While researching the Drake connection to Barbados, I as intrigued and distrubed to read of a Longford connection to the Carribean island of St. Croix… where there is a town called Cartys, Madame Cartys, and a geographic area called Carty’s Point.
Not alone that, but there is Granard, Longford and Corn Hill, among other placenames of Longford origin, which point to a tragic past.
St. Croix, in the US Virgin Islands, was a slave colony, and while we do not know if the Longford people were there before or after slavery itself, what is known is that they were brought there by the Armstrong family as plantation agents… a fancy term for slave drivers.
St Croix Map
Granard and Longford are on the south coast, Madame Cartys is on the east coast. Cartys point is there too.
Even if just overseeing workers after slavery, conditions were so bad that there was a rebellion led by three women: the part our Cartys and fellow Longford families had to play in that and the cause of that I am researching as I write.
There may be good and human stories, and there may be some horrific ones. At this stage we do not know…
The work to date is on by blog on the topic, more will be posted on both sites as its confirmed.