Shephard history to be launched in Bequia today

Hobo Jungle Press will launch the republication of Charles Shephard’s ‘An Historical Account of the Island of St. Vincent’ at the Bequia Bookshop, today Thursday, March 13, at 5 p.m.{{more}}

Deputy director of Grenadines Affairs Herman Belmar will be the featured speaker, talking about Bequia’s history at the time of the book’s publication in 1831.

The publishers hope the launch, on the eve of National Heroes Day, will help to rekindle interest in the Carib Wars, which eventually led to the abolition of slavery in 1833.

The Shephard history was last published in 1979, on the eve of Independence and has long been out of print. Its publication today, in a new low-cost paperback edition, makes this stirring – albeit one-sided history – available to a new and younger generation of Vincentians. It is the first of what the editors of Hobo Jungle are planning as a series of reprints on the history of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The next publication, due this spring, will be Negro Slavery Described by a Negro: Being the Narrative of Ashton Warner, a Native of St. Vincent’s (sic).

The new version of Shephard’s history has introductions by Vincentian scholars Adrian Fraser and Paul Lewis. The type has been overhauled to appeal to a 21st century readership. Minor changes have been made to the text for legibility, but in all other respects the manuscript is the same one published in 1833. The 250+ pages contain detailed appendices of the holdings of all the plantations in St Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as details concerning the cost of running the fledgling government in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The launch is being held in conjunction with the opening, on the same day, beginning at 10 a.m., of an exhibition of new watercolours and prints by Anna Landry at the Oasis Art Gallery, located upstairs behind the Porthole restaurant.

Copies of the Shephard book – with its more than 70 pages of charts and tables – will be available for sale at a preview price of $35. Refreshments will be served and the public is welcome. There is no charge.

Hobo Jungle is a U.S. non-profit 501(c)3 organization, based in St Vincent. They have an on-line presence at www.hobojungle.org, which is open to aspiring authors and artists.