Born into slavery, her freedom was purchased, and she became the owner of the Royal Naval Hotel, a brothel that catered to the itinerant military personnel on the island of Barbados.

Recent scholarship has focused on archival records in an attempt to provide a clearer picture of African and African-descended women's lives during the slave economy.

[4] In Orderson's narrative, she was purchased by Captain Thomas Pringle, an officer in the Royal Navy, to rescue her from her sexually abusive father.

She turned the house Pringle purchased for her into a hotel, which also served as a brothel, offering sexual services to the itinerant military personnel traveling through Bridgetown.

[8] Archival records from the Privy Council minutes of 1791 paint a portrait of Polgreen as having a violent temper and abusing the people she enslaved.

Comparable to an estate of a moderately well-to-do white person at the time,[15] her wealth bound her to an affluent social network, allowing her burial in the Anglican cemetery.

The caricature depicts Polgreen sitting in front of her establishment, which is adorned with a sign proclaiming "Pawpaw Sweetmeats & Pickles of all Sorts by Rachel PP".

Behind her and to her left in the work is a young woman, clad in a low-cut dress, facing a portly white man wearing tattered garments.

The double entendre of the words both indicate that Polgreen was involved in the market economy, but also refer to the consumption of women's bodies (delectable fruit) by men (phallic symbolism).