The Case Of St Helena

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St Helena covers 122 square kilometres, and its topography mostly consists of steep, relatively barren and rocky territory, unsuitable for cultivation. The island's capital and only town is Jamestown, although there are smaller settlements such as Halftree Hollow, Blue Hills, Sandy Bay and Longwood (the latter being the residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was exiled on the island from 1815 until his death in 1821). St Helena's population of approximately 4,000 (2006) is of mixed European, African and Asian origin, and English is the only language spoken on the island.

Originally uninhabited, St Helena was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese, who, just like the other European seafaring nations who followed after them, used the island as a refreshment station and sickbay on their journeys to and from the East. Until claimed by the East India wholesale cartier jewellery Company (EIC) in 1658, the island was never permanently or formally settled (Gosse, 1938). It was in that year when a concerted settlement policy was implemented, and soldiers, servants and planters (employed ...
... and contracted by the EIC, who held direct control over the island until the 1830s) were recruited to St Helena, along with slaves supplied on request by the Company's ships. Even though the exact origins of the British settlers are not known, there is evidence that most of them came from southern England. Moreover, the majority of the planters had working-class origins and the EIC recruited many of its soldiers (and settlers as well, for that matter) from among the unemployed in England (Gosse, 1938:72). We know that many of them were illiterate (as evidenced by an entry in the St Helena Consultations (quoted in Brooke, 1808) on February 2nd, 1774: "On 31st Jan. six soldiers deserted in the night taking two Boats ... The deserters were illiterate men of bad character and only a few days provisions and must inevitably perish at sea").

The origins of the non-white population are better documented; records show that slaves were imported from the Guinea Coast, the Indian sub-continent and Madagascar, and to a lesser extent from the Cape and Larger Table Bay area, the West Indies, Indonesia and the Maldives. In 1789, the importation of slaves officially ended, but the lack of cheap labour was compensated with Chinese indentured labourers who arrived in the early nineteenth century. However, very few, if any, stayed on permanently and slavery was finally abolished in 1832 (Melliss, 1875). In 1815, the total population was 3,342, comprising 694 whites, 1,517 slaves, 933 non-permanent army personnel, as well some 300 indentured labourers from China.

The situation changed dramatically in 1834, when St Helena's administration was transferred from the EIC to the British government and St Helena officially became a crown colony dolce gabbana jewelry Poverty led to out-migration and the remainder of the nineteenth century was characterised by extreme hardship. This period saw an increase in mobility and was characterised by ethnic mixing. Governor Charles Elliot remarked in 1868 that 'there can be no position on the face of the earth where it would be more difficult to discriminate between the various strains of blood of which the body of the population is composed than here in St Helena' (quoted in Gosse, 1938). Population loss due to out-migration was compensated by the arrival of immigrant groups: the indentured labourers from China, liberated African slaves, brought to the island after 1840, when St Helena was used as base for rehabilitating slaves from captured slave ships (some of them chose to stay while the majority were sent on to the West Indies or repatriated back to the African mainland) and hundreds of Afrikaans-speaking Boer War prisoners in 1902, only very few of whom stayed behind upon their release.