History of Castle Bruce

ntations on Dominica. He imported over one hundred enslaved people who had been brought from West Africa to work on the plantations. In the years ahead more were added to this number and all make up the ancestors of the people of Castle Bruce today. They brought with them skills, knowledge and traditions which they used so as to survive inspite of the harsh conditions. With the work of the slaves, Bruce established a sugar estate with a large watermill powered by water from the river and a boiling house and distillery to make sugar, rum and molasses. A plantation house was built on a ridge that overlooked the whole valley. The site of this house is where the Christian Union Church is today.

The mill is all in ruins now because the stones of the buildings were taken to use for building the Roman Catholic Church in 1950 and for other construction. However, near the main playing field, hidden by a large ficus tree, one can still see the tall chimney tower that served the estate factory. In 1827 the estate was being worked by 167 enslaved people and produced sugar, rum and molasses. This produce was shipped from the bay in canoes, which took the barrels of produce from the beach out to ships anchored in the calmer, deeper water, near the islands at the southern side of the bay.

The Estate Abandoned

During the period of maroon or runaway slave, Negre Mawon, uprisings in Dominica, particularly in 1814-1815, large numbers of enslaved people on Castle Bruce estate took off into the hills to secure their freedom. After the full emancipation of the slaves in 1838, Castle Bruce was more or less abandoned by its owners. The former slave families became peasant farmers and cows were left to roam all over the estate valley. The village at that time developed along the boundary of the two big estates, Richmond and Castle Bruce, because after emancipation, all those persons who