1600s-1820: The African slave trade along the Middle Passage brought approximately 6,777,000 slaves into Brazil and the West Indies by 1820. During the same time, immigration brought approximately 964,000 Caucasians into the region. This created an ethnic imbalance, with an 88% majority population of African descent. By 1820 in North America, 550,000 Africans were imported among a Caucasian population of 651,000, making blacks an ethnic minority of 46%. In the third book of Omeros, Walcott has Achille retrace three hundred years of history to reaffirm his African origins.

1833-1865: British Parliament abolished slavery in its West Indian colonies in 1833. President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the United States in 1863 and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed freedom at the close of the Civil War in 1865.

Late twentieth century: St. Lucia has a population of approximately 151,000, with a majority of African descent (90.3%), racially mixed (5.5%), East Indian (3.2%), Caucasian (.8%). With a population of...