BARBADOS - A SHORT HISTORY
by Trevor G. Marshall

The island of Barbados has, perhaps, the most unusual history of the entire Caribbean region. It is one of the very few islands not "discovered" by Christopher Columbus; its indigenous population was either extinct or had left its shores by 1492; its permanent population of English and Africans landed at the same place on the same ship, the 'William and John' on 17th February, 1627 and the island received its name from some Portuguese sailors under Pedro a Compoz in 1536.

Barbados's early beginnings, according to Archaeologists, were similar to those of the other islands. This 166 square mile (430 square kilometres) coral island emerged as a distinctly non-mountainous, non-volcanic territory some 750 thousand years ago, but since then its history has been somewhat different from that of other Caribbean islands. Here is a list of these features, which make Barbados "A Singular Island".

1. The island was empty when the Englishmen settled on it in 1627. All of its indigenous people had left by 1600. This is one of the great mysteries of history.

2. Barbados is one of the very small number of islands which were passed by Christopher Columbus. In other words, Christopher Columbus did not "discover" Barbados.

3. The island is the only one which was so named by the Portuguese who were the first Europeans to land on it in 1536. They called it Los Barbados or 'the land of the Bearded Fig Tree'.

4. The island has been intensively cultivated with sugar cane from 1640 to 1969. Sugar cane was grown up to the highest point. This is unusual in the Caribbean.

5. The 'Sugar Revolution' was launched in Barbados from 1640 onwards. This tiny island led the agricultural movement which gave Europe its supplies of sugar for all classes. Prior to this time Europeans, particularly the wealthy ones, used honey as a sweetener.

6. Barbados has had only one colonial owner England (later Britain) from 1625 to 1966. It has been known as "Little England", and has never been conquered by another European state.

7. Barbados is the nearest Caribbean island to Africa (3,500 miles separate it from Dakar, Senegal) and thus the island became the main entrepôt (major market) for African enslaved persons, who were spread to other territories.

8. Barbados became Britain's military naval headquarters in the Eastern Caribbean between 1702 and 1905.

9. Barbados's two major ethnic groups, Africans and British - came on the same colonising vessel in February 1627.

10. Barbados is acknowledged to have invented the alcholic beverage 'RUM' in 1703.

"Barbados is the Crown and Front of all the Caribee islands towards the rising sun, being the most east of any and lies more conveniently of the rest for a seat of war, being most healthful, fruitful and stored with all things necessary for life. It is the great mart of trade, inhabited by many merchants and planters and in time of war is free from the danger of any enemy." Major John Scott, Description of Barbados (1667)

As the passage above indicates, Barbados has had an interesting and varied history, mainly as the chief English colony in the Caribbean for over 330 years, but also as a major Caribbean territory which has gone through two economic revolutions, each of which has ensured a prosperity which is unique in the region.

Once inhabited by Caribs and Arawaks who settled in the island around the time of Christ 2000 years ago and who gave it the name "Ichowigaim" or "big red animal lying on its side", Barbados has had a unique history.

It was the only island in the Eastern Caribbean not visited (discovered) by Christopher Columbus on any of his four voyages in the region and was totally uninhabited when the English took possession of it in 1625 in the name of James I. The founding of the colony took place in February 1627 when 80 Englishmen and 10 Africans whom they captured from a Spanish galleon landed at an inlet which they called "the Hole". The nearby site became their first capital under the name "Holetown", first called "Jamestown".

The chief development in Barbados in the 17th century was the Sugar Revolution or the large-scale production of cane sugar on large farms or "plantations" owned and managed by Englishmen who brought thousands of Africans to the island and enslaved them. The 'Sugar Revolution' made Barbados the most valuable piece of real estate in the entire world. By 1690 the island was being called "the chiefest jewel in the King of England's Crown". It was the most successful slave plantation society in the world up to that point and over the next 270 years Barbados developed and prospered on the basis of the sugar cane crop. The island became known as the place where Sugar was "King". While other territories rose and fell as the fortunes of war dictated, Barbados was never invaded and became a by-word for stability and British power in the region. All of England's major expeditions in the 17th century were launched from Barbados to capture Jamaica, to defend the other island colonies and to establish the Carolina colonies in 1670. No wonder Barbados gained the nickname of LITTLE ENGLAND.

Barbados also became the chief port in the region for the importation of enslaved African, as the English established themselves as major stakeholders in the ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. Indeed, so important was this island in England's system of purchasing and transporting West Africans to the 'New World' that in 1672 when the Royal African Company was established to pilot England's slave trading activities, five of the eight shareholders in the company were Barbadians! No wonder Barbados received so many Africans that by 1700 it was considered "over-populated". It remained the major slave mart for the Caribbean for the entire period of this forced migration (1640-1807). Barbados was also home to poor white from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales who came either as migrant labourers from 1627 onwards or as political prisoners and exiles from 1650 onwards. These unfortunate persons were made to suffer bondage for 10 year periods, after which many of them remained in the island, becoming the nucleus of the "Red Leg" population of white tenants, sharecroppers and field workers in the sugar industry. Today the group is very tiny living mainly in the rugged Eastern or Scotland District but maintaining their kinship, ethnic and cultural distinctiveness.

For three centuries, 1640 to 1940 Barbados's history was placid, occasionally punctuated by slave rebellions in 1675, 1688, 1692, but with only a single major revolt, the so called "Bussa Rebellion of 1816". It was a pure plantation society with a large resident planter class doing what they were excellent practitioners at producing cane sugar for export to Britain. Occasionally, as in the 18th century and in the period 1804-1805, the island was intimately involved in Britain's wars with France. Barbados supplied Britain with men for the war of American Independence and suffered accordingly when the "Bread Basket" became hostile enemy territory. In near famine conditions which followed the 1775 to 1783 war, the British had to introduce the breadfruit to replace American flour and other farm products.

The island survived these wars by producing more sugar. It also survived hurricanes in 1780, 1831,1898 and 1955. There was a cholera outbreak in 1854 and severe epidemics in the early 1900s. After each environmental disaster the island's authorities made improvements so that piped water, electricity, gas and telephones were introduced among the island's population by 1910

By 1907 the first Asiatics (Hindus and Muslims) came to join the ethnic minorities of Jews, Portuguese and Northern Europeans who shared the island with African-Barbadians. Syrians, Lebanese, other Caribbean people and South Americans have joined tiny groups of Northern Europeans since 1900 in making this island their home. By the end of the 20th century Barbados had become a multi-social, multi-cultural society.

Economically, the island underwent its second revolution the "Tourism Revolution" from the late 1940s onwards when war-weary British people developed hotels along the West Coast. In the 1950s and 1960s the South Coast became the main tourist belt with hotels, villas, restaurants and gift shops springing up to replace cane fields. By 1999 sugar was no longer "King" in Barbados. Tourism had replaced it, bringing Barbados unprecedented prosperity. From a mere 20,000 stay-over tourists in the late 1950's, the number of visitors to this island has now reached 900,000 forty years later. This mass of middle-to-upper income tourists spends over $1.2 billion Barbados annually on hotel rooms, service, water sports, art, craft-work, golf and other attractions. The tourist industry has brought Barbados to the threshold of that select group of wealthy nations called "the First World", the industrialized, metropolitan states of the North Atlantic. For good or evil Barbados now depends on tourism. As the slogan states "Tourism success means Bajan progress".

Where cane fields stood, new housing developments, manufacturing plants and industrial sites now dominated the landscape. Rapidly Barbados advances to the threshold of being a metropolitan country with all of the amenities of the Northern Atlantic countries on display cars, telephones, electrical equipment, large buildings, technological marvels such as the computer and a lifestyle based on providing services rather than toiling in agriculture. By the end of the 20th century Barbados despite its size, was the most prosperous Caribbean country, with the highest per capita income, most efficient health service, functioning utilities and an educational system which has boasted free tuition from Kindergarten to Undergraduate studies at the island's branch of University of the West Indies.

In sports Barbados emerged between 1900 and 1999 as top cricketing country in the region and as one of the major exponents of the English game in the entire world. Sir Garfield Sobers, the country's only living National Hero is named as "the greatest cricketer the world has known". Sports such as bodybuilding, soccer, athletics, swimming, hockey, basketball, netball and boxing gained for the island fame throughout the region.

Prior to independence in 1966 Barbados was regarded as a 'back-water' in the Caribbean where presentation of folk culture and pride in its African heritage were concerned. Despite having a 98% literacy level and producing world-rated writers such as George Lamming, Edward Kamau Brathwaithe, and Frank Collymore, the island was regarded as being a cultural 'waste-land'. However, within 8 years of gaining Independence, Barbados launched its campaign to explore and present on stage its cultural practices such as calypso, story-telling, street-theatre, dance, folk-drama and children's games. By the end of the 1990's Barbados was also know for its cultural life and for the Renaissance which developed after 1966, the date of Independence from Britain. Crop Over, a plantation festival became the island's main folk festival and seven new festivals now mark the annual calendar. Barbados stands as a proud, peaceful and progressive nation, adjusting to the challenges of the 21st century.

-- © Trevor G Marshall, 2000. This document is the property of the author. Quotation or reproduction without the permission of the author is expressly prohibited.