Thomas Warner (explorer)

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Sir Thomas Warner (* 1580 ; † March 10, 1649 in St. Kitts ) was a British captain in the guard of James I , who was an explorer in the Caribbean . In 1620 he was initially governor of the short-lived English colony of Oyapoc in South America, which, however, was given up in the same year. The Dutch controlled most of this territory. Warner was the first to colonize Saint Kitts and in 1624 he established the first English colony in the Caribbean there.

Life

Youth and education

Warner was born in Suffolk , England in 1580 . He joined the army at a young age and received his training there.

Military career

Warner became captain and took a position in the colonies in 1620. He traveled with his family to Oyapoc in what is now Guyana . There he served as a captain under the command of Roger North .

Tomas Painton, another captain, suggested that Warner try to colonize one of the Lesser Antilles islands because Painton thought it would be more suitable. In 1623 Warner left his post in Guyana and sailed north through the archipelago. Oyapoc was soon abandoned by the English.

St. Kitts

Early settlement

After examining each island, Warner decided that Saint Kitts would be best for an English colony. He highlighted its strategic central location, which is ideal for expansion, friendly locals, fertile soil, sufficient fresh water and large salt stores. He landed on the island with his family and made peace with the local Kalinago . Their leader was Ouboutou Tegremante .

Warner left his family on the island and returned to England to recruit men to help found the colony. He was assisted by Ralph Merrifield , a trader who provided the capital, and by the brothers John and Samuel Jeaffreson (the latter was the ancestor of Thomas Jefferson , 5th generation). The Jeaffresons agreed to send a second ship with settlers and material. Warner returned to St. Kitts on January 28, 1624 aboard the Hopewell and officially founded the colony "Saint Christopher", the first English colony in the Caribbean . He established a port at Old Road Town , below Tegremante's village.

Arrival of the French

In 1625 a French captain, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc , arrived on the island. He had assembled a whole fleet of colonists hoping to establish a colony on an island after hearing of Warner's success on Saint Kitts. But his fleet was sunk at a meeting with the Spanish Armada . Only his flagship with its passengers survived the attack and reached St. Kitts. Warner sympathetically allowed them to settle on the island, making Saint Kitts the first French settlement in the Caribbean. They settled in the remains of the Dieppe settlement and rebuilt the city. Warner allowed the French to bring more Europeans to the island, also because he foresaw that the friendly attitude of the Kalinago towards the newcomers slowly waned.

Genocide of the Kalinago

Warner's concerns turned out to be justified. As the European population on St. Kitts grew, so did Tegremante's reservations. In 1626, after a secret meeting with the chiefs of the neighboring islands Waitikubuli ( Dominica ) and Oualie, the natives decided to attack the European settlements on the night of the next full moon. The plan was betrayed to the Europeans by the Igneri woman Barbe . She had only recently been brought to St. Kitts as a slave after the Kalianago raided an Arawak settlement. The French historian Jean Baptiste Du Tertre writes that she hated Kalinago and was in love with Warner.

The English and French allied and attacked the Caribs by night. The colonists killed around 100 or 120 Caribs that night in their beds, sparing only the most beautiful women they wanted to keep as slaves. Then they began to build fortifications on the island in order to be prepared against the expected invasion of the Caribs from other islands.

Du Tertre writes that in the battle that followed three or four thousand Caribs faced the Europeans. He does not give the number of Caribs killed, but reports that the fallen "Amerindians" were gathered in a large heap on the beach. The English and French suffered at least 100 deaths. According to other reports, more than 2,000 Kalinago men were massacred at Bloody Point , which was then the main Kalinago settlement on the island. Many had come from Waitikubuli (Dominica) to attack the Europeans the next day. The Europeans threw the bodies into the river where the Kalinago's ceremonial place was. For weeks, blood stained the river red, which is why it was named Bloody River . The surviving Kalinago were deported to Waitikubuli by the Europeans.

These early reports are written from the perspective of Europeans, and modern scholars and historians believe that many of the claims were falsified or exaggerated to justify the killing.

Ethnologists have put the events in a new light. The massacre occurred in late January, around the middle of the dry season. The Kalinago called this the “season of the bat man” because so many bats appear during this time. Usually during this time the Kalinago organized raids on the Taíno and other Amerindians to capture victims to appease the "bat man" and to ensure that the dry season ends and the rainy season ("season of the frog woman") begins. The Kalinago had come together from the island on St. Christopher because of its location: The island represented a border area and was the starting point for the raids of the Kalinago against the Taino. The Europeans killed so many Kalinago and profaned their ritual place in order to intimidate the inhabitants of the neighboring islands.

After this genocide , the Europeans divided the island, giving the French the ends, Capisterre in the north and Basseterre in the south; While the British got the central part of the island. From there they colonized the neighboring islands. The English occupied Nevis in 1628, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632. Warner had already been appointed governor of St. Kitts, Nevis, Barbados and Montserrat in 1625 .

During a stay in England Warner was beaten on September 27, 1629 in Hampton Court to the Knight Bachelor and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

The French colonized Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1635 and St. Barths in 1648.

1643 Warner was appointed "Parliamentary Governor of the Caribee Islands". After the death of his first wife, he took a Caribbean woman to common-law marriage , with whom he had a lasting relationship. Warner died on March 10, 1649 in St. Kitts and was buried in a grave in Middle Island . His wife is said to have had several children after his death.

Slave trade

After the Kalinago genocide in 1626 and the subsequent division of the island, Warner imported thousands of African slaves as labor. They were forced to set up sugar cane and tobacco plantations. Over the years, Warner has acquired a fortune that, when converted into today's currency, amounted to approx. € 110 million .

family

Warner had a wife and son Philip . On St. Kitts he had a mistress of the Kallinago, with whom he had the son Indian Warner . Indian Warner was killed in the Dominica massacre.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Du Tertre (1667), I: 5-6
  2. ↑ Du Tertre (1667), I: 6.
  3. ↑ Du Tertre (1667), I: 6.
  4. ^ A b Vincent Hubbard: A History of St. Kitts. Macmillan Caribbean 2002: 17. ISBN 9780333747605

swell

  • Jean Baptiste Du Tertre: Histoire Generale des Antilles ... 2 volumes, Jolly, Paris 1667.

literature

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Governor of Saint Christopher
1623–1649 		Rowland Rich
Governor of Antigua
1632–1635 		Edward Warner
personal data
SURNAME Warner, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British captain, explorer of the Caribbean, governor of St. Christopher and Antigua
DATE OF BIRTH 1580
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1649
Place of death St. Kitts