Editing Barbados (section)

=== Irish people in Barbados ===

{{Main|Irish people in Barbados}}
Starting with [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]], a large percentage of the white labourer population were indentured servants and involuntarily transported people from Ireland. Irish servants in Barbados were often treated poorly, and Barbadian planters gained a reputation for cruelty.<ref name="Monahan">{{cite book |last=Monahan |first=Michael J. |year=2011 |title=The Creolizing Subject: Race, Reason, and the Politics of Purity |publisher=[[Fordham University Press]] |edition=1st |isbn=978-0823234509}}</ref>{{rp|55}} The decreased appeal of an indenture on Barbados, combined with enormous demand for labour caused by sugar cultivation, led to the use of involuntary transportation to Barbados as a punishment for crimes, or for political prisoners, and also to the kidnapping of labourers who were deported to Barbados.<ref name="Monahan"/>{{rp|55}} Irish indentured servants were a significant portion of the population throughout the period when white servants were used for plantation labour in Barbados, and while a "steady stream" of Irish servants entered the Barbados throughout the 17th century, Cromwellian efforts to pacify Ireland created a "veritable tidal wave" of Irish labourers who were sent to Barbados during the 1650s.<ref name="Monahan"/>{{rp|56}} Due to inadequate historical records, the total number of Irish labourers sent to Barbados is unknown, and estimates have been "highly contentious".<ref name="Monahan"/>{{rp|56}} While one historical source estimated that as many as 50,000 Irish people were deported to either Barbados or Virginia during the 1650s, this estimate is "quite likely exaggerated".<ref name="Monahan"/>{{rp|56}} Another estimate that 12,000 Irish prisoners had arrived in Barbados by 1655 has been described as "probably exaggerated" by historian Richard B. Sheridan.<ref name="Sheridan">{{cite book |first=Richard B. |last=Sheridan |title=Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623–1775 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QUV98bwrqscC |year=1974 |publisher=Canoe Press |isbn=978-976-8125-13-2 |access-date=19 July 2020 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726134707/https://books.google.com/books?id=QUV98bwrqscC |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|236}} According to historian [[Thomas Bartlett (historian)|Thomas Bartlett]], it is "generally accepted" that approximately 10,000 Irish were deported to the West Indies and approximately 40,000 came as voluntary indentured servants, while many also travelled as voluntary, un-indentured emigrants.<ref name="Bartlett">Bartlett, Thomas. {{"'}}This famous island set in a Virginian sea': Ireland in the British Empire, 1690–1801". In Marshall, P. J.; Low, Alaine; and Louis, William Roger (1998). P. J. Marshall and Alaine Low (eds.). ''The Oxford History of the British Empire''. Volume II: The Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref>{{rp|256}}

==== The sugar revolution ====
[[File:Mercado de los domingos, donde lo esclavos eran intercambiados por otros bienes y necesidades (Barbados Museum, Bridgetown).jpg|thumb|Sunday market in Barbados during the colonial era]]
The introduction of [[sugar cane]] from [[Dutch Brazil]] in 1640 completely transformed society, the economy and the physical landscape. Barbados eventually had one of the world's biggest sugar industries.<ref name=beyond>{{Cite book |author-link=Arif Ali |author=Ali, Arif |title=Barbados: Just Beyond Your Imagination |pages=46, 48 |year=1997 |publisher=Hansib Publishing (Caribbean) Ltd |isbn=1-870518-54-3}}</ref> One group instrumental in ensuring the early success of the industry was the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic Jews]], who had originally been expelled from the [[Iberian peninsula]], to end up in [[Dutch Brazil]].<ref name="beyond"/> As the effects of the new crop increased, so did the shift in the ethnic composition of Barbados and surrounding islands.<ref name="Slavery and Economy in Barbados"/> The workable sugar plantation required a large investment and a great deal of heavy labour. At first, Dutch traders supplied the equipment, financing, and African slaves, in addition to transporting most of the sugar to Europe.<ref name="Slavery and Economy in Barbados"/><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica- Barbados"/> In 1644 the population of Barbados was estimated at 30,000, of which about 800 were of African ancestry, with the remainder mainly of English ancestry. These English smallholders were eventually bought out and the island filled up with large sugar plantations worked by African slaves.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica- Barbados"/> By 1660 there was near parity with 27,000 Black people and 26,000 White people. By 1666 at least 12,000 white smallholders had been bought out, died, or left the island, many choosing to emigrate to [[Jamaica]] or the [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonies]] (notably the Carolinas).<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica- Barbados"/> As a result, Barbados enacted a [[Barbados Slave Code|slave code]] as a way of legislatively controlling its enslaved Black population.<ref>Jerome Handler, ''New West Indian Guide'' 91 (2017) 30–55</ref> The law's text was influential in laws in other colonies.<ref name=menard>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FyB24GZrJxAC&pg=PA112 ''Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125230814/https://books.google.com/books?id=FyB24GZrJxAC&pg=PA112 |date=25 January 2021 }}, Chapter 6 "The Expansion of Barbados", p. 112</ref>

By 1680 there were 20,000 free whites and 46,000 enslaved Africans;<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica- Barbados"/> by 1724, there were 18,000 free whites and 55,000 enslaved Africans.<ref name="Slavery and Economy in Barbados"/>