Slavery and this island

I am always interested in the history of the places I visit or live, so last week I went to a talk/lecture on slavery on this island.  I studied abit about this subject for my degree at Sussex University, UK in 2001, so was kind of looking at how and why it affects modern day island life.  I shall give you a little background first.

The first indigenous people were Amerindians from Venezuela, who grew cotton, vegetables (cassava, peanuts, corn), fruit (guavas & pawpaw ie papaya) and used harpoons, nets and hooks for fishing.  In 1200BC the Arawaks were conquered by the Carib indians, which were a stronger tribe.  They were also cannibals, warlike and savage and were thought to BBQ their captives, washed down with cassava beer.
(I kind of know a few people like that now)!!
The Portugese came to Bim en route to Brazil and named the island Los Barbados, meaning the bearded ones, after the fig trees that grow here.  The Spanish took over in 1492, imposing slavery on the Caribs.

Don't you get the idea of whose at the top of the food chain - the strongest rule.

Slavery and contagious European diseases such as small pox and tuberculosis wiped out the Caribs so the Spanish left for other islands.  The British first landed in 1625, claiming the island in the name of King James l.  In 1627 80 settlers and 10 slaves landed at Jamestown (now known as Holetown).   When the crops of cotton, indigo and tabacco failed, sugar cane was introduced  from Brazil.  During the early period of settlement indentured labour, prisoners and kidnapped people were the norm for working plantations and those plantations could not survive without this work force.  Indentured labour is the contract of 5 to 7 years unpaid labour, usually white civilians who wanted to emigrate and make a new life elsewhere from England, Scotland and Wales.  At the end of the indenture period the white 'slave' would get a parcel of land and set himself up as a master, taking on other indentured workers. 
From 1644 Dutch merchants supplied Barbados with slaves from Africa; such as Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon.  Barbados dominanted the Caribbean sugar industry in these early years.  The slaves were looked on as inhuman and therefore an economic commodity to the success of the sugar trade.  They were goods and chattels.
In 1834 when slavery was abolished 80% of the population (82,000 people) were in slavery, 5,000 people were owners of these slaves, but only half of them had any land.
Slavery was abolished in 1834, but was followed by a 4 year 'apprenticeship' period, during which free men continued to work a 45 hour week without pay in exchange for living in tiny huts, provided by the plantation owner.  Freedom from slavery was only celebrated in 1838 - at the end of the 'apprenticeship' period, with 70,000 Barbadians of African descent taking to the streets.

Bear with me on this bit of history talk as I will get to the nitty gritty of how this affects modern Barbados life.   What I've given you today is nothing like the dry monoteneous, desolute 'talk' I went to last week with Professor Woodville Marshall, University of West Indies and author.  Have you fallen asleep yet??