Musings on Caribbean History

Did you know that the European enslavers in the Caribbean used African soldiers to oppress other enslaved Africans and subjugate Africans in Africa?
All the European colonial powers in the Caribbean used black soldiers to help meet their military manpower needs. Among them, Britain made the most extensive use of black soldiers through the British West India Regiments, which at peak numbered twelve regiments. The West India Regiments (WIR) were infantry units of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the British colonies of the Caribbean beginning in 1795.
A need for a black pioneer corps on the island of St. Lucia encouraged British commander Guy Carleton to order that those enslaved Africans promised freedom by the British during the American War of Independence be purchased from their owners and that volunteers from among them be enlisted for service in the West Indies. In December 1782 some 264 African American troops from South Carolina, under the command of Captain William Mackrill, arrived at St. Lucia, where they were organized into the Carolina Corps, or Carolina Black Corps. The unit served on St. Lucia until the end of the war, when it was transferred to the island of Grenada and incorporated into the British West India Regiments.
Recruits for the British West India Regiments initially were purchased from plantations in the Caribbean, but later they came mostly from Africans who were aboard 'slave ships' that the British West Africa Squadron intercepted off the coast of West Africa and 'liberated' after Britain had unilaterally passed the Act Abolishing the Slave Trade in 1806. Suitable males among the human cargo were forcibly conscripted into the British West India Regiments which were utilized to suppress revolts by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and to conquer West African states that resisted British domination. In addition, they helped defend European colonies from attacks by their European competitors and to seize territories from their rivals.
The British West India Regiments also served with the British forces in America during the War of 1812 (1812-15).

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