Who worked on Anguilla’s sugar estates during the colonial period?

During the early 18th century, as British settlers on Anguilla shifted from tobacco and cotton to sugarcane production, the labor force on the island's sugar estates was composed primarily of enslaved Africans. This system of forced labor remained the dominant social and economic structure until the abolition of slavery in the British colonies in 1834. Following emancipation, many European plantation owners sold their land to former slaves and departed the island, leading to a transition toward a society of small farmers.12