Saint Vincent & Grenadines
A mainland and thirty two Grenadine islands, guarded first by a chief who refused to surrender them.
In 1772, Garifuna Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer led his people into the First Carib War against British forces trying to seize their land, fighting them to a standstill and forcing the signing of an 1773 treaty, the first time Britain had been compelled to make peace with a non white nation in the Caribbean since 1739. He returned to arms in 1795 leading a second uprising and was killed in battle that March.
Chatoyer was fighting for exactly what the national motto would later declare, Pax et Justitia, peace and justice, on his own land, under his own terms. Named the nation's first National Hero in 2002, his stand is the reason the motto reads like a promise kept rather than a slogan.
Get to Know Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Capital: Kingstown. Language: English. Currency: Eastern Caribbean dollar. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained independence from Britain on October 27, 1979.
Fun Facts
- Home to the oldest botanic garden in the Western Hemisphere, founded in Kingstown in 1765.
- Captain William Bligh delivered breadfruit plants to Kingstown in 1793, the same voyage that survived the Bounty mutiny.
- Made up of one mainland and 32 smaller islands and cays known as the Grenadines.
- Joseph Chatoyer, the nation's first National Hero, led Garifuna resistance against British colonization in the 1770s and 1790s.
- National motto: Pax et Justitia, Latin for Peace and Justice.
Why Visit
The Tobago Cays Marine Park protects a scatter of uninhabited islets ringed by reef, where sea turtles graze in the shallows and yachts anchor for the night. Bequia's harbor has drawn sailors for generations, while the Botanic Gardens in Kingstown still tend a descendant of the breadfruit tree Captain Bligh delivered in 1793. Inland, La Soufriere volcano offers a steep hike to a crater rim, and the string of Grenadine islands makes the whole country one of the Caribbean's best sailing grounds.
Made in Saint Vincent & Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was once the world's leading supplier of arrowroot starch, and bananas, coconuts, and seafood remain the backbone of its export economy today.
This space is reserved for a future Local Marketplace Spotlight, featuring Trust Standard certified Vincentian businesses once that pillar of the Americas Ecosystem exists. Soon.