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Union Island history - learn what once happend
The earliest known inhabitants of Union Island were the Ciboney Indians, who arrived around 5000 BC. They lived in caves and ate fish and seashells. They were followed by the Arawaks. Soon, the Arawak people were then pushed northwards up the chain of Caribbean islands by a race of people coming from the Amazon Basin, the Caribs. The Arawaks and Caribs were collectively called the Amerindians. They both came to Union Island and the rest of Grenadiness islands traveling in fifty-foot dugout canoes, carrying with them fire-burners, animals and plants. From the south, the tribes first settled on Chatham Bay, and from the north they settled at Miss Pierre. Union Island was chosen as a religious centre by the Arawaks who were a very peaceful tribe. The Caribs, more aggressive, conquered and killed their men and carried off their woman. Even though the Amerindians lived close to the coast land, they grew plants in the rainy season, and store them for the dry season. The cassava, corn and fruit were cultivated by these early settlers. They receive their protein through hunting wood pigeons, manicous, iguanas, etc. The sap of the manchineel tree made their arrows for the hunt poisonous and deadly After the original settlers, Indians from South America, the Island has been in the possession of French and English slave traders and plantation owners. They brought hundreds of people to the island, mostly from Cameroon and Angola. When slavery was abolished, little materially changed for the population, people still relied on farming and fishing. As a result, a lot of men went to sea to work on freighters to support their families. In 1939, a steady flow of emigrants headed towards the USA and the larger neighboring islands such as Trinidad, Aruba and Curacao. Union Island men had a reputation of being excellent seamen; because of this, the maritime petrol companies employed men from the islands. The money earned was used to build homes and develop economic activities such as trade. Domestic life further improved when a cistern was built in Ashton between 1940 and 1950. World War 2 made the pride of unionite Hugh Mulzac shine all over the world. When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, it faced a shortage of merchant mariners. Supplies were desperately needed overseas. The massive sealift would require not only a huge fleet of cargo ships, but the seafarers to sail them. Thus the door opened to Black mariners for a range of shipboard jobs. One of the most dramatic stories of the era involved shipmaster Hugh Mulzac. Even though Mulzac passed the examination as a U.S. shipmaster in 1920, there was a problem. Now the day chartering business provides a lot of jobs, there are numerous boutiques and supermarkets, excellent bars and restaurants to suit every budget, internet cafes, a dive operator, in short, a nice place to spend at least part of your vacation.
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Union Island Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
We will also run a travel blog portal which centralises the blogs posted by our visitors on all of our websites and which represents one of the world's best travel information resources, totally build by people such as yourself.
In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Union Island Grenadines.
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