Grenada National Museum

Wandering the narrow streets of downtown St. George’s, we stumbled on the Grenada National Museum and ducked in to learn about this beautiful island (and to escape the sun for a little while!).

Grenada’s history is both long and very recent – it was ‘discovered’ by Christopher Columbus in 1498, although the Carib Indians already inhabited the island. For several hundred years it was fought over mainly by the British and French (remnants of forts dot the island as a reminder of those battles), becoming a Crown Colony in 1877 until Grenada gained its independence in 1974.

Slavery was abolished in 1834, and the girls were able to see remnants of it in the shackles and whips on display, and ponder what it meant to treat others that way.

Sugar cane and rum are still an important part of Grenadian agriculture, and the older equipment on display was telling of how long it has been around on the island.

plantation scale

rum still

metal kettles for rum production

sugar cane crusher

The decade after Grenada achieved its independence seemed to have been pretty turbulent, including a coup in 1979 led by Maurice Bishop with an attempt to set up a communist / socialist state, and then a “rescue mission” in 1983 where the eastern Caribbean states, Jamaica, and the US intervened militarily. A democratic election occurred late in 1984 and since then Grenada has experienced a significant growth in infrastructure and economy. The second floor of the museum is dedicated to both this decade of unrest as well as Grenada’s lively Carnival, or Spicemas, that occurs in August.