How were enslaved Africans brought to Barbados during the plantation era?

During the plantation era in Barbados, the forced migration of enslaved Africans was driven by the island's transition to large-scale sugar production in the 1640s. To maximize profits, the planter elite established extensive sugarcane plantations that relied on the labor of people abducted from West Africa.1

These individuals were transported to the island and enslaved under a series of slave laws enacted beginning in 1636. This system was part of a broader colonial framework known as mercantilism, which utilized the triangular trade to link Europe, West Africa, and the West Indies. The Royal African Company and various other traders were responsible for bringing increasing numbers of African men, women, and children to Barbados to toil in the fields, mills, and houses. Once they arrived, they were treated as nonpersons and chattels, subject to being bought and sold within a rigid, racially stratified society.12