Afro-Barbadians

As it developed into the main commercial enterprise, Barbados was divided into large plantation estates, which replaced the small holdings of the early English settlers as the wealthy planters pushed out the poor.

Roberts (2006) showed that slaves did not spend the majority of time in restricted roles cultivating, harvesting, and processing sugarcane – the island's most important cash crop.

Rather, slaves were involved in various activities and in multiple roles: raising livestock, fertilizing soil, growing provisional crops, maintaining plantation infrastructure, caregiving, and various other tasks.

[10] From the beginning of the eighteenth century, most blacks of Barbados had been born on the island, which facilitated the creation of a Barbadian identity since these years.

Moreover, as occurred in the white population, the percentage was much higher women than men, unlike in other Caribbean islands, where it was the opposite.

This facilitated the reproduction of the black population during the second half of the 18th century without having to rely on new imports of Africans to maintain the same output of slave labor.

[3] Increasingly after 1750, the plantations were owned by absentee landlords living in Great Britain and operated by hired managers.

Barbados (Bridgetown, in particular), re-exported many slaves to North America, other Caribbean islands, and the Captaincy General of Venezuela.

[7] Barbadian culture and music are mixtures of African and European elements, with influence from the Indigenous peoples of the island.