Culture & History of St. John's
Antigua was inhabited as early as 2400 B.C. by the Siboney people and later, pastoral Arawaks. The Arawaks were displaced by the aggressive Carib tribe. Christopher Columbus spotted the island in 1493 and named it after a saint worshiped in Seville, Santa Maria la Antigua. But he didn’t land here; the island was not occupied by Europeans until 1632. It was cultivated with the arrival of the British entrepreneur Sir Christopher Codrington, who exploited Antigua for large-scale sugar cane production using African slaves. You can still see around 100 stone towers from the sugar mills dotted around the island and visit Codrington’s house, Betty’s Hope.
Antigua was an important naval base thanks to the deep water harbor at St. John’s and the protected bay of English Harbour, where Horatio Nelson built Nelson’s Dockyard in 1784. St. John’s, already the most populous town on the island, was heavily defended in those days, and you can still see the old forts and arsenal that protected the harbor. Slavery was abolished in 1834, an event celebrated at Antigua’s annual Carnival. As the sugar cane industry declined, so did the island’s fortunes, reviving only in the second half of the 20th century as tourism began to boom. Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from Britain in 1981 but remain members of the Commonwealth. Visit today and you’ll find a vibrant culture with African, British, and other influences, and a busy calendar of events, including Antigua Sailing Week.
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