Without a doubt, recorded history is clear that Black Africans were introduced into the so-called New World as early as the 1500s as a result of European-induced slavery. Whereas almost all of the Caribbean islands were claimed as European territories, Dominica and St. Vincent had entered into a peace treaty in 1660 that gave the Indigenous the right to live on the island – provided they stopped stealing African slaves and other goods from European settlements. By this time the Spanish fleets had discarded most of these territories as “islas inútiles” and they set off for Mexico, Central America and South America in search of gold. This left the French, English and Dutch to fight for control over the Caribbean islands. Despite the treaty, little by little, Africans ended up on St. Vincent by two routes, either by appropriation at the hands of the Indians, or by escape from other islands, especially Barbados. It seems that at first escaped Africans lived in the mountains of these islands, and would come down for sexual relations with women or to steal food. This is based on linguistic evidence; the native peoples of this time had a word for ‘nappy’ or ‘kinky’ hair (kilili-abali itibouri); this word was a harsh insult used against those who had this type of hair, according to Raymond Breton. Breton not only composed a French-Carib dictionary, but he also took copious ethnographic notes. Luisa Navarette, a free Black woman on Puerto Rico, was captured by the Indians of Dominica where she stayed for four years until her escape. She recounted how the Indians had made slaves not only of the Africans, but of other Indians and captured Europeans as well. In 1658 Charles Cesar Rochefort, in his book about the Lesser Antilles, described seeing Africans as slaves of the Indians. As the African population increased, group mixing is to be expected, but just because a baby has African and indigenous blood does not make him or her Garífuna. The Garífuna ethnic group emerges as a result of complete cultural and linguistic assimilation of the indigenous group on St. Vincent. The Africans and native peoples of St. Vincent were not two separate groups, but one culturally unified group only distinguished by their phenotype.

In time, the Garínagu gained power and prestige over the native peoples and were a threat to the British, who wanted to take over St. Vincent. The French, although they had gone about seeking control of St. Vincent by befriending the Garínagu, tried to support them in their struggle. William Young complained feverishly that the Garínagu were living on the best lands and not even using all of it and besides – as Africans they had no right to the land. After a bloody war, and an epidemic of disease that reduced much of the Garífuna population, they were forcibly removed from the St. Vincent and eventually settled in Central America.