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History
The first people to inhabit what is now Grenada were the Arawaks.
They were later wiped out by the Caribs, who occupied the island
when Christopher Columbus landed there in 1498.
The French built Grenada's first European settlement, initially
appeasing and then slaughtering the Caribs, many of whom chose suicide
over domination by the French.
In 1651, the last of the Caribs leapt to their deaths from Morne
de Sauteurs, a rocky promontory on the island's north coast.
Grenada was a source of contention between the French and the British
until 1783, when the Treaty of Versailles declared the island British.
Planters imported African slaves as laborers. The Emancipation Act
of 1838 ended slavery, forcing plantation owners to import indentured
laborers from India, Malta, and Madeira.
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