The Salt “Plantations” Of The Caribbean (Transcript)
Content Warning: this episode contains mentions of violence, slavery and wider harm
Most scholarship on Caribbean chattel slavery of enslaves Africans largely covers the the sugar and tobacco plantation systems throughout the Caribbean. Still, there was another massive industry that built upon the enslavement of Africans - that was the cultivation of salt. Throughout the 18th and 19th century, the region was one the main supplier of salt to Europe and the United States. To trace back the beginning of this industry which led to many enslaved Africans working on salt plantation in the pink salty water, which were called salt pans, we begin this story with the first inhabitants of the region - the Amerindians.We begin this story there. The Indigenous Population and Salt
There exists limited scholarship and research on the Amerindians and their contribution to the salt industry of the Caribbean, however, there is evidence that exist. St. Martin was called “Soualiga”, meaning the Land of Salt, by the Arawaks who resided on the island. In one place in particular, the indigenous population understood the important of salt and were willing to fight for it - that place was Puerto Rico. In an interview with travel journalist Jennifer Billock for her article, “These Salt Pink Flats In Puerto Rico Are Cotton Candy Pink”, University of Puerto Rico biologist professor, Lilliam Casillas Martinez, explains that the Araucos and Taino population were already producing salt before the arrival of the Europeans. From as early as the 700 C.E., these indigenous population were utilising the salt marshes of Cabo Rojo to produced salt. Upon the arrival of the Spanish to the Caribbean, they started to export the salt and enslave the indigenous population to produce it. Dr. Casillas Martinez explained that eventually, the locals went to battle with the Spanish for the saltpans. Today, a beach close to the saltpans where this took place is Combate which when translated to English, means fight. And so it happens, that across the region, more Europeans came and exploited the salty areas of the territories; but Bermuda and its exploitation of Turks and Caicos became the catalyst of how big the industry would get off the backs of an enslave population. Bermuda
Bermuda became occupied by Europeans in 1605 and by 1609 was under the countrolled of the Virginia Company. Through the colonisation, by 1625 almost the entire island was dedicated to the cultivation of tobacco. It was around this time, that enslaves Africans were brought to the island to foster the growth of this crop on the island. However, the island underwent a rapid growth in its population and despite leadership implementing a limit on how many enslaves were brought to the country, Bermuda became one of the most densely populated English colonies. This overpopulation on the island, resulted in an immense pressure for migration to take place on other areas in the region. Also, around this time, the tobacco production was been challenged by a fall in global prices and even agricultural issues. Still, Bermuda had an advantage in its location as it lay among Europe, Britain and the US. The island look towards another form of income and that was through seafaring and shipbuilding; and it would be enslaves Africans and free Bermudians males who made up the work crew. In 1684, the Somers Island Company which had control over the Bermuda, dissolved and thus soon after Bermuda was soon under the control of the crown. This major shift in Bermuda’s history and Somers Island Company ending, created even more socio-economic problems on the island. Thus, persons looked beyond its shores for more opportunities. Some marine workers looked south and soon become interested in the wide scale cultivation of salt in another English colony - The Turks and Caicos Island. This marked the beginning of Turks and Caicos almost 300 years of dependency on salt. The Rise Of Salt Cultivation
Turks & Caicos was perfect for salt production. The lands were flat which allowed for the development of saltpans without the interference of hilly terrain. Two areas were favourable though - an island which is known today as Grand Turk and another which would be named Salt Cay. Climate also played a major factor. Turks Islands lay on the southernmost end of Lucayan archipelago which means a warm climate with low levels of rainfall and a continual trade winds which, allow for salt deposits to be formed. The Bermudians decided to use this to their advantage. Historian, Kimberly Thomas notes that even though the beginning of salt production cannot be given a specific time, the general consensus is that it began around the 1660’s. Bermudians used rocks to create saltpans from the natural occurring salinas, shallow inland areas filled with salt water directly from the sea, to create saltpans. Upon the discovery of the lucrative business that can be made from production of the salt around the late 1600’s, a steady migration of Bermudians to the territory began.Then as Bermuda’s economy become even more dependent on maritime activities, migration to Turks increased. In his book, ‘Chained on the Rocks’, Cyril Packwood states that around 500 Bermudians were apart of the salt industry in 1701. Still, when the Queen Anne’s War kicked off in 1702, the price of salt increased across the Atlantic, and more Bermudians became involved in the salt production - specifically salt raking. To note, however, this migration was purely seasonal. This is so as, initially Bermudians in Turks would returned home outside of the salt production season. It also did not help that Turks had very little water available. Still, at this time at the beginning of the industry, Turks and Caicos had defence issues. With no formed of protection, four times in the 18th century, 1706, 1753, 1778 and 1783, the French seized control of Turks. When this happen, white people were captured and eventually release but enslaves blacks were captured and taken as property. Thus, at the begging of the industry, most of the persons working in Turks were sailors from Bermuda. And the salt season in the Caribbean, ran from March to November. During this period, the weather is hot and dry which is the suitable climate to harvest salt. At the beginning of season, the salt ponds were divided and allocated among white owners. Historian Kimberly Thomas in her academic paper ‘Beyond the Plantation: Salt, Turks Island, Bermuda and the British Atlantic World, 1660s-1850s’, she outlines the day to day production on the salt pans of Turks and Caicos. “… salt gatherers dug out, demarcated and cleaned their salt pans of impurities within the drained lagoons, before a series of sluices and gates were opened to allow the seawater back in. As evaporation occurred, concentrated brine was encouraged into shallower pans to augment its surface area and facilitate further evaporation. While the sun and wind did much of the work, this was still exceedingly laborious. It involved standing in concentrated brine for many hours of the day raking salt and encouraging crystals to form. Once the salt was ready to be harvested, it was piled up on land, covered with palmetto leaves, and left to dry, before it was carried by hand in bushel bags onto lighters and transported to merchant ships offshore”
In Turks specifically, a salt grinding house on Grand Turk processed the island’s salt. By the mid 1700’s, the Caribbean was one of the main exporters of salt to Britain and its colonies and the demand of salt would increase subsequently. This was due to an increase in marine activities in the region and the workers who need salt for the preservation of food. But, most importantly by this time more and more enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean and salted protein became their primary diet. Fish was the most popular protein, specifically cod fish, which required about 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of salt per year. However, across the black diaspora, there exist the tales of flying Africans in numerous literature where black enslaves were fed salt to prevent them from flying.As such, "white gold" was the term that historians and other social scientist gave to salt and for good reason as alongside sugar, it became one of the major exports out of the region. In his article, ‘White Gold: How Salt Made and Unmade the Turks and Caicos Islands’, Welsh historian Mike Dash states, “by 1772, in the last years before the American War of Independence, Britain’s North American colonies were importing 660,000 bushels annually from the West Indies: nearly 40 million pound of white gold”. Then, the late 1770’s brought two events that would impact salt production in the territory. The first was the US Revolution. The event led to many English and those loyal to England, leaving the US and settling in the Caribbean with their enslaves. One of these places they settle in was the Turks Islands where the English grant them land as claims of the war. This cause an increase in persons been more invested in the salt industry and propelling said industry with cheap labour - enslaves blacks. We will get to that in a bit. The revolution also brought an increase in the demand of salt. There were numerous reports of US vessels carrying salt been seized. However, after the war ended in 1783, the US reduced imports on salt and opted to developed domestic salt production sites. Another issue that took place the was the passing of the hands of governance over the Turks Islands. During the decade, a conflict erupted between Bermuda and The Bahamas where the latter wanted to full control over the jurisdiction over the Turks Islands. And with this decision, The Bahamas, now a crown colony, enacted two conditions on those who take part in Turks’ salt industry. Persons had to reside on the island permanently and not just fo the 9 to 10 months which the salt season took placeAny enslaves who missed more than 2 days of work during in a 10 month period, would forfeit their owner’s profit.
These two acts were to affect Bermuda’s control over the salt industry and Bermudians realise this. When they argue against The Bahamas control over the island, one of their main points was that the Turks islands lay outside of The Bahamas jurisdiction. Another point they brought across - the Turks Islands was way easier to reach from Bermuda than from The Bahamas. This arguments, however, did not sway the powers at be and that was when Bermudians decided to take matters into their own hands. While on a the island, a Bahamian tax officer was beaten by a group of salt rakers. Then in 1774, a Bermuda send a group of armed person to defend Turks and Caicos. This was really anything new. As mentioned, above, the islands were prone to attacks but this time it was not the French but The Bahamas as well. However, Mike Dash makes note that it was the US Revolution and the attention given to it by the western world, that prevented any full blown war between Bermuda and the Bahamas. Nevertheless, despite Bermuda's fight to have a stronghold over the Turks and Caicos, it was not enough. In 1803, a resolution in the British parliament to prevent any war and its consequences between the two territories, officially transfer control of Turks and Caicos, to The Bahamas. This hostility between the two countries would last for decades. So intense was this bitterness, in the mid 1800’s, persons on the Turks Islands pleaded with authorities to release them Bahamian ruled. The residents argue that the Bahamian authority had done nothing to developed the island and the island was only been exploited. Relenting to the resident please, beginning in 1848, Turks and Caicos was ruled from Jamaica. This lasted right up to until Jamaica’s independence in 1962. In that same year, there was a brief union between The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. Still, the generation hostility did not lent up and in 1974, the two territories separated.But speaking of Jamaica, it seems right to now mention the other saltpans across the region for those in Turks and Caicos, although the ones that dominated the market, The Bahamas and Puerto Rico, were not the only ones. Across the Salty Seas
First up was Jamaica. In the book, ‘Jamaica Place Names' by B. W. Higman and B. J. Hudson, two slat pans were mentioned: the Great Salt Pond in St. Catherine and the Salt Pond in St. Thomas. Still, in the book, “Salt in Eastern North America and the Caribbean: History and Archaeology, edited by Ian W. Brown and Ann M. Early, salt specialist and nutritionist, Alyssa Sperry states the following: “There are also other location on the southern coast that contain “salt” in their names such as Salt Savanna, Salt River, Salt River Bay, Salt Island Lagoon, and the Salt Island Creek, suggesting that these places were known sources of salt and might have been involved in Jamaica salt industry”
Land titles and map also outline that from as early as 1668, a Captain John Not, owned a salt making facility at the Great Salt Pond. For copies of these maps, they are houses in the Jamaica Archives and Records Unit. In his book “History of Jamaica”, Williams James Gardner states that Captain Noy produced 10,000 bushels of salt in 1670. Alysssa Sperry states that this is the equivalent to almost 50 - 70,000 lbs of salt each year from the Salt Pond. However, Williams James Gardner, states that the lagoon was not a natural salt pond but was engineering by a governor of the sailed - Sir Thomas Modyford. He states that Modyford was invested in salt, alongside side sugar, been a major stream of income for Jamaica and its white population. But the plantation system of Jamaica surrounded sugar and it was there that the focus of exploitation on the island was spotlighted and thus whatever dreams that Modyford and Noy had, would eventually never really materialise. In Haiti, the French utilised the salty marshes at the mouth at the Artibonite River, the longest river in Haiti and the longest on the island of Hispaniola. According to Steve Coupeau in his book, “The History of Haiti”, the French named the area Grande-Saline which translate to the great saltworks in english. The salt produced was used to barter with the English for other good throughout the 1700’s. Still, like other colonies in the region, as mentioned before, salt was used to prepare protein, mostly salted fish, for enslaves blacks. However, in Haiti, salt also serve another important process. According to Katy Beinart in her 2013 article ‘The Poetics of Salt Journey: A Taste of Salt”, there exist a relationship between salt and Haitian Voodoo. Salt is used to awaken zombies during ceremonies. This is termed ‘Goute Sel’ in Haitian Creole which translate to taste of salt’ in English. Zombies do not taste salt as such during Goute See, the salt is used to awaken them and through this, a zombie is reminded that is no longer among the living and is released from being a living dead. Another ceremony is veve. Veve is used to invite the presence of divine spirits; Loa as they are termed in Haiti. Veve is conducted before any sacred Vodou ceremony, and even though some persons use cornmeal, or ash, salt is also used by many. Salt has used in cleansing ritual for years, not only by Haitian and the other enslaves in the Caribbean, but black enslaves in the United States. These cleansing ritual are still practice across the African diaspora today. But back to the salt pans. In the Eastern Caribbean, there were salt production in Barbuda. In her 1981 academic dissertation, A History of Barbuda Under the Codringtons 1738-1833, historian Margaret T. Tweedy makes note of salt flashes that existed on the island. Unlike pans, flashes are bodies of water that develops when the land has subsided. To this, Tweedy states: “Colonel King as usual, had suggestions to make. He wrote, in 1740, that there were a great number of salt flashes in Barbuda from which ‘great quantities of salt might be annually made which sells here… There is no evidence to suggest that this idea was developed at all until the late eighteenth century and then to any remarkable extent. In the accounts throughout the period 1785-1814, salt was sold frequently, but in small quantities to the estates, and less frequently on the general market”
In Anguilla, the salt pans by the Dutch who arrive in 1624. When they arrive, they utilised the island’s 17 salt ponds and the 240 acres of salt along Road Salt Pond. This production of salt in Anguilla lasted for almost 300 years, where almost 90,000 bushels of salt been produced annually.On the island of St. Kitts, salt production took place in an area now called the Salt Ponds. By the late 1600’s, salt became one of the main commodities that foster trade on the island. According to the St. Kitts & Nevis National Archives, in 1693 and 1694, when the British had controlled for the area, Deputy Governor Thomas Hill, infuriate the Nevis Council, has he only allowed certain people to produced salts from the ponds. A 1854 documentation by John Davy on St. Kitts’ Salt Pond states: “The people employed have half of what they collect for their labour, or rather the price of half, for it is bought on account of the estates to which the lake belongs – thus if the price if the basket is fixed at three pence, three is fixed for each basket. In some years immense quantities have been obtained, and a labourer has made as much as twelve collars a week. The salt is sold chiefly to the Americans”.
In 1624, when the Dutch arrived to Sint Maarten, they came in contact with the island’s Great Salt Pond. This discovery was of great interest for the Dutch. According to the historians Rudd Stelten and Konrad Antczal in their paper, “Life At The Salty Edge of Empire: The Maritime Landscape At The Orange Saltpan On Bonaire, 1821 - 1960, the Dutch were “forced to find sources of salt other than Portugal during the Eighty Years War”. Thus, upon coming to the Caribbean, just like every other colonisers of the Caribbean region, they started mass production of salt in the area. At the height of this exploitation, the Dutch shipped 400 ships loaded with salt throughout the region and the rest of the world. On the northern section of the island, the French territory of St. Martin, the French produced salt primarily around the salt pond in Grand Case.The Dutch were also gathering salt from a beach off the coast of Venezuala where on a nearby island, off the coast of Venezuala, called Salt Tortuga, the British were gathering salt. But it was the Dutch Antilles, where salt production was profound, primarily on the island of Bonaire. As a matter of a fact, Bonaire became the centre of the the Dutch salt trade in the region. Their dependency on the white gold rival that of Turks and Caicos. The island was first inhabited by indigenous people known as Caquetio, before the European arrival. In the paper, “Profitable On An ‘Unprofitable’ Island Resources and Gatekeepers On Bonaire”, academic Ank Klomp states that in the beginning of European colonisation, the Spanish label the island of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, as ‘Islas Inutiles’. This translates to useless, profitable islands because precious metals were not found there. There was also the issue where the lack of frequent rainfall made cultivation difficult. Thus, by the time the Dutch arrived and even some time after they come, Bonaire was used to supply goat meat to Curacao, which at this point was acting as the commercial events centre the Caribbean. By 1620, only 40 persons lived in Bonaire. The Dutch eventually took control of Bonaire in 1636, and the island was left in the control of Dutch West Indian Company (WIC). And so it began. The Dutch built established saltpans across Bonaire throughout the century and the next. A few includes, the Orange Pans, the White Pans and the Blue Pans. Historians Stelten and Antczal stated that the Orange Pan alone was estimated of producing 50,000-70,000 barrels of salt per year. Ironically, however, this salt went sold to the US, as the Dutch consider the quality of the salt inferior. Still, production increased throughout the 1700’s and 1800’s, greatly and it was due to enclaves Africans. As a matter of a fact, the entire salt industry of the Caribbean was built off the backs of enslaves blacks - literally. Even though many enslaves fled to Haiti where by 1804, the country achieved independence, become the world’s first black republic and all black persons were free, across, the Caribbean, the life of these enslaves on salt pans have been document in various ways. In Bonaire, still today, one can see the yellow huts where former the island’s salt pans enslaves lived. In Philipsburg, the capital of Sint Maarten, there exist the Salt Pickers Monument. The public statue consists of five separate bronze statues: a man with a shovel, two women gathering salt in one place and another woman and man carrying a large tray of salt. However, as of the recording of this episode, the man with shovel is no longer a part of the monument, due to damages caused by hurricanes, road incidents etc, the man with the shovel is no longer there. In Jamaica, a sketch created by English artist, William Berryman, which is now housed at the National Archives and Records Department, depicts the day today activity on Jamaica salt pans.Alyssa Sperry states that this art piece might be completed somewhere between 1806 and 1816. In the drawing, a building is seen surrounded by several salt pans where enslaves were drawn working there. Most notably in the painting was enslaves women working on these salt pans which, alongside the monument of women enslave in Sint Martin mention above, further highlights the role black women played in the production of salt in the colonial Caribbean. Still, the role of women in the salt production process is not only seen in Jamaica. As such, it should come as no surprise, that it would be an enslave woman who would depict the life of enslaves working on Caribbean saltpans. Mary Prince’s autobiography, “The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave” is not only a comprehensive look at the life of an enslave person working on Turks & Caicos’ salt pans but the book is one of the few slave narrative to come out of the Caribbean. Mary Prince
Mary Prince was born in Bermuda around 1788 to an enslaved black man in the household of Charles Myners and a father who was a shipbuilder’s sawyer. As a child, she was sold with her mother to Darrel Williams, who gave her as a gift to his granddaughter. Prince served as a childhood companion to the granddaughter until age twelve, when she was hired out as a nurse to a neighbouring household. After the death of Williams' wife, he sold Prince to another slaveowner in Spanish Point, Bermuda. After she working on the salt ponds of Turks and Caicos for about ten years, she would returned to Bermuda, where soon after she was sold to John Wood in Antigua. Then, in 1817, Prince joined the local Moravian Church where she met her future husband, a free carpenter and cooper named Daniel James, whom she married in December of 1826. Prince accompanied John Woods to England in 1828 where she worked for the Wood family for a few months. Soon after, when she left their household and consulted with a local anti-slavery society for her freedom. When Wood refused to sell Prince her freedom—which would allow her to return to her family in Antigua without being re-enslaved—the Anti-Slavery Society petitioned Parliament in June 1829 to compel Wood to grant her manumission. The petition was neutralized, however, by Wood's departure for Antigua before it was brought to public hearing. Almost a year later, Prince was in London and entered the household of Thomas Pringle as a free domestic servant. While with the Pringles, she told her life story to Susanna Moodie, a writer and member of the London anti-slavery movement. The result produced the book, “The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave”, published in 1831. It was the first account of a black woman’s life to ever be published in England. In the book Mary Prince speaks on the period of her life as an enslave on Turks and Caicos Islands, where the territory fell under Bahamian slave laws.“I was immediately sent to work in the salt water with the rest of the slaves. This work was perfectly new to me. I was given a half barrel and a shovel, and had to stand up to my knees in the water, from four o'clock in the morning till nine, when we were given some Indian corn boiled in water, which we were obliged to swallow as fast as we could for fear the rain should come on and melt the salt. We were then called again to our tasks, and worked through the heat of the day; the sun flaming upon our heads like fire, and raising salt blisters in those parts which were not completely covered. Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so many hours, soon became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the very bone, afflicting the sufferers with great torment. We came home at twelve; ate our corn soup, called blawly, as fast as we could, and went back to our employment till dark at night. We then shovelled up the salt in large heaps, and went down to the sea, where we washed the pickle from our limbs, and cleaned the barrows and shovels from the salt. When we returned to the house, our master gave us each our allowance of raw Indian corn, which we pounded in a mortar and boiled in water for our suppers. We slept in a long shed, divided into narrow slips, like the stalls used for cattle. Boards fixed upon stakes driven into the ground, without mat or covering, were our only beds. On Sundays, after we had washed the salt bags, and done other work required of us, we went into the bush and cut the long soft grass, of which we made trusses for our legs and feet to rest upon, for they were so full of the salt boils that we could get no rest lying upon the bare boards.
Though we worked from morning till night, there was no satisfying Mr. D. I hoped, when I left Capt. I, that I should have been better off, but I found it was but going from one butcher to another. There was this difference between them: my former master used to beat me while raging and foaming with passion; Mr. D was usually quite calm. He would stand by and give orders for a slave to be cruelly whipped, and assist in the punishment, without moving a muscle of his face; walking about and taking snuff with the greatest composure. Nothing could touch his hard heart—neither sighs, nor tears, nor prayers, nor streaming blood; he was deaf to our cries, and careless of our sufferings. Mr. D has often stripped me naked, hung me up by the wrists, and beat me with the cow-skin, with his own hand, till my body was raw with gashes. Yet there was nothing very remarkable in this; for it might serve as a sample of the common usage of the slaves on that horrible island. Owing to the boils in my feet, I was unable to wheel the barrow fast through the sand, which got into the sores, and made me stumble at every step; and my master, having no pity for my sufferings from this cause, rendered them far more intolerable, by chastising me for not being able to move so fast as he wished me. Another of our employments was to row a little way off from the shore in a boat, and dive for large stones to build a wall round our master's house.
This was very hard work; and the great waves breaking over us continually, made us often so giddy that we lost our footing, and were in danger of being drowned. When we were ill, let our complaint be what it might, the only medicine given to us was a great bowl of hot salt water, with salt mixed with it, which made us very sick. If we could not keep up with the rest of the gang of slaves, we were put in the stocks, and severely flogged the next morning. Yet, not the less, our master expected, after we had thus been kept from our rest, and our limbs rendered stiff and sore with ill usage, that we should still go through the ordinary tasks of the day all the same.—Sometimes we had to work all night, measuring salt to load a vessel; or turning a machine to draw water out of the sea for the salt-making. Then we had no sleep—no rest—but were forced to work as fast as we could, and go on again all next day the same as usual. Work—work—work—Oh that Turk's Island was a horrible place! The people in England, I am sure, have never found out what is carried on there. Cruel, horrible place!”
One thing not mentioned here though is that in the first edition of the book, the editor made note that Mary Prince had issues with her eyesight which may get worse and eventually turned to blindness. Many enslaves on saltpans, like Mary, had issues with their eyesight and became blind and this could be because of the hours been exposed in the sun’s heat and staring on the white surface of the salt. The Decline
Still it would passed, the people of England had a first hand account of not only salt pans enslaves, but the reality of enslaves in different industries across the region. The book was so popular that three editions of it was published throughout 1831. It not only intensify the fight for ending slavery across the British colonies, but Mary Prince, through her words, contributed greatly to the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in August 1833. Almost a year later on August 1, 1838, enslaves in the British West Indies were formally free through an apprenticeship system. The apprenticeship system was unpopular among former enslaves and other members of society, and it was not implemented in Trinidad. Still, Bermuda freed their slaves immediately as well as Antigua, making Antigua the only sugar-producing British colony to transition directly to emancipation. Almost 4 years later, full freedom was granted to all enslaves blacks on 1 August 1838, across the British colonies. In 2012, it Mary Prince became a National Hero of Bermuda. The years after the emancipation in the British West Indies, salt production in the region dropped. White slave owners did not have responsibility over the care of enslaves and thus no more needed for salted protein to feed enslaves. In the Dutch West Indies, slavery was abolished in the Dutch West Indies on July 1, 1863. Then, there were the establishment of other markets. By the late 1800’s, the price of salt decreased and it became cheaper to import salt from Venezuela than produced it locally. As the years, colonial salt production Caribbean countries would transfer their economy around tourism and salt production fell to the side. Legacy
Still, the legacy of salt in the Caribbean is seen today. Despite the declination of salt production in the region, there are a couple salt making facilities in the region. In 1969, the Industrial Chemical Company (ICC) built a number of factories in St. Catherine soon after became the only salt producing company on the island. The company manufactures salt using saltwater and also chemicals. In 2015, the Development Bank of Jamaica, gave a US $2 million investment for ICC to expand their operation and increase their exports by 30 - $40%. A September 2015 article from the Jamaica Observer newspaper states that the ICC controls 80% of the local market. In Turks and Caicos, the Salt Cay is home of the islands sole export industry. According to the Salt Cay Salt Works’ website the salt produced is used to “make bath salts, culinary salt and the premier cooking salt, Fleur de Sel”. Still for many years since the 1870’s, the Turks and Caicos flag featured two piles salt, awaiting loading into a freighter. Funny enough, while been approved in England, someone drew a door onto the salts thinking it was an igloo. It was decades later in 1960’s that the error was corrected. In Barbuda, there exist small scale businesses that produced salt. In Bonaire, the solars salt facility owned by the US based company Cargil, is the one of the largest is the Caribbean, where facility covers 13% of the island. The facility also serve as a popular sighting for visitors which its striking pink waters and white pyramids which are roughly 50 ft high and contains an estimate 10,000 tonnes of 99.6% pure salt. At its height of production each year, there exist 200,000 tonnes of salt prepared for export. The facility also houses the largest pink flamingo sanctuary in the North American. But the legacy of salt extends to West Indians' consumption of food today. As mentioned before, salted protein, with the most popular being salted codfish, became the primary diet of enslaves in the region. This diet of salted cod is a staple across the region, where funnily enough the closest cod fishery facility is almost 2000 miles north of the region. There is the popular Salt Fish Cakes in Barbados, Salfish Buljol in Trinidad and Tobago and Bake and Saltfish in Guyana. Then the national dish of St. Lucia is Green Fig and Saltfish where likewise in Jamaica, their national dish is Ackee and Saltfish. And this is just a few Caribbean nation. But, there is something to be said about the region production of condiments and how that history manifest itself in bodies. See, the region has produced and consumed sugar for centuries; today we have one of the highest diabetes rates in the world. Similar for salt, according to the Caribbean Public Health Agency, the Caribbean region has the highest prevalence of raised blood pressure in the Americas from a high of 27.1% to a low of 20.9%. We should have called this episode: Salt - Colonialism and Its Effect’, cause isn’t this something?