Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region next to North America and north of South America, and is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands. It lies on the boundary of the South American and Caribbean plates. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.
Barbados is an island country in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, situated about 100 miles (160 km) east of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Roughly triangular in shape, the island measures some 21 miles (34 km) from northwest to southeast and about 14 miles (23 km) from east to west at its widest point. The capital and largest town is Bridgetown, which is also the main seaport.
Owen Seymour Arthur was a Barbadian politician who served as the fifth prime minister of Barbados from 6 September 1994 to 15 January 2008. He is the longest-serving Barbadian prime minister to date. He also served as Leader of the Opposition from 1 August 1993 to 6 September 1994 and from 23 October 2010 to 21 February 2013.
The Baptist War, also known as the Sam Sharp Rebellion, the Christmas Rebellion, the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831–32, was an eleven-day rebellion that started on 25 December 1831 and involved up to 60,000 of the 300,000 slaves in the Colony of Jamaica. The uprising was led by a black Baptist deacon, Samuel Sharpe, and waged largely by his followers. The revolt, though militarily unsuccessful, played a major part in the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire.
The Barbados Slave Code of 1661, officially titled as An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes, was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados to provide a legal basis for slavery in the English colony of Barbados. It is the first comprehensive Slave Act, and the code's preamble, which stated that the law's purpose was to "protect them [slaves] as we do men's other goods and Chattels", established that black slaves would be treated as chattel property in the island's court.
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most Caribbean islands were covered with sugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. The main source of labor, until the abolition of chattel slavery, was enslaved Africans. After the abolition of slavery, indentured laborers from India, China, Portugal and other places were brought to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed in Western Europe, later supplanted by European-grown sugar beet.
Emancipation Day is observed in many former European colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States on various dates to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent.
Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbeanpeople are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the trans-Atlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries to work primarily on various sugar plantations and in domestic households. Other names for the ethnic group include Black Caribbean, Afro- or Black West Indian, or Afro- or Black Antillean. The term West Indian Creole has also been used to refer to Afro-Caribbean people, as well as other ethnic and racial groups in the region, though there remains debate about its use to refer to Afro-Caribbean people specifically. The term Afro-Caribbean was not coined by Caribbean people themselves but was first used by European Americans in the late 1960s.
Slavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.
Bussa's rebellion was the largest slave revolt in Barbadian history. The rebellion takes its name from the African-born enslaved man, Bussa, who led the rebellion. The rebellion, which was eventually defeated by the colonial militia, was the first of three mass slave rebellions in the British West Indies that shook public faith in slavery in the years leading up to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and emancipation of former slaves. It was followed by the Demerara rebellion of 1823 and by the Baptist War in Jamaica in 1831–1832; these are often referred to as the "late slave rebellions".
Barbadian nationality law is regulated by 1966 Constitution of Barbados, as amended; the Barbados Citizenship Act, as amended; and various British Nationality laws. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Barbados. Barbadian nationality is typically obtained under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth to a father or in some cases, a mother, with Barbadian nationality. It can also be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalisation. There is currently no program in Barbados for citizenship by investment, though they do have a special work visa program. Nationality establishes one's international identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the Commonwealth, has traditionally used the words interchangeably.
The Barbados Land-ship is a cultural movement and organization, known for its entertaining parades, performances and dances. Members are said to mimic the British Navy, dressed in naval uniforms and marching and performing to the music of the Tuk band. However, it is a lot more than entertainment. The organization was started in the island of Barbados after Emancipation, by the earliest plantation workers of African Descent to help them develop socially and economically. The Barbados Land-ship Association is the umbrella body and is essentially a Friendly Society. Each community had a Land-ship. It is based on a cooperative system, operating within communities and providing common services to them. The Land-ship, as it is locally known, has been an oral tradition handed down from members to members from the time of its establishment in 1863. It is held among the ranks of Barbados' cultural symbols such as the "Mudda Sally" and the "Shaggy Bear", but in much more esteem as a "cultural icon unique to Barbados". It is thought that the Land-ship existed long before it became officially established and that the ways of the Land-ship were practised within the plantation communities of African slaves long before Emancipation Day. This would account for the interpretation of Land-ship maneuvers as re-enactments of the Middle Passage, an experience that would have been embedded into the minds of the first shipments of enslaved Africans to Barbados. During the latter part of slavery, slaves were bred and the plantations had very little need for imported slaves.
Drax Hall Estate is a sugarcane plantation situated in Saint George, Barbados, in the Caribbean.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to the nation of Barbados.
Samuel Jackman Prescod became the first person of African descent to be elected to the Parliament of Barbados, in 1843. He also helped found the Liberal Party, whose following included small landowners, businessmen, and coloured clerks. The Parliament of Barbados has enacted that he should be styled as "The Right Excellent" and that his life be celebrated on National Heroes Day in Barbados.
The music of Barbados draws on the island's cultural heritage, and the music history of Barbados reflects the island's diverse cultures.
The Barbados Cricket Buckle is a repoussé engraving on a belt buckle of a slave playing cricket in Barbados circa 1780–1810. It is believed to be the only known image of a slave playing cricket and is thought to be the oldest surviving artifact depicting cricket outside the British Isles.
For a history of Afro-Caribbean people in the UK, see British African Caribbean community.
Irish transport to Barbados dates back to the 1620s, when Irish people began arriving on the island. The majority were emigrants, indentures, and merchants, though with an unknown number of political and convict transportees during the 1650s
