Op-Ed: Oral Tradition is the Vehicle in Which Multigenerational Cultural Preservation Can Occur in the Virgin Islands

When the French people of St. Barths began arriving to St. Thomas in the 1700s, they settled in present day Frenchtown, more lovingly known as Carenage by the French community.

Frenchtown was officially established in 1850 after a large migration of Frenchies from St. Barths to St.Thomas took place. Traditional West Indian homes were built throughout the village, small corner shops began to open, and the people of Frenchtown worked to assimilate into the larger Danish community.

Life was incredibly difficult for the Frenchies at first. There were large communication challenges, as the Frenchies spoke patois and the people of the Danish West Indies spoke Danish. There was extreme poverty and the French people found out very quickly that if they intended to survive, they would need to teach themselves the arduous work of fishing and farming expeditiously.

They would awaken early in the morning to begin their daily tasks, toil in the sun all day, and then in the evenings, they would gather in the village to be in community, pound melee, and share stories.