1969 (Jerome S. Handler) “The Amerindian Slave Population in Barbados in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.” Caribbean Studies 8: 38-64.
Shortly after Barbados was colonized in 1627, a small group of Amerindians from Guiana was brought to the island to teach the English colonists how to cultivate tropical crops. These Indians came voluntarily and as freemen, but shortly after arrival they were enslaved. In the ensuing years of the 17th century other Amerindians, from several New World areas, intermittently came to the island, but as slaves. Amerindians always formed a very insignificant minority of Barbados’ population and by the end of the first few decades o£ the 18th century there are few traces of their existence. This paper chronicles their story and examines their legal and social position on the island.