Island Hopping Marie Galante History

ISLAND HPPING

Marie-Galante was named by her discover, Christopher Columbus, who named her after his flagship, the Santa Marie la Galante, when the Admiral dropped the hook in Anse Ballet on November 3, 1493. Hostile Caribs kept the Great Discoverer from spending any time on the island so Columbus sailed on in search of friendlier islands. The Caribs still inhabited the island when the French first attempted to colonize Marie-Galante in 1648.

On September 4, 1649, Jacques de Boisseret purchased the island of Marie-Galante from the American Islands Company. At this time there were only about 30 people living in the Vieux-Bourg area. In 1664, de Boisseret’s widow left her rights to Marie-Galante to the West Indies Company which had undertaken the task of purchasing all privately owned islands. In May of 1665 her son, Monsieur de Téméricourt became governor of the island and drew up a coat of arms as well as a map of the island showing the boundaries of the Marquis de Boisseret, which covered the area from Grande Anse to Anse de May. However the Carib Indians were still a thorn in the side of the French and it wasn’t until 1660 that French troops finally defeated the indigenous Amerindians and banished the survivors to nearby Dominica.

The colonization of Marie-Galante began in earnest at this point, and by the end of the 1600s there were an estimated 1,000 colonists who had set up successful plantations and sugar refineries. It wasn’t long before the English and Dutch cast their eye in the direction of Marie-Galante and each in turn invaded the island and ownership of Marie-Galante changed hands several times before the island was ceded to France in 1815.

Despite hurricanes and earthquakes, the sugar industry flourished on Marie-Galante reaching a peak at the turn of the 19th century when of the 11,500 inhabitants, over 9,400 were slaves. Long before Emancipation came to the Caribbean, the slaves on Marie-Galante had already rebelled and the island became independent, freeing themselves from royalist Guadeloupe. Today the island produces about 140,000 tons of sugar, which is turned into some of the world’s best rum and those of Marie-Galante’s 13,000 residents who are not involved with the sugar industry are probably out fishing as the tourism industry takes third place in the island’s economy.