Jerome S. Handler

1982    Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados. Nieuwe West-Indische Gids–New West Indian Guide 56: 5-43.

The main purpose of this paper is to document and describe the major forms and incidents of collective slave resistance, or group actions or intentions of violence, against white authority during the formative years of Barbadian slave society. In addition, I seek to indicate some of the collective responses of whites to such resistance: the reprisals against slaves alleged to have been involved in conspiracies or other incidents; the major legislative enactments passed in the aftermath of real or imagined conspiracies; and incidents and alleged conspiracies which reflected the continuing fear of whites over the possibility of large-scale slave revolts.

Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados

1981    Joseph Rachell and Rachael Pringle-Polgreen: Petty Entrepreneurs. In G.Nash and D. Sweet, eds., Struggle and Survival in Colonial America (University of California Press), pp. 376-91.

In addition to its large enslaved population, Barbados contained a minority population of European descent or birth, which included an even smaller plantocratic group that controlled the island’s means of production, internal legislative apparatus, and other society-wide institutions.  Gradually, over the years, a third group emerged comprised of persons whose racial ancestry was mixed or solely African but who were legally free.  Two of these economically successful freedmen, a black man and a “colored” woman, are the subjects of this essay. Both were born in slavery and their combined lives spanned the eighteenth century. Although neither was a typical freedman, their very atypicality testifies to remarkable personal characteristics and also reflects various dimensions of the socioeconomic environment in which they lived.

Joseph Rachell and Rachael Pringle-Polgreen: Petty Entrepreneurs

1972    (J. S. Handler and C. Frisbie), Aspects of Slave Life in Barbados: Music and its Cultural Context. Caribbean Studies 9: 5-46.

This article describes the musical and dance forms and activities found among Barbados slaves, delineates the sociocultural contexts in which these occurred, and indicates the African and European cultural influences, as well as changes, in musical and dance traditions from the middle of the seventeenth century to the Emancipation period.

Aspects of Slave Life in Barbados: Music and its Cultural Context