John Harris after Lieut. Caddy.

Brimstone Hill, St. Kitts.

12 x 9 inches

A hand coloured aquatint by Harris after the drawing by Lieut. Caddy, published in London in 1837.

In this scarce view of the hill fort on Brimstone Hill in Saint Kitts we are reminded of both Britain's maritime might and its shameful involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

British interest in the island appears to have started as early as the C17th but by the 1780s it had become an invaluable garrison post as the British expanded their dominance and commercial involvement throughout the Caribbean. There was a brief cessation to British rule when the French laid siege to the island and took control in 1782 but after the Treaty of Paris a year later St. Kitts returned to British ownership. Although the British forces finally left in 1853 and the fort has now been reclaimed as a national park and UNESCO world heritage site, the shameful fact remains that for much of its early years the fort was built and then maintained by enslaved Africans. Even by 1837 this print still shows Africans at work down on the coastline, perhaps no longer enslaved but almost certainly still subservient.

£425