Barbados

BARBADOS

BARBADOS. The easternmost of the Caribbean's Windward Islands, Barbados is known as much for its tropical breezes as for its sugarcane fields. The earliest inhabitants were the Amaraks, Amerindians from Venezuela

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who are believed to have arrived around 1623 b.c. In 1200, the cannibalistic Caribs conquered the Amaraks. They, in turn, were conquered, enslaved, and finally decimated by smallpox when the Spanish arrived in the Caribbean in 1492. But Spain failed to colonize the island, leaving the British to settle Barbados in 1627 and introduce sugarcane as a major crop.

The American colonies had close ties to Barbados for a number of reasons, including the fact that in 1649, the Barbadian Society of Gentlemen Adventurers settled what became known as the Carolinas. Many Carolinians (North and South) still trace their roots to Barbados.

Barbados's climate also gained renown and in 1751 a young George Washington went there on his only trip abroad. He brought his ailing half brother to the island in search of a miracle tropical cure.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Barbados was a frequent exporter of sugar, ginger, molasses, and cotton to the American colonies. Those crops took a terrible toll on Barbados's West African slaves, brought there by Dutch merchants. (Many other slaves died en route to the island's plantations.) In 1834, slavery was technically abolished on Barbados; after the slaves served a mandatory four-year "apprenticeship," some seventy thousand newly free islanders of African descent celebrated their true emancipation in 1838.

British rule ended in 1966, when the island was finally granted full independence. Its bicameral parliament, however, remains British in style, with a Senate appointed by the governor general, who represents the British monarchy, and a House of Assembly elected by the voters.

The U.S.-Barbadian relations have always been strong. From 1956 to 1978, the U.S. operated a naval base there, and the two nations also signed a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) in 1996. The U.S. also supports Barbadian economic development and provides aid to combat narcotics trafficking.

While sugarcane is still a mainstay crop (Barbados's fifteen hundred small farms produce some sixty thousand tons of sugar annually), tourism is the island's leading industry. With the development in the 1990s of the Port Charles Marina in Speightstown and the opening of additional tourist facilities around the island, Barbados has a sunny future as a popular destination.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beckles, Hilary McD. A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Nation-State. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

———. Natural Rebels: A Social History of Slave Women in Barbados, 1627–1715. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1989.

Broberg, Merle. Barbados. Broomall, Pa.: Chelsea House, 1999.

Puckrein, Gary A. Little England: Plantation Society and Anglo-Barbadian Politics, 1627–1700. New York: New York University Press, 1984.

Vaitilingham, Adam. The Mini "Rough Guide" Barbados. New York: Rough Guides, 2001.

The World Factbook. Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency, 2001.

Laura A. Bergheim

See also West Indies, British and French .