During the second part of the 19th century, thousands of black immigrants came to Vieques to work on the sugarcane plantations. They arrived from the nearby islands of St. Thomas, Nevis, Saint Kitts, Saint Croix, and many other Caribbean islands, some of them as slaves and some as independent economic migrants. By the time of settlement of Vieques the Eastern Caribbean was post-Emancipation but some arrived as contract labor. Since this time black people have formed an important part of Vieques's society.