August 1, 1834, slavery was formally abolished in all British colonies, allowing 14,175 black Dominicans to join the country's free population. As more and more black families were able to acquire their own small farms and estates, more of them became eligible to vote in the colony's affairs.
Several black political leaders emerged during this period. James Garraway became president and senior Council member, making him the first person of African descent to achieve high office in the British colonial dependencies. Charles Gordon Falconer, the prominent editor of the colony's liberal newspaper, led fellow legislators to push for social welfare laws. But white Dominicans, already financially devastated by abolition, fought to regain control of the colony's government. In 1863 they succeeded in dissolving both the House of Assembly and the Council, replacing them with a single legislative assembly, which by 1865 was split between elected and appointed members. In 1898, Dominica became a British Crown colony, governed by a legislative council with six nominated members, thus completely ending the island's first era of popularly elected government.
Even before that development, black Dominicans had sometimes found themselves at odds with the island's government. In 1844 riots broke out in several villages after rumors that a proposed government census was actually a precursor to the reinstitution of slavery. A decade later, 130 Dominicans were imprisoned for defying the 1856 Road Act, which stipulated that all Dominicans were required either to pay taxes to support road maintenance or to work on the road crews without pay. Then in 1893, four men were killed and two women injured in the village of La Plaine, when soldiers attempted to evict a man who could not pay his land taxes.
Many of these conflicts arose because Dominican society remained dominated by small landowners, whose farms and villages were essentially self-sufficient and who were unhappy with government-imposed taxes that rarely brought them any visible improvements. Few public schools or even paved roads had been established in Dominica by the turn of the twentieth century. With the establishment of the Crown colony government, however, Great Britain made new efforts to implement programs to modernize the island.
By the start of World War I, more roads had been built, telephone and electric lines installed on much of the island and water and sewage systems improved. Processing lime juice for export to Great Britain and the United States had become a profitable industry for many of Dominica's farmers. The Carib territory was also officially expanded, from 232 to 3,700 acres. A hurricane in 1916, and a series of plant root diseases in 1924, put an end to the island's reign as the world's leading lime producer, but Dominican farmers were able to recover by turning to new crops. Soon bananas and coconuts were thriving on the island's farms.
Dominicans also made strides toward increased self-government in the 1920s, with the 1925 return of four elected members to the country's legislature. In 1931 the Constitutional Reform Association formed. The next year, Dominican politician C. E. A. Rawle chaired a conference at Roseau at which seventeen Caribbean political leaders came together to argue for a West Indian federation that would end Crown colony rule and establish full adult franchise across the region. Britain responded by attempting to placate Dominica's citizens, giving the country a new constitution in 1936 that allowed for a majority of elected legislative members and a governor. But Dominicans continued to push for even stronger reforms.
In a trend that was being repeated across the Caribbean, the unions served as a key vehicle for political changes. In 1945 the Dominica Trade Union was formed, followed by the Dominica Workers' Association in 1946 and the Teachers' Union in 1949. Throughout the region, the islands' black majorities were pushing toward political independence from their colonizers, and while this process was slow, it was ultimately successful. In Dominica, British authorities finally granted universal adult suffrage in 1951. Dominicans used their new right to vote to support the Dominica Labour Party (DLP), the country's first political party. In 1961 the DLP's Edward Oliver LeBlanc, a small farmer, led the party to victory and became the first person from outside the country's urban élite to lead the Dominican government.
LeBlanc's platform stated that “it was time for the little man to begin enjoying the fruits of his labour.” Under his leadership Dominica was granted associated statehood in 1967, an arrangement according to which Great Britain continued to control Dominica's foreign affairs, but the country's domestic affairs were entirely self-governed—just one step away from full independence. After LeBlanc stepped down as premier in 1974, he was succeeded by Patrick John, who oversaw the transition to full independence on November 3, 1978. Less than a year after the symbolic victory of independence, however, John was forced out of office after protests over his government's restrictions on the right to free speech and widespread charges of corruption.
In August, 1979, while the interim government was still attempting to restore order, Dominica was devastated by Hurricane David, leaving the country in a state of chaos. The 1980 elections provided an opportunity for a fresh start, however. A new party came to power, the Dominica Freedom Party, and with it barrister and politician Mary Eugenia
Charles, who became the first woman to be elected head of state in the Caribbean, and one of the few black female heads of state in the world. After weathering two unsuccessful coup attempts during her first year in office (including one that ex-prime minister John was convicted for having organized), Charles went on to earn international respect for supporting the 1983 U.S. invasion of
Grenada in her role as chair of the Organization of East Caribbean States. After Charles resigned in 1995, Edison James succeeded her. Labour Party leader Roosevelt (“Rosie”) Douglas became prime minister in 2000, uniting her party with the Dominica Freedom Party. When Douglas died suddenly after a few months in office, Pierre Charles, who had previously been the communications and works minister, succeeded her.
Contemporary Dominica is still strongly influenced by its unique blend of Carib, French, British, and African cultures. Its 3,000-member Carib community is the largest in the Caribbean. While cricket is considered the island's national game, and the judicial and educational systems are both based on British models, the common language is still a French-based patois, and the dominant religion is Roman Catholicism. The culture, meanwhile, has a decided Afro-Caribbean flair. As one travel guide points out, “African, West Indian and native Carib traditions all contribute to a Creole culture, resulting in a mix of language, food, art and customs. Common sights include Carib dugout canoes, stilt houses, Rastafarian dreadlocks, and red, green and yellow African clothing.” Caribbean music also reflects these roots, and
Reggae,
Calypso, and
Zouk are the island's most popular rhythms.
Dominicans take pride in claiming that their island is the only one Columbus would still recognize if he were to arrive today, because so much of its mountainous landscape remains the same. The island's shortage of the wide sandy beaches that have become synonymous with Caribbean vacation spots has kept it from becoming a widely popular tourist destination. In recent years, however, Dominica has begun to advertise its considerable resources as ideal for hikers, naturalists, and those who simply enjoy visiting untouched green spaces. Its resources also remain ideal for Dominica's thousands of small farmers and estate owners.
See also
Maroonage in the Americas;
Rastafarians;
Trinidad and Tobago;
West Indies.
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