Barbados: Brief Historical Background

The Carib Indians invaded the island, displacing the original inhabitants the Arawak Indians, only to abandon it a few centuries later. It is believed that the islands’ first contact with European powers (disputed by some historians who believe that the Spanish were the first to arrive in the early 1500’s) dates back to 1536 when Pedro a Campos, the Portuguese explorer, spotted it on his voyage to Brazil.

Besides christening the island Los Barbados after the Bearded Fig trees found in abundance on the island and introducing the pig to the island, the Portuguese left the island as it was. When the first English settlers lead by Captain Henry Powell arrived in 1627, these pigs were the sole inhabitants of the island. The population of the island expanded rapidly as did the economic sphere as the landscape was cleared away for cultivation of first tobacco, then cotton, and finally sugar. The era of sugar plantations brought with it the evil of slavery and slave trade. The plantation owners or the ‘plantocracy’ profited immensely from this ‘sugar revolution’.

In 1639, a Legislative Assembly was formed in Barbados. The Charter of Barbados, formulated according to the Articles of Capitulation, signed after the invasion and conquest of Barbados by Oliver Cromwell gave the island a certain amount of independence.

The abolition of slavery did not improve the conditions of the slaves. Matters came to head during the economic crash of the 1930’s and there were labour movements all over the island. Conciliatory attempts by the British such as setting up of the Welfare and Development Office for the colonies and involving the Africans in the decision-making process didn’t solve problems and in 1961, Barbados was giving the right to administer its own domestic affairs.