Sugar Estates of St. Kitts - A Photo Essay by Dr. Grant Cornwell

The Story of Sugar Estates on St. Kitts: Images and Voices

Sugar Estate on the Island  of St. Kitts

This collection of images is an interpretive survey of former sugar estates on St. Kitts. It is an attempt to tell a story more through pictures and voices than words.

Sugar has been at the center of the history of this island for the the last 400 years, and even today, as the industry moves ineluctably towards its end, sugar is an essential element of this nation's identity, its culture, its people. At one point, over 300 plantations were active on this island. These sites are complex monuments to human industry, ambition, suffering, and endurance. Today, many lie in ruins, haunting landscapes of a violent history. Others have been restored for new purposes. All hold memory and meaning.