BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY:SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY IN BARBADOS :

The slave history of Barbados started after Captain Powell brought the 10 slaves in 1627. The slave population in 1629 was still diminutive with not more than  50 Amerindian and African slaves working the land , in construction and in houses. This low slave population was due to few persons being able to buy slaves at the time. Slaves brought into Barbados came from various tribes out of the forest region of West Africa during village raids. Some of the African tribes were Eboes, Paw-Paws and Igbo. They came via slave trade forts on the African West Coast, set up by Europeans. Such forts were the Axim and El-Mina. After been traded for trinkets, the slaves were sent to the Caribbean and sold to plantations owners.

In 1636 officials passed a law declaring all slaves brought into Barbados whether African or Amerindian were to be enslaved for life. It was later extended to include there off springs, at this time there were only 22 free Black persons on the Island. During 1700's the main source of labor for cotton and tobacco was indentured servants from Europe, while Amerindians from Guiana were imported to teach Agriculture. As cotton and tobacco industry started to fail because of lack of labor due to terrible conditions for indentured servants, the sugar industry emerges, sugar in Barbados at that time was used only for feed stock as fuel and in the production of rum.