LOCATION AND GEOGRAPHYThe island is located in a slightly eccentric position in the Atlantic Ocean, to the east of the other Caribbean islands. This positions the island just outside the principal hurricane belt with the average time between direct hurricane hits being about 26.6 years. The island does get brushed by hurricanes however, about every 3 years. The island's atmosphere is tropical with constant trade winds off the Atlantic Ocean. These fresh breezes make the year-round average daytime highs of 24-29 degrees Celsius (75-80 degrees Fahrenheit) very comfortable. The weather in Barbados is sunnier and drier than that of many of the other islands in the Caribbean.
Barbados possesses a land area of around 430 sq. kilometers - that is about 14 miles wide and 21 miles long! Barbados is a relatively flat island, rising gently to the central highland region, the highest point being Mount Hillaby, at 336 metres (1,100 ft) above sea level. The organic composition of Barbados is thought to be on non-volcanic origin and is predominantly composed of limestone-coral. The west coast is well known for its tranquil white sand beaches while the east side has miles of coastal roads and glorious views of rugged beaches and pounding Atlantic surf. Much of the central area is devoted to farming vegetables, sugar cane and cotton.
EARLY HISTORY
said one of the first visitors to Barbados, the Englishman Sir Henry Colt, who arrived in 1631.
He arrived to an island virtually inhabited. Yet a strong history of the Arawak and Carib cultures were evident. It is thought that the Caribs had aggressively dominated the indigenious Arawak population for about 300 years before themselves being decimated through Spanish enslavement and exile to larger islands for work as well as through famine or disease. The tiny island of "Los Barbados" (The Bearded One)appeared to be of benign interest to the fortune-hunting Spaniards active in Mexico, Peru, Cuba and Puerto Rico. With English settlement of this tiny remote island in the late 1620's, came also the introduction of the Black Slaves, gamblers and fortune hunters, of kidnappers and their bounties and of political outcasts from England, Ireland, Scotland and Holland. Colonization had begun and it was a profitable adventure.
Sugar cane production was the main attraction and the plantation system replaced nearly all the natural vegetation on the island, nudging out even land for growing food locally. It became a lucrative business, generating great wealth for the giant planters and abject poverty among the slaves who worked the land. By 1684 slaves outnumbered whites by roughly 3 to 1 - a threat to the white overlords which resulted in severe measures of control. As interracial liaisons increased, a mulatto population began to grow and often the children were baptized into the Church of England and released from slavery.
The late 1600's were a time of slave rebellions and harsh treatment by a trained militia. By the early 1700's, the original African blacks had become native blacks, or "creolized" black. As such, they were favoured over slave newcomers from Africa and with their small gains in liberty came less insurrection. Barbados gained a reputation for granting more concessions to slaves than any of the other sugar islands. In 1807, the slave trade was officially abolished by the British Parliament. The Act called for the registration of all slaves in the colonies. The misunderstanding of that registration bill created a powerful anticipation of freedom among all the blacks. Unfilled in their anticipation, free mulattos and slaves together plotted a major rebellion in 1816 which ultimately provided the impetus for further reforms - it was one more step on the road to emancipation. The day came in 1834. On August 1st, Anglican Bishop William Hart Coleridge wrote
"800,000 human beings lay down last night as slaves, and rose in the
morning as free as ourselves...It was my peculiar happiness on that
ever memorable day to address a congregation of nearly 4,000 people,
of whom more than 3,000 were Negroes just emancipated. And such
was the order, the deep attention, and perfect silence,
that you might have heard a pin drop"
MODERN HISTORY
Riots erupted by April 1876 as the black Bajan masses reacted violently to the attempts of the white plantocracy to continue repression through the old system. By 1884, the constitution was amended to include the Franchise Act, making it possible for people with less land to vote. The new act was supposed to remedy the island's gross disenfranchisement of non-whites. But the lower earning and landholding requirements weren't low enough to include the burgeoning, though still very poor, working class. The economically beneficial plantation system kept nearly 90% of the land in the hands of the white planter class.
But the tides had turned. Between 1850 and 1914, thousands of labourers left the country in search of promised employment. It was the migration that the landowners had feared for many years. The sugar industry was being hurt by stiff competition and thus the economy of Barbados was severely depressed. Between 1900 and 1920, the number of estates fell from 437 to 305, and the major portions of more than 60 estates were converted into free villages. With the intervention of the British Government in the overall pending collapse of the sugar industry throughout the Caribbean, along with the development of new fertilizers, the introduction of a new kind of sugarcane and the discovery of new markets, the economy began to grow again.
Then the forces of nature plagued the Barbadian masses. The 1898 Hurricane devastated 18,000 houses, killed 80 people and increased the incidence of dysentery and typhoid among the poor. This was followed by a smallpox epidemic in 1908. By the 1920's the American, Canadian and British economies were shook by the Great Depression and its effects were felt the hardest by the working class.
It was within this context of devastating social and economic realities that new political movements were begun. In 1924 Dr. Charles Duncan O'Neale founded the Democratic League which influenced the formation of the Barbados Labour Party in 1938 and the Barbados Workers' Union in 1941. By this time, the Bajan masses had come to the center of the political stage and consciously challenged the fact that 70% of the population was still disenfranchised on an island that called itself a democracy. Approximently 2% of the population received 30% of the national income. The only 2 commercial banks were controlled by Britain and Canada thus protecting the island's finances from the labouring masses. And less than 4% of the population had voting rights. So it was that in 1937, the population of workers exploded in riots which did lead to change.
Between 1938 and 1945, a primary catalyst of these changes was Sir Grantley Adams, a spokesman for the emerging mass movement that coalesced around the Barbados Labour Party and the Labour Union. Progress toward more democratic government for Barbados was made in 1951, when universal adult suffrage was introduced. This was followed by steps toward increased self-government, and in 1961, Barbados achieved internal autonomy.
From 1958 to 1962, Barbados was one of 10 members of the West Indies Federation, and Sir Grantley Adams served as its first and only prime minister. When the federation was terminated, Barbados reverted to its former status as a self-governing colony. Following several attempts to form another federation composed of Barbados and the Leeward and Windward Islands, Barbados negotiated its own independence at a constitutional conference with the United Kingdom in June 1966. After years of peaceful and democratic progress, Barbados became an independent state within the British Commonwealth on November 30, 1966.
