| Betty's
Hope Sugar Plantation. |
| Betty's
Hope is located in the limestone district
of Antigua's tranquil rural area, with
beautiful vistas over the rolling
landscape to the distant ocean. The
founder of Betty's Hope was Governor
Keynell, whose widow inherited the
estates upon is death in 1663, but had to
flee Antigua during the French occupation
in 1666. When Antigua was reoccupied by
the British, Parliament annulled all land
claims prior to the French occupation,
(of those who had fled or been disloyal
to the Crown). Instead, in 1674, Betty's
Hope was granted to the Codrington
family, then residing in Barbados. |
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Like other large
plantations, Betty's Hope was an agricultural as
well as an industrial enterprise, and home to a
large number of people. Supervised by a handful
of European managers, hundreds of Africans lived
out their lives on this and similar plantations,
first as slaves, then as laborers after
emancipation in 1834. Enduring the hardship of
cultivating and processing the sugar under
exhausting conditions, they developed great
skills as craftsmen, boilers and distillers which
gave Betty's Hope its reputation for excellence
lasting to this day. |
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| Today an active
restoration of Betty's Hope is under way. New
sails have been installed on the mill and the
crushing machinery has been restored to working
condition. The next phase of restoration involves
repairing the cistern complex and the planting of
trees and crops of former times. A visitor center has been
created by converting a former cotton house
storeroom into a museum. This includes various
aspects of the plantation's history and shows
early estate plans, pictures and maps, artifacts
and a model of the central site to giving an
overview of the of "Betty's Hope".
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