Mount Healthy, Tortola BVI
If you want to know more about the life people led during the plantation era on the British Virgin Islands, then, it is worth paying a visit to Mount Healthy, which now has been bestowed the status of a National Park. This is the only traditional symbol of the plantation life that exists in Tortola.
Mount Healthy, initially known as the Anderson Estate, was started in 1798 by a person called James Anderson. Bezaliel Hodge took over the estate from Anderson. With the passage of years, the estate fell into many hands before Simon Scatliffe and John Dawson purchased it in 1872. In 1881, after the death of Scatliff, Dawson paid up the price for Scatliffe’s share and became the sole owner of the entire estate.
The key attraction at the Mount Healthy National Park in Tortola is the windmill situated right at the top. Built around the beginning of the 19th century, this windmill was used to crush sugarcane that came from the sugarcane plantations of Bezaliel Hodge. Every other plantation owner in the Tortola, during the 18th and 19th centuries, used mills operated by animals to crush sugarcane. These mills needed complete exposure to strong winds and were expensive to build. However, cost and location was not an obstacle for Bezaliel Hodge, who was the wealthiest of all the plantation owners at the period of time. He got the mill constructed to ease the job and also increase the productivity to make more profits.
The four huge rudder-like arms of the windmill turned in the wind to generate the power needed to get the central shaft running. This shaft propelled the huge rollers into motion, thus crushing the sugarcane and producing cane juice. The remains of the Overseer’s quarters and the Boiling House can be seen around the area of the windmill.
Mount Healthy National Park is one of the many plantations in which slavery played a major role. Innumerable slaves contributed to the thriving economy in this region during the 18th and 19th centuries. The abolishment of slavery spelt doom to the economy of this region. The flourishing sugar trade that spanned nearly a century came to an end with the liberation of African workers. The windmill and the other structures were left abandoned with no one to oversee their operations. Today, they stand in proof of the once-thriving economy of Mount Healthy plantations in Tortola.