The Royall Family Presence, and the Larger Colonial Presence, on the Island Of Antigua

Today, just the base of a stone windmill stands as a marker commemorating the lives of hundreds of enslaved people enslaved by Isaac Royall Sr between 1700 and 1730. This windmill, which used to drive the machinery that crushed the sugarcane stalks, is just one of the 200+ mills scattered across Antigua’s landscape as visible reminders of the exploitation of enslaved people on the island’s sugar plantations. At the height of Antigua’s export of sugar, towards the end of the 18th century, enslaved people made up to 93% of the island’s population. In 1700, the Royall Family of Massachusetts began a sugar plantation in Antigua's St. John Parish.

The original inhabitants of Antigua were indigenous Tainos and Kalinago groups. These groups had earlier migrated from South America, and inhabited much of the Caribbean until the 15th century. In 1493, Columbus arrived on the island and named it “Antigua” after a church in Spain. In 1632, the island was claimed by England. There is little trace of the indigenous groups today, due to generations of malnutrition, slavery, and disease at the hands of European settlers. At first the settlers grew tobacco, but they soon found that sugar cane was more profitable and that the Caribbean climate was perfectly suited to grow it.

From planting to harvesting to processing, sugar cane is a deadly, labor intensive crop. Planters turned to enslaved Africans, as this was work people would only do if forced. The deadliness of this labor also necessitated a copious influx of enslaved people from Africa to replace those that had died. On the neighboring island of Barbados, with almost identical plantations and working conditions, it has been estimated that it took the importation of 150,000 enslaved people to maintain a stable population of just 20,000. One in seven enslaved people did not even make it across the Middle Passage, dying at sea due to the horrific conditions of the seven-plus week voyage. Those who arrived on the island were met with deadly diseases, starvation, dehydration, and injuries. Workers on sugar plantations typically died within seven years of enslavement.

Enslaved people on Antigua also endured whippings at the hands of overseers, and torture at the hands of the planters at the least sign of rebellion. The island's large majority of enslaved people, some 90% of the population, made planters nervous. It has been estimated that 77 enslaved people on the Royall's plantation were executed for suspected uprisings during the family's 36-year residence on Antigua. Indeed, rumors of a slave revolt in 1736 finally pushed the Royall family to leave Antigua, in a panic that led to the execution of 88 enslaved people across the colony. This, along with a hurricane in 1733, earthquake in 1735, and a smallpox epidemic in 1736, led to an economic downturn that also helped to send the Royall family back to Massachusetts.

With their arrival in Medford, Massachusetts, the Royall family became the largest slaveholders in New England in any period, bringing with them at least 60 enslaved people from Antigua, while also continuing ownership of their plantation in Antigua. The family went on to become a part of the colonial elite of New England. In 1817, Isaac Royall Jr. helped to found Harvard Law School. His sister, Penelope, married into another prominent New England family, the Vassalls, who were among the most prominent planters in the Caribbean, owning over 20 plantations in Jamaica, Barbados, and Suriname. The family exemplified the fact that much of the Northeast’s wealth and prosperity rested on the backs of the enslaved people of the Caribbean, primarily with sugar plantations just like what once stood here in the name of the Royalls.

Chan, Alexandra A. Slavery in the Age of Reason: Archaeology at a New England Farm. Knoxville, Tennessee. University of Tennessee Press, 2007.

Gaspar, David Barry. Bondmen & Rebels: a Study of Master-Slave Relations in Antigua, with Implications for Colonial British America. Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.

Curtin, Philip D. The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex: Essays in Atlantic History. 2nd ed. Studies in Comparative World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.