Slave records before 1838
The British claim they abolished their slave trade in 1807 and slavery itself in 1834, although there was a scheme of apprenticeship for ex-slaves which lasted until 1838. Before slavery ended, the authorities in the Caribbean places ruled by Britain had to send back information to the government. As the government was mainly interested in collecting taxes and other financial matters, most of these records relate to the estate owners; but there are some containing lists of slaves. These government-related papers are now held in the Public Record Office, with copies in some cases in the record offices of former Caribbean colonies.
Some slaves gained their freedom before slavery was abolished, some by buying it with money earned through trading, others being given their freedom by their masters - often in their wills. Those who gained manumission in this way were often the offspring of white estate owners or managers and slave women, so many Afro-Caribbeans also have white ancestry. Some are also descended from indentured labour brought from India, China, Madeira and Africa after slavery ended.
Slavery was abolished in BarbadosTrace your AFRICAN ancestors:
Kathy Chater is a writer and researcher with a particular interest in black people's history. She has lectured on black ancestry, and written about black people in parish records.
Many Afro-Caribbeans had a skilled trade and lived in towns. Others were fishermen, dockers or seafarers
Barbados was one of England's most popular colonies, with a rich economy based on sugar and slavery. Yet it was also the only colony to support the abolition of the slave trade.
Barbados in many respects was England's first experimental tropical agricultural export colony. Contemporary opinion in the late seventeenth century acclaimed it the "richest spote (spot) of ground in the worlde" (world). Private English capital, with the Crown's blessing, financed settlement in 1627. Market conditions for its first commercial crop, tobacco, enabled the accumulation of quick profits, which were later utilised to finance the shift to sugar production in the 1650s, after large scale, high quality Virginian tobacco production caused a glut on the European market and prices plummeted.
In the first decade, when settlement was tenuous, the first Barbadian settlers encountered no opposition from Spanish or French rivals, nor was there a native Amerindian presence to overcome. In fact, the opposite occurred. Amerindians were brought from Guiana in order to instruct the early settlers in survival skills, such as knowledge of local foods and preparation methods, and the most effective ways of clearing dense tropical forest. The Dutch were also helpful in nurturing the young colony. A locally elected legislature or House of Assembly was formed in 1639, which along with a nominated advisory Council and the Crown's representative, the Governor of the island, ruled the island in tandem with the state sanctioned religion, the Anglican Church.
Just as the attempts at alternate crops such as indigo and ginger seemed doomed to failure, international affairs conspired to create an economic opening which guaranteed the survival and prosperity of Barbados. The Dutch in north-east Brazil and their allied community of Sephardic Jews were expelled from Recife and Bahia. Barbadian planters such as the Draxes, made contact with individuals fleeing Brazil, and a most successful transference of the sugar industry took place. The climate and soil conditions in Barbados were perfect for the growing of this sweet grass.
In a short space of twenty years, the economic phenomenon known as the Sugar Revolution transformed the face of Barbados forever. Tropical luxuriance gave way to a carefully controlled garden-like appearance of the entire island, as almost complete deforestation occurred. Not only was nature subjected to man's tight control, but profound demographic and economic changes created a whole new society.
Population
The island shifted from having a majority white population to having a majority black population. This would have profound social and cultural consequences. It also brought into play issues such as internal security, and the need for a legal and policing system to control the large population, who could be expected to resist their status as slaves in a wide variety of ways (including escape/rebellion and revenge).
Population figures for selected dates show this process clearly:
| Year | White | % | Black | % |
| 1629 | 1800 | 97% | 50 | 03% |
| 1643 | 37 200 | 86% | 6000 | 14% |
| 1684 | 23 624 | 34% | 46 502 | 66% |
| 1724 | 18 295 | 25% | 55 206 | 75% |
| 1786 | 16 167 | 21% | 62 115 | 79% |
This shift in population patterns, facilitated a process of creolisation, which saw West African and West European cultural patterns acting on each other under the influence of a small tropical island environment to produce a Barbadian variant of a wider West Indian culture. Travellers to the island in the eighteenth century noted these changes, especially on the white population, who were accused of "lisping the language of the Negroes," or of "adopting the Negro style."
West African cultural patterns were stripped from the black population. This opinion is widespread and based on the notion that planters deliberately applied a policy of deculturation in order to guarantee themselves a docile work force. Planters argued that African cultural retentions, particularly those that permitted socialisation, for example the Saturday night dances and Sunday activities commonly referred to in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as 'plays' made the slave population more contented with their lot and willing to work harder and create greater profits for their owners. It is only after emancipation in 1834, that we see an organised effort to acculturate slaves to European patterns.
Abolition
As a result, Barbados was the only one of the British islands which supported the passage of the act abolishing the slave trade. Put bluntly, Barbadian planters recognised that the island had a growing slave population which would guarantee on going sugar production, whereas the other territories would be hampered in their economic development, if denied access to slave labour. This was especially true of the newly conquered territories such as Trinidad, Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. Barbadian abolitionism therefore was economically driven, although in all fairness, one should point out that there were influential white Barbadian abolitionists such as John Alleyne and R.B. Niccols, Dean of Middleham, who were genuine in their concerns and efforts.
Nevertheless, the slave trade was of importance for Barbados. Because of the geographical location of the island and the favourable trade winds, Barbados (Bridgetown in particular), became an entrepot for the re-exportation of slaves to North America, other Caribbean islands and to the Captaincy-General of Venezuela. After the War of Spanish Succession, the treaty which brought an end to the war gave England the asiento or license to export slaves from their possessions in the Caribbean. The Royal African Company then established offices in Jamaica and Barbados, from where slaves were re-exported, to Mexico in the case of the Jamaican office and to Venezuela from Barbados.
Oloudah Equiano gives a moving description of the Middle Passage and his arrival as a captured African in Barbados.
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board… I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together,, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me.
The picture therefore which Barbados presents in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is one of initial and rapid change after settlement, first of all in the natural arena with rapid and almost total deforestation, followed by demographic change as large numbers of Africans were brought into the island to provide labour for the sugar industry. The sugar economy quickly made the island very wealthy, and the port of Bridgetown became, along with Boston and London, a key link in the English Atlantic world. By the mid eighteenth century, newer colonies in the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, had surpassed Barbados in terms in economic importance, although the island still retained its position as one of England's leading overseas colonies. At this point in time, Barbados was a stable, mature slave society, tightly controlled by its resident native white elite class, with functioning institutions of its own, and a specific character and identity which stamped it as undeniably and uniquely Barbadian.