History of Barbados

897 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Slave trade in the Caribbean

The island of Barbados was first inhabited by an Amerindian migrant group called the Saladoid-Barrancoid around 350 to 650 AD. Their ancestors are believed to be from the Orinoco Basin in South America. The Spanish were the first Europeans to land on the island in the sixteenth century and reported the Amerindian settlement. However, when the Portuguese explorer, Pedro a Campus landed there in 1536, he claimed that the island was uninhabited.

The original inhabitants, the Saladoid-Barrancoid, spoke a language which later became known as Arawakan. They were considered to be skilled farmers and fisherman while also excelling in ceramic crafts. They traded throughout the Caribbean area, which is known because artifacts of the Saladiod-Barrancoid have been found not only on Barbados, but also on neighboring islands. The slave population of Barbados increased greatly between 1643 and 1666. In 1643 the island had 6,400 slaves, and by 1666 they had over 50,000. The wealth of the planter class on the island was becoming more evident.

The prosperity of the sugar industry within Barbados lasted until the early 1700s. The island of Jamaica and some of the Leeward Islands gained prosperity within the sugar industry. The diminishing sugar industry within Barbados was most directly related to their soil, which began to wear out. Barbados also faced problems with insects and drought.

The life of those who worked on the plantations was not good. They endured hot temperatures, disease, and were at the mercy of their master. On almost every sugar-producing island, the death rate was higher than the birth rate, and it was known that those that worked on the sugar producing islands were up for a much harsher life than those taken to places like North America. Since the slaves died too quickly to reproduce, the plantation owners were constantly forced to bring more slaves in.

Show More
Related

  • Black Majority Summary

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    They "developed a common routine of removing their families to Newport, Rhode Island, during that portion of the year" (73). By doing this, they lowered the risk of people getting sick and dying. They made a discovery that malaria and yellow fever were what was causing so many people to get sick. However, the African slaves were unaffected to these diseases and could endure working in the fields without getting sick. This being another reason African slaves were prevalent in South Carolina, and how they became the

    Read More

  • Sugar Trade Dbq

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slave labor is the final factor that drove the sugar trade and made it so successful. Slaves were the manual laborers on the plantations, doing the actual harvesting and boiling because the owner wasn’t there to do so (Document 8). Without the slaves working the farm, everything was pretty much useless. There is also a direct correlation between the number of slaves and the tons of sugar produced. This is shown in Document 9, where the island of Jamaica starts out with 45,000 slaves, and produces 4,782 tons of sugar. When the number of slaves increases by less than half to 74,500, the amount of sugar produced is more than tripled at 15, 972 tons. This clearly exhibits how slaves were essential to sugar

    Read More

  • Sugar Trade Dbq Essay

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    In these pictures I can tell who the slaves are because they are dark skinned, I see no white people working, however… I see white people telling the slaves what to do. Large plantation= large amount of slaves. Labor was crucial if you wanted to make sugar. You would need a lot of slaves to work on the plantations.

    Read More

  • Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox by Edmund Morgan

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    The use of labor came in two forms; indenture servitude and Slavery used on plantations in the south particularly in Virginia. The southern colonies such as Virginia were based on a plantation economy due to factors such as fertile soil and arable land that can be used to grow important crops, the plantations in the south demanded rigorous amounts of labor and required large amounts of time, the plantation owners had to employ laborers in order to grow crops and sell them to make a profit. Labor had become needed on the plantation system and in order to extract cheap labor slaves were brought to the south in order to work on the plantations. The shift from indentured servitude to slavery was an important time as well as the factors that contributed to that shift, this shift affected the future generations of African American descent. The history of colonial settlements involved altercations and many compromises, such as Bacons Rebellion, and slavery one of the most debated topics in the history of the United States of America. The different problems that occurred in the past has molded into what is the United States of America, the reflection in the past provides the vast amount of effort made by the settlers to make a place that was worth living on and worth exploring.

    Read More

  • Southern Colonies Economy

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since it was easier to grow grain and livestock in the Mid-Atlantic region, there was a diverse group of farmers, fishermen, and merchants who worked in those colonies. The environmental conditions were ideal for farms of various sizes and the Middle colonists could trade in market areas where the colonial regions met. Although a lot of money could be made by growing tobacco (in Maryland especially) and other cash crops, they were bad for the soil and people needed more land. However, this resulted in a newfound lack of labor, which was an issue. For instance, families procreated too slowly, there was a high infant mortality rate, African slaves cost too much, and, according to the colonists, Native Americans didn’t make good slaves. Eventually white indentured servants from Europe were recruited to work on plantations, but it was a difficult life for them- even after they were freed they continued to earn low wages. This high demand of cash crops in Maryland and other Middle colonies led to an overall decline in the wellness of the

    Read More

  • Indentured Servitude in Colonial America

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    During American colonization, the economy of the south became predominantly dependent on the tobacco plant. As the south continued to develop, they shifted their focus to cotton. Indentured servants as well as African slaves were used for these labor-intensive crops because their labor was decent and cheap (Shi and Tindall 39). Young British men were promised a life of freedom in America if they agreed to an exchange between a free voyage and labor for a fixed number of years. Many willing, able-bodied, and young men signed up with the hopes of establishing a bright future for themselves in America. Unbeknownst to them, indentured servitude was not as easy as it was made out to be. Many servants endured far worse experiences than they had ever imagined. The physical and emotional conditions they faced were horrible, their masters overworked them, and many had to do unprofessional work instead of work that enabled them to use their own personal skills. Young British men felt that because they faced such horrible circumstances, the exchange between a free voyage to America in exchange for servitude was not a proper trade.

    Read More

  • Colonial Rule of the Dominican Republic

    979 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with the horror of colonialism. In fact, the Dominican Republic became the “hub” for the colonization of the America’s, and acted as the stepping-stone for European colonizers into a vast, never before exploited goldmine for both natural and human resources. As Sagas and Inoa discuss, the island of Hispaniola, "became the center of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the New World. It was in Hispaniola where the first major contacts between Europeans and Amerindians took place, where the first exploitative economic activities in the New World were developed, where Europeans first established permanent settlements and colonial institutions, and where the stage was set for the colonization of the rest of the New World (Inoa pg. 1.)." Thus the groundwork was established for colonialism not only for the Dominican Republic, but for the entire hemisphere. According to Sagas and Inoa, colonization was inevitable because interaction with Europeans was predictable. They wrote, “[i]f Christopher Columbus had...

    Read More

  • The Haitian Relationship With the Dominican Republic

    2875 Words  | 6 Pages

    By the 1780’s Saint Domingue’s had the largest amount of slaves in the Caribbean. This large amount of slaves can be greatly attributed to the nearly 30,000 Africans imported to the colony between 1785-1790 (Beckles 403) . This extraordinary amount of slaves allowed Saint Domingue emerge as one of the wealthiest colonies of its time, but it also made the island susceptible to a successful upheaval for the transplanted African communities. In 1789 Saint Domingue had approximately 8,000 plantations which produced crops for export which generated two fifths of Frances foreign trade, "a proportion rarely equalled in any colonial empire" (Beckles 403). The majority of crops being exported were coffee, and sugar although cotton, indigo were also part of this colonies economic prosperity.

    Read More

  • Slavery During the Enlightenment and the Frech Revolution

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    comfortable working in the hot conditions of the Indies. because they had originally come from a very hot climate in Africa. The world of the world. In order to make the best use of the land, more. efficient workers would be needed, and hence the slaves.

    Read More

  • Master-Slave Relationships In Richard Ligon's A True And Exact History

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1627 the first Englishmen landed on the uninhabited Caribbean island of Barbados. Twenty years later, Richard Ligon, a royalist fleeing political turmoil during the English Revolution of 1647-1649, arrived on the island and purchased half of a functioning sugar plantation with several colleagues. He remained on the island for three years, writing A True & Exact History after his return to

    Read More

  • Rise And Fall Of The Indentured Servant System

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Indentured servants. Becoming a servant was an easy way for people to get to the New

    Read More

  • Barbados

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    When one thinks of Barbados, one thinks of luscious, turquoise blue waters; soft white sand beaches; blue, white clouded skies; fresh fruits; exotic, delicious dishes and honeymoons. One, however, tends to forget the formation of this land. This Caribbean luxury Island has much history and great heritage. In this report, I will detail Barbados’s location, history, labor relations, population size and structure, industries, plus add a little zest with the beauty of the Island.

    Read More

  • Globalization and Organizational Structure

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    Globalization remains a pivotal topic in many schools of thought, and continues being a topic of controversy even in local economies today. Perhaps the reason for this is integration and competitiveness the world over. Conceivably, even more than integration, is the competitiveness of organizations, has possibly facilitating the fascination and misconception about of globalization. Nevertheless, globalization has brought about a number of effects influencing the design and geographical location of the organization. However, globalization has effectively placed the world in a bubble, or maybe one could equate the changes to being placed in an envelope.

    Read More

  • Globalization and Technology

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    Globalisation is a very complex term with various definitions, in business terms, “globalization describes the increasingly global nature of markets, the tendency for transnational businesses to configure their business activities on a worldwide basis, and to co-ordinate and integrate their strategies and operations across national boundaries” (Stonehouse, Campbell, Hamill and Purdie, 2004, p. 5).

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Globalization

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Globalization’s history is extremely diversified and began during the beginning of civilization. Now we live in a world that is constantly evolving, demanding people to use resources in locations that are very difficult to obtain certain resources. This could make it completely impossible to operate in these specific parts of the world. However, globalization allows people across the world to acquire much needed resources. Globalization creates the opportunity for businesses to take advantage and exploit the ability to take part of their business to a different country. Nevertheless, globalization is part of today’s society and will be involved in virtually all situations.

    Read More

More about History of Barbados

Open Document