Emancipation Day (Saint Kitts and Nevis)

Emancipation Day is a public holiday in Saint Kitts and Nevis, observed on the first Monday of August each year. The holiday commemorates when slavery was abolished in Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1934.

Saint Kitts and Nevis is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea. Indigenous people inhabited the island thousands of years before Christopher Columbus first sighted the island in 1493.

The British settled on Saint Kitts in 1623, and the French settled in 1625. The islands became the premier British and French base to expand in the Caribbean. After several wars with the French, the British acquired the islands in 1713.

The British developed sugar cane plantations and worked with slaves from Africa, making the islands the richest British colony in the 18th century.

The Slavery Abolition Act received Royal assent in the British Empire on August 28, 1833, and took effect on August 1, 1834. As one of the British colonies, slavery was abolished in Saint Kitts and Nevis on August 1, 1834. However, all former slaves had to work for their former masters for a four-year apprenticeship, and they achieved full freedom on August 1, 1838.

The following is the list of Emancipation Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis from 2022 to 2026.

Please check more public holidays in Saint Kitts and Nevis: