Just settle down and do some reading… and let your imagination somewhat wander somewhere in the past.
I am over 65 and I am told to stay home (out ah the way)…
I am not playing brave, because I know that Covid don’t care ’bout cojones
And most of you, adults too, are home…
And I want to believe that you too, would want to find something constructive to do…
Me muh self, have it hard to do without doing something positive.
So I am hereby choosing to share some knowledge that I gathered
and that wee schools don’ give us… Some sin maaten stories… mini episodes
That is what I can do…for now.
Am not a historian, and I will always stand to be corrected,
but ah tink ah can tell lil’ stories…and that’s what am choosing to do for you.

Mini episode 1… lemme tell ayo, not about 69, but about 63… 1763 in Saint-Martin.
But before I get there, I must tell you what took place in 1843…
In 1843, Admiral De Moges, who was governor of Martinique in charge of France’s caribbean colonies, wrote to his « ministre de la marine » :
(«Malgré la double occupation (française et hollandaise), c’est la langue anglaise qui est la seule familière à l’ensemble de la population. Cette circonstance s’explique par le peu d’intérêt que la Hollande accorde à cette possession et par l’abandon où nous-mêmes l’avons laissée pendant de longues années.»)                                                                       « Despite the double occupation (French and Dutch), it is the English language which is the only one familiar to the whole population. This circumstance is due to the lack of interest in this possession by Holland and the abandonment where we ourselves have left it for many years. »

It is a fact that France and Holland had abandonned this lil’ island, and it remained so for more than a hundred years after that report… essentially because no more wealth could be drawn from it. (my opinion). Let’s not forget the context : slavery had been abolished in Anguilla since 1833, which impacted the attitudes of enslaved as well as that of the plantation owners, subsequently the sugar cane industry began a fast decline on this island…more so after the french 2nd abolition in 1848 ; but that’s a story by itself.

I think, that the good admiral is wrong when he links the fact that we speak english to the above said abandonment.
I believe our sin maaten english was born out of a policy decision that was initiated in 1763, after the « traité de Paris » ended one of the numerous wars between France and England.
In 1763 (or sometime around that time) a military officer, Auguste Descoudrelles, stationed in Guadeloupe, visited Saint-Martin for the first time. He eventualy became its « commandant ».
Let me remind you the context : Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, Martinique, Hispaniola as well as Barbados, St-Christopher or Brazil, were, at the time, sources of great wealth for France and England and Spain and Portugal, because of the intensity of the slave trade and the sugar cane industry that it supplemented.
The size, topography and climate of Saint-Martin were not favorable conditions for that industry, but Descoudrelles conceived the idea that some development in that area was possible. There was a shortage of « entrepreneurs » (plantation owners) and an even bigger shortage of workers (enslaved people) on the island. So a policy of re populating was implemented
News went around in the caribbean that land was made available for little or nothing on St-Martin to whoever was willing to develop sugar cane plantations.
Some french owners that the english conquerors had chased, came back, but many of the new comers who came with their enslaved « personnel » were mostly english speaking people…
The French authorities in Paris did show some reluctance to the entry of these « étrangers » on its territory, but local authorities were convincing enough, and Paris accepted, in the end, by way of derogation, to « naturalize » them.
And indeed, between the 1770’s and the early 1830’s the sugar cane industry was a very flourishing economy.
In 1775, there were 17 sugar factories using around 1000 enslaved on the french side.
In 1786, 24 factories produced 870 tons of a very good quality sugar, with lil’ over 2500 « workers ».
Reasons why, historian Gérard LAFLEUR, in a book that he published in 1990, estimates that 1763 marks the very beggining of Saint-Martin… as a cultural entity, with a core stable population, (My humble opinion).