¹ Professor Nef’s identification of what is now referred to as “proto-industrialization”, in late medieval England, (which was revolutionised during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries) has become a distinct category of historical investigation. In the West Indies, the dismantling of the slave system in the 1830’s led to the rapid development of a black peasantry. Historians have since been trying to discover the historical roots of this class within slave society and have identified what is now termed a “proto-peasantry”. Some slaves, they argued, functioned in the system in a manner similar to the peasants of the post slavery period. They achieved certain “semi-freedoms”, produced foodstuffs for both subsistence and local marketing, engaged in household crafts for local markets, used primitive technology, employed household labour, and achieved low levels of capital accumulation. Of historical importance, also is the need to identify the colonial roots of black chattel slavery. The transition from white indentured servitude to Black Slavery in the mid seventeenth century was more than a qualitative adjustment of the labour market. It was a move along the continuum of labour enslavement. It was upon the system of white servitude that black slavery was imposed—hence, the identification of a “proto-slavery” system in the formative colonial period.

See, Nef, J.U., “The progress of Technology and the Growth of large scale industry in Great Britain, 1540–1640”, The Economic History Review, 1st Series, V., 1934.Google Scholar On the subject of “proto-peasant” activity in the English West Indies, see Handler, J., “The History of Arrowroot and the origin of Peasantries in the British West Indies”, Journal of Caribbean History, 2, 1971, pp. 46–93 Google Scholar; Craton, M., “Proto-Peasant Revolts? The late Slave Rebellions in the British West Indies, 1816–1832”, Past and Present, No. 85, November, 1979, pp. 99–126 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Price, R., “Caribbean Fishing and Fishermen: An historical sketch”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 68, 1966, pp. 1362–1383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

² Between 1640 and 1690, labour was imported to work on West Indian sugar plantations from the British Isles, Africa, China, Madeira and Portugal. For a general survey, see Williams, E., From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492–1969 (London, 1970,Google Scholar Andre Deutch).

Philip Curtin estimated that some 4,040,000 Africans were imported into the English Caribbean as slaves. See The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (London, 1969, University of Wisconsin Press) p. 91.

K. O. Lawrence estimated the number of East Indian indentured servants imported into the English Caribbean between 1838 and 1917 as follows: British Guiana, 238,909, Trinidad, 143,939, Jamaica 36,412, Grenada, 3,200, St. Vincent, 2,472 and St. Lucia, 4,353. See Immigration into the West Indies in the nineteenth century (London, 1971, Caribbean Universities Press) p. 26.

H. Beckles estimated that between 1624 and 1750, at least 34,000 indentured servants were imported into the English West Indies; See, “White Labour in Black Slave Plantation Society and Economy: A case study of indentured labour in seventeenth century Barbados” University of Hull, Department of Economic History, unpublished Ph.D Thesis, 1980. See also, Smith, A.E., Colonists in Bondage: White servitude and convict labor in America, 1607–1776 (Chapel Hill, 1947, University of North Carolina Press).Google Scholar

³ The effects of merchant capital upon the English West Indian colonies in the 1620’s and 1630’s is evident from the central and critical role played by merchants in determining the level of economic activity. See, Brenner, R., “The origins of Capitalist Development; A critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism”, New Left Review, Oct., 1977, pp 97–89.Google Scholar See also for a discussion of this theme, Davis, R., The Rise of the Atlantic Economies (London, 1973, Weidenfeld and Nicolson), pp. 250–263.Google Scholar Sheridan, R., “The Plantation Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, 1625–1775”, Caribbean Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1969, pp. 5–25.Google Scholar Dunn, R., Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624–1713 (Chapel Hill, 1972, University of North Carolina Press), pp. 46–70.Google Scholar

⁴ Land was unevenly distributed in Barbados from the beginning of colonization. Ligon’s map on early Barbados shows that 10,000 acres of the most fertile land, located in the St. George Valley, belonged to a London merchant syndicate. Also, in the early 1630’s, Capt. Futter, William Hilliard, Edward Oistin, Henry Hawley, and James Drax, some of the prominent early colonists, owned plantations of over 300 acres, which were large by Barbadian standards. Futter owned 1,000 acres, and Hilliard over 700. The average size of plantations in seventeenth century Barbados was 80–100 acres. See Deeds of Barbados, early inventories, RB 3/2 ff 109-309, R.B. 3/1, ff 1–18. Barbados Department of Archives. For an opposite view, not based upon extensive research of the early land deeds and inventories—which stress that land was generally parcelled out in very small units to thousands of freeholders see, Dunn, R., Sugar and Slaves, pp. 46–59 Google Scholar and Bridenbaugh, C., No Peace Beyond the Line: The English in the Caribbean, 1624–1690 (New York, 1972, Oxford University Press).Google Scholar

⁵ Recent work on the pre-sugar era points to the early growth of large plantations, a wealthy planter elite and modest economic growth. Much of the early confusion has arisen over the issue of land tenure. Some large plantations were subdivided and leased on the long term to tenants, who were recorded by early historians as freeholders. See, Beckles, H., “Land Distribution and Class Formation: The rise of a Proletariat in seventeenth century Barbados”. Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (J.B.M.H.S) Vol. 36, 1980, pp. 136–143.Google Scholar At least 20 of the leading 50 sugar planters of 1648 had arrived in Barbados during the 1630’s. See also, Innis, F.C., “The Pre-sugar Era of European Settlement in Barbados”, Journal of Caribbean History, Vol. 1, 1970, pp. 1–22.Google Scholar Also, Batie, R.C., “Why sugar? Economic Cycles and the Changing of Staples in the English and French Antilles, 1624–54”, Journal of Caribbean History, Vols., 8–9, 1976, pp. 1–32.Google Scholar

⁶ For recent research on the transition to slave labour during the sugar Revolution of the English West Indies, see, Gemery, H. and Hogendorn, J., “The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Tentative Economic Model” Journal of African History Vol. 15, No. 2, 1974 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bean, R. and Thomas, R., “The Adoption of Slave Labour in British America”, in Gemery, H. and Hogendorn, , eds. The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York, 1979, Academic Press).Google Scholar Also, Galenson, D., “White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America” Journal of Economic History, Vol. 41, March 1981, No. 1, pp. 39–47 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Beckles, H., “The Economic origins of Black Slavery in the British West Indies, 1640–1680: A tentative analysis of the Barbados Model” Journal of Caribbean History, Vol., 16, 1982, pp. 35–56.Google Scholar

⁷ For an analysis of the early economic and social development of the Leeward Island see, Dunn, R., Sugar and Slaves, pp. 117–148.Google Scholar Here Dunn explains how and why the Leewards lagged behind Barbados in agricultural growth, and in the deployment of black slave labour. See also, Higham, C. S., The Development of the Leeward Islands under the Restoration, 1660–1668 (Cambridge, 1921, Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar and, Pares, R., Merchants and Planters, (The Economic History Review supplement. London, 1960, Cambridge University Press), pp. 14–37.Google Scholar

⁸ Morgan, E., “The First American Boom: Virginia, 1618–1630,” William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 28 April, 1971, p. 177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For an index of early seventeenth century West Indian commodity prices in Europe, see Posthumous, N., Inquiry into the History of Prices in Holland (Leiden, 1946), Vol. 1, pp. 119–137,Google Scholar 414–417.

⁹ Robert Alsopp to the Lord Proprietor, 12 December, 1628, C.S.P.C., 1574–1660, f.411 Also, King to Governor and Council of Virginia, November, 1628, ibid., f.86.

¹⁰ Privy Council to the Earl of Carlisle, January, 1631, C.S.P.C. 1574–1660, f. 124.

¹¹ Additional Manuscript 35865, f.247, British Library.

¹² Letters of Henry Winthrop (Barbados, 1628–31) to his father and brother are reproduced in Davis, N.D., Cavaliers and Roundheads of Barbados, 1650–52 (Georgetown, 1887), See p. 53.Google Scholar

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ In 1631, Sir Henry Colt on his way to St. Christopher to settle stopped at Barbados for a short period. He observed the transition from tobacco to cotton production, and made many useful references to the enterprising nature of the planters, the great abuse of servants, and the general desire of the latter to escape their bondage. See the papers of Sir Colt, in Harlow, V.T. (ed.), Colonising expeditions to the West Indies and Guiana, 1623–67 (London, 1924), p. 69.Google Scholar

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¹⁶ The Company of Providence Island to Captain Woodcock, 7 June, 1639, C.S.P.C., 1574–1660, p. 297.

¹⁷ See for commodity prices, Posthumous, N., Inquiry into the History of Prices, p. 119 Google Scholar See also for commodity prices, Batie, R.C., “Why sugar?”, op. cit. p. 30.Google Scholar

¹⁸ The proprietory agent generally kept the Lord Proprietor informed upon the level of economic activity in the colony. Peter Hay’s correspondence to the Lord Proprietor, the Earl of Carlisle, are very detailed and precise. See, Bennett, J. H., “The English Caribbean in the Period of Civil War, 1642–46”, William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 24, 1976, p. 360.Google Scholar

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²² The green tops of the sugar cane plant make an excellent cattle feed, while the dried leaves can be used easily as a fuel. For a short history of the sugar cane plantation in early Barbados, see Handler, J. and Lange, F., Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation (Cambridge, Mass. 1978, Harvard University Press), pp. 15–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²³ For an analysis of the general movements of commodity prices, see Posthumous, N., Inquiry into the History of Prices, pp. 119–125,Google Scholar 133–37, 414–47. Between 1627 and 1645, the Brazilian sugar planters had a virtual monopoly of the European market, and West Indian producers could not profitably compete with them. It was only during the civil war in Brazil (1640’s) between the Dutch and the Portuguese, which crippled the sugar industry, that West Indian planters saw the possibility of breaking into the market. Certainly, they could have produced sugar earlier, but the quality would have been poor and would not have infiltrated the market. See Edel, M., “Brazilian Sugar Cycle of the Seventeenth Century and the Rise of West Indian Competition”, Caribbean Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1969, pp. 24–44;Google Scholar also, Dunn, R., Sugar and Slaves, pp. 188–223.Google Scholar

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⁴⁰ Ibid.

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⁵⁸ Ibid.

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⁶⁷ On Rendevous Plantation (360 acres) in Barbados, 1640, Capital was appraised as follows: 360 acres—36,000 lbs. of cotton; Housing, edifice—4,700 lbs. of cotton; 17 servants—5,000 lbs. of cotton. Inventory of Rendevous Plantation, 1640, RB. 3/1, ff. 13–4 Barbados Archives.

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⁶⁹ Deed of William Marshall, RB. 3/2, f. 47. Barbados Archives.

⁷⁰ Deed of John Batt, 14 Dec, 1640, Davis Mss. Box 2, Royal Commonwealth Society (London).

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⁷² Inventory of Henry Hawley’s Plantation, 19 June, 1640. RB. 3/1, f. 15. Barbados Archives.

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⁷⁵ Deed of William Russell, March 1647, RB. 3/2, f. 53. Barbados Archives.

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⁷⁷ Deed of Applewhaite, 1644, RB. 3/1, f. 536. Barbados Archives.

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⁸² For an analysis of white servant resistance in Barbados between 1634 and 1700, see Beckles, H.McD., “Rebels and Reactionaries: The Political Responses of White Labourers to Planter-Class hegemony in seventeenth century Barbados”, Journal of Caribbean History, Vol. 15, 1981, pp. 1–20.Google Scholar

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⁸³ See Oscar, and Handlin, Mary, “Origins of the Southern Labor System”, William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, Vol. 7, 1950, pp. 220–221.Google Scholar Also, Handlin, Oscar, Race and Nationality in American Life (Boston, 1957, Little and Brown), pp. 1–26.Google Scholar For a critique of the Handlins, see Jordan, Winthrop, White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina University Press),CrossRefGoogle Scholar Chap. I. Here Jordan argues, quite convincingly, that the Europeans arrived in America with clearly defined racialist values, which were an intrinsic part of Western European precolonial culture.

⁸⁴ For a discussion of this theme as it relates to the English West Indies in the early seventeenth century see, Dunn, R., Sugar and Slaves, pp. 226–230.Google Scholar

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