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Flags of Antigua and Barbuda

A two-island nation in the Leeward Islands: Kalinago and earlier Arawakan-speaking peoples first, then just over three centuries of unbroken British rule built on a brutal sugar-plantation economy, a stretch of self-governing Associated Statehood in preparation for the end of empire, and finally full independence on 1 November 1981 — the second-to-last of the Eastern Caribbean's former British ministates to break away, with only Saint Kitts and Nevis following in 1983.

Antigua and Barbuda's black, red, and "Antigua blue" sunrise flag was raised for the first time at independence and has flown unaltered since — though, honestly, it differs little from the flag already flying over the self-governing Associated State in the years just before.

One border, no internal split

Antigua and Barbuda's own real border, traced whole — two islands governed as a single unit with no genuinely separate internal region to carve out honestly. Press play, or drag the slider, to watch who held it, era to era.

Antigua and Barbuda has no well-documented internal partition of the kind this atlas tracks elsewhere. Barbuda has long had its own local council and a degree of internal autonomy within the state, but the two islands have always been governed as one single colony, then Associated State, then nation — never two separately ruled territories the way Hungary or Poland once were — so this page shows one border and one government at a time.

c. 1493

Kalinago and pre-colonial Antigua and Barbuda

Real traced border (modern frontier, both islands), no internal partition — see the rule box above for why.

black sun-and-sea “V” on red, simplified geometry — adopted 27 February 1967

1981 – present

Independent Antigua and Barbuda

Independent stateVere BirdNo established church

Migration & conquest:Emigration: to the UK, US & Canada

Ruling house:House of Windsor

Who & why: full independence from Britain arrives on 1 November 1981, with Vere Bird as the first prime minister, making Antigua and Barbuda the last but one of the three former West Indies Associated States profiled in this hub to leave British rule — Saint Kitts and Nevis follows in 1983, the very last. Barbuda's own push for greater autonomy within the new state, and periodic secessionist sentiment there, runs through the decades since, but the two islands remain a single sovereign nation.

What it represents: a black band across the top for African heritage and the islands' fertile soil, a stylized golden-orange sun rising behind it for the dawn of a new nation, a white “V” of sea between blue bands for the surrounding Caribbean, and red field around the edges for the energy and vitality of the people. Designed by Reginald Samuel and adopted for independence, though — honestly — it carries over the design already flown under Associated Statehood since 1967 with only very minor refinement.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3, adopted 27 February 1967 (design), flag law fixed at independence, 1 November 1981.

LayoutRed field; inverted isosceles-triangle panel from the top edge holding black (top), gold sun, and blue-white-blue horizontal bands narrowing to a point at the bottom center.

Red#CE1126

Black#111111

Gold sun#FDD116

Antigua blue#0072CE

White#F4EFE1

essentially the same sunrise design, flown as the self-governing state's own flag

1967 – 1981

Associated State of Antigua

Associated statehood (self-governing)Vere BirdNo established church

Ruling house:House of Windsor

Who & why: as part of Britain's staged withdrawal from its smaller Eastern Caribbean colonies, Antigua (together with Barbuda and the tiny dependency of Redonda) becomes a West Indies Associated State on 27 February 1967, gaining full internal self-government under its own premier while Britain retains only defense and foreign affairs. The arrangement is explicitly transitional, built to prepare each territory for eventual full independence at a pace of its own choosing.

What it represents: the black-gold-blue sunrise design, designed by Reginald Samuel and selected by public competition, is adopted at this same moment in 1967 — effectively the same flag Antigua and Barbuda carries into independence fourteen years later, honestly shown here as identical rather than inventing a distinct transitional design that never existed.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo separately fixed civil ratio during Associated Statehood; shown at 2:3, matching the 1981 flag law.

LayoutIdentical to the independence-era flag: red field, black/gold-sun/blue-white-blue inverted triangle.

Red#CE1126

Black#111111

Gold sun#FDD116

Antigua blue#0072CE

British Blue Ensign with the Antigua colonial badge (simplified pineapple) on the fly

1632 – 1967

British Antigua and Barbuda

British colonySir Thomas WarnerAnglican (established)

Migration & conquest:Conquered by: England (settled 1632)Immigration: forced deportation via the Atlantic slave trade

Ruling house:House of StuartHouse of Windsor

Who & why: English settlement begins at Antigua in 1632 under associates of Sir Thomas Warner, while Barbuda passes from the later 17th century into the hands of the Codrington family as leaseholders, run essentially as a private provisioning and plantation estate tied to Antigua rather than settled in its own right. Antigua becomes a key British naval base — English Harbour's Nelson's Dockyard, active from the 1740s — and, like most of the region, a brutal sugar-plantation economy built on enslaved African labor, with emancipation arriving in 1834 and full freedom from the apprenticeship system in 1838. Antigua and Barbuda join the short-lived West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962, and remain a British colony afterward until Associated Statehood in 1967.

What it represents: the standard British colonial Blue Ensign, defaced with Antigua's own colonial badge — a stylized pineapple over a sugar mill, formalized in the later 19th or early 20th century — on the fly, the same pattern flown across most of Britain's Caribbean possessions.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2, standard British Blue Ensign proportions.

LayoutDark blue field, Union Jack canton, colonial badge (pineapple over sugar mill, simplified) centered on the fly.

Ensign blue#1B3A76

White#F4EFE1

Union red#C9432C

Badge gold#FDD116

placeholder maroon field — pre-colonial era, no flag survives

c. 1493 – 1632

Kalinago and pre-colonial Antigua and Barbuda

Indigenous / pre-colonialNo single ruler documentedKalinago spiritual tradition

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Kalinago migration from South America

Who & why: Christopher Columbus sights Antigua in 1493 on his second voyage and names it after the Church of Santa María la Antigua in Seville, but does not land. The islands remain under Kalinago (Carib) control, with earlier Arawakan-speaking (Saladoid) settlement stretching back many centuries before that. Repeated Spanish and French attempts to settle Antigua through the 16th and early 17th centuries are turned back by Kalinago resistance and the islands' limited fresh water, and no European power establishes a lasting foothold until the English arrive in 1632.

What it represents: no securely documented flag survives from this indigenous period; the Kalinago and their Arawakan-speaking predecessors did not use heraldic banners in the European sense. Shown here honestly blank rather than invented.

Paint guide

ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.

Reading the tags

Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start

State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's

Indigenous / pre-colonial — no European claim yet

British colony — under direct British rule

Associated statehood (self-governing) — internal self-rule, Britain keeps defense & foreign affairs

Independent state — sovereign under its own government

Find the records

Family history research for Antigua and Barbuda lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.

Search Record Atlas for Antigua and Barbuda →

More of the atlas

This page is one lineage in a larger set. See the region-wide hub and the full index here:

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub Caribbean hubThirteen island nations, five centuries