The Beaufond family received the first official concession for North Island in 1826, granted to Madam Celerine Beaufond. Despite the early 19th-century restrictions on women and slave emancipation, Celerine was awarded the concession, with the family already inhabiting the island for a few years prior. Their plantation, using the island’s guano deposits and fertile soil, grew crops like vanilla, spices, and fruit. This era marked North Island’s role in the spice trade and its shift to copra production, a more labour-efficient agricultural industry, after the abolition of slavery.
Plantation Years
