The Corn Islands: From Early Settlement to Emancipation
The Corn Islands were first inhabited by the Kukra people between 1–400 AD. They came from the areas of Bluefields, Kukra Hill, and Pearl Lagoon. The Kukras were of short stature, with stout builds, wide noses and pierced ears, black hair, round faces, small eyes, low-set eyebrows, flat foreheads, thick lips, and receding jaws. They cultivated corn, fished, and hunted turtles.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the Corn Islands comes from Christopher Columbus fourth and final voyage. On 17 September 1502, Columbus spotted the islands while sailing south from Cape Gracias a Dios along the coast of present-day Nicaragua. He named them “Islas Limonares”, likely inspired by the abundance of citrus trees he observed from his ship. Columbus did not set foot on the islands; he merely recorded their presence before continuing his voyage towards the coast of what is now Costa Rica.
Between 1600 and 1660, adventurers and privateers such as Alexandre Exquemelin and William Dampier visited the islands, documenting sightings of the native inhabitants. After 1700, British and Scottish settlers arrived, bringing enslaved Africans to work in their households and on plantations. Cotton produced on the islands was exported to Europe, primarily to Liverpool, England.
On 27 August 1841, a military vessel anchored at Insurance Harbour, off Southwest Bay on Great Corn Island. Colonel Alexander McDonald, Superintendent of the English Crown in British Honduras, and Robert Charles Frederick, King of the Mosquito Coast, arrived to free 98 enslaved people under the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. That evening, the newly freed men and women celebrated with crab soup for supper.
Eleven years later, on 25 August 1852, Reverend Edward Kelly from British Honduras founded the Ebenezer Baptist Church and School, beginning evangelism and literacy efforts on the islands. Through the church, Emancipation Day was formally established, celebrated at Bernard Bank in North End with a Thanksgiving service, games, and food. In the 1980s, the celebration began to be organised by the local government and community as it is known today.
