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After the original settlers, Arawak and Caribs, the Island has been in the possession of French and English slave traders and plantation owners. They brought hundreds of Africans to the island, mostly from Nigeria, Cameroon , Angola and Ghana Sea Island Cotton was an important export crop – Sea Island cotton trees may still be found on the island - a good example can be found in the Bougainvillia complex beside the Anchorage Yacht Club in Clifton Harbour.

When slavery was abolished, people still relied on farming and fishing. As a result, a lot of men went to sea to work on freighters to support their families. Union Island was the centre of some political unrest in the late 1970s when a group of residents were in favour of secession from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and merger with southern neighbour Grenada. The insurrection was put down by forces of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Government.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent much of a year working on Union Island and competed a new Coast Guard Jetty and shore office at the mouth of Clifton Harbour.