Barbados

Barbados, the most easterly of the Caribbean islands with an estimated population of 280,946 (2007). It has one of the highest population densities in the world (1,542 per square mile). Under the direction of William Courteen, the British settled and colonized Barbados in 1627. There was a lack of agricultural production and a scarce supply of indigenous labor.

Consequently, the British imported Arawak Indians from what is today known as Guyana to begin indigo and tobacco production. With the introduction of sugar to the island, the smallholdings economy was transformed into a plantation economy, and thousands of African slaves were imported to work in the fields. The harshness of slavery led to several revolts, the most famous occurring in 1702 and 1816. Slavery, although abolished in 1838, left intact a highly stratified class-based society, organized in part on color. The landed elite, who had established a parliamentary system to represent their interests in 1639, remained in power as politics excluded the majority of the population until the 1930s.

In 1938 the Barbados Progressive League was formed under the direction of Grantley Adams; it was renamed the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in 1946. In 1944, this popular-based party gained a minority in the House of Assembly. Three years later, after a successful campaign that extended the franchise, the BLP was able to secure a majority in the elections. After the introduction of universal adult suffrage in 1951, the BLP won sixteen of the twenty-four seats. Adams became premier of Barbados, and in January 1958 prime minister of the newly formed West Indies Federation, which sought regional cooperation among the English-speaking Caribbean islands. Meanwhile, the Democratic Labour Party, headed by Errol Barrow, began to call for independence, which was granted by Great Britain in 1961. Barrow became the country's first prime minister in that year and remained in office until his death in 1987.

Today the primary sources of foreign currency for Bajans, as Barbadians are called, are tourism and the sugar industry, to which 80 percent of the agricultural land is dedicated.

See alsoAdams, Grantley Herbert .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ronald Tree, A History of Barbados, 2d ed. (1977).

M. S. Dann, Everyday Life in Barbados: A Sociological Perspective (1979).

Ingrid Kowler, comp., What You Should Know About the Caribbean (1980).

Hilary Beckles, A History of Barbados: From Amerindian Settlement to Nation-State (1990).

Additional Bibliography

Beckles, Hilary. Great House Rules: Landless Emancipation and Workers' Protest in Barbados, 1838–1938. Kingston; Miami: I. Randle; Oxford: J. Currey, 2004.

Gmelch, George, and Sharon Gmelch. The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Gragg, Larry. Englishmen Transplanted: The English Colonization of Barbados, 1627–1660. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Howard, Michael McGregor. The Economic Development of Barbados. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2006.

Howe, Glenford D., and Don D. Marshall. The Empowering Impulse: The Nationalist Tradition of Barbados. Barbados: Canoe Press, 2001.

Menard, Russell R. Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006.

Schomburgk, Robert H., Sir. The History of Barbados: Comprising a Geographical and Statistical Description of the Island, a Sketch of the Historical Events since the Settlement, and an Account of Its Geology and Natural Productions. London: F. Cass, 1971.

                                        DariÉn Davis