Christopher Columbus landed on the islands in 1493,
naming the larger one "Santa Maria de la Antigua." The
English colonized the islands in 1632. Sir Christopher
Codrington established the first large sugar estate in
Antigua in 1674, and leased Barbuda to raise provisions
for his plantations. Barbuda's only town is named after
him. Codrington and others brought slaves from Africa's
west coast to work the plantations.
Antiguan slaves were emancipated in 1834, but remained
economically dependent on the plantation owners.
Economic opportunities for the new freedmen were limited
by a lack of surplus farming land, no access to credit,
and an economy built on agriculture rather than
manufacturing. Poor labor conditions persisted until
1939, which saw the birth of the trade union movement in
Antigua and Barbuda.
The Antigua Trades and Labour Union became the political
vehicle for Vere Cornwall Bird, who was elected as the
Labour Union's president in 1943. The Antigua Labour
Party (ALP), formed by Bird and other trade unionists,
first ran candidates in the 1946 elections and became
the majority party in 1951, beginning a long history of
electoral victories.
Bird and the ALP were voted out of office in the 1971
general elections that swept the progressive labor
movement into power, but returned to office in 1976,
winning renewed mandates in every subsequent election
under Vere Bird's leadership until 1994 and also under
the leadership of his son, Lester Bird, until 2004.
In March 2004 the ALP lost power in national elections
that gave the United Progressive Party (UPP) 13 of the
17 seats in Parliament. The ALP lost again to the
Baldwin Spencer-led UPP in the March 2007 elections. |
|
