History of Union Island

class="apple-converted-space"> Cameroon, Angola, and Ghana. Sea Island Cotton was an important export crop – Sea Island cotton trees may still be found on the island — a good example can be found in the Bougainvillia complex beside the Anchorage Yacht Club in Clifton Harbour.

When slavery was abolished, people still relied on farming and fishing. As a result, a lot of men went to sea to work on freighters to support their families. Union Island was the centre of some political unrest in the late 1970s when a group of residents were in favour of secession from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and merger with southern neighbour Grenada. The insurrection was put down by forces of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Government.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent much of a year working on Union Island and completed a new Coast Guard Jetty and shore office at the mouth of Clifton Harbour.

The Common Opossum, locally known as "manicou", can usually only be seen at the end of the dry season. Common Caribbean birds like the Bananaquit are found on the island, as is the ubiquitous Blackbird. A recent book (2006) on