Rowntree’s Caribbean Plantations

In the late 1890s, Rowntree and Co. acquired several plantations on the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Dominica, which were then part of the British Empire. Many of these were former slave plantations, and the company adapted sugar mills and other infrastructure on the estates to cultivate cocoa, limes, bananas, coffee, and coconuts.

In 1904, over 300 black labourers and 100 East Indian labourers in total worked on the Caribbean plantations, overseen by 9 white managers. By the outbreak of the First World War, Rowntree’s Jamaican estates were the largest exporters of cocoa on the island, shipping exclusively to the United Kingdom. However, the company faced significant challenges in its Caribbean operations and had withdrawn from all estates by the early 1930s.

Why did Rowntree & Co. decide to acquire its own plantations in the Caribbean?

What was life like for those who lived and worked on the land?

What led the company to decide to sell up?

And how can we understand Rowntree & Co’s activities in the region in the broader context of colonial exploitation?

Watch the video below for a fascinating exploration of an untold global history of the Rowntree Company, based on new archival research.