Caycos

The Caicos Islands lie at the southeastern end of the Lucayan archipelago, surrounded by shallow banks and reefs. Lucayan communities occupied the islands before Spanish raids carried people away as enslaved laborers in the early sixteenth century. Their settlements left traces on Middle Caicos and other islands.

Bermudians later came to the neighboring Turks Islands to gather salt from natural ponds. During the eighteenth century these islands became part of a contested maritime world in which salt, ships and imperial rivalries brought visitors from across the Atlantic. After the American Revolutionary War, loyalists received land in the Caicos and attempted to establish plantations, bringing enslaved Africans with them. These agricultural ventures struggled in the dry conditions of the islands and enjoyed little lasting success.