Chattel enslavement, via the transatlantic trafficking of Africans, was a ruthlessly manufactured genocide. Between 1626 and 1837², approximately 608,959 people were transported from West Africa to Barbados. However, only 493,163 survived these treacherous journeys.³ Based on these records, approximately 20% of enslaved Africans died during the voyage to Barbados.⁴ Once the enslaved Africans arrived in the Caribbean, they underwent another ruthless period of ‘seasoning’ where they were forced to adapt to horrific working and living conditions, while being cut off from their native languages and customs. This process was so horrendous that 43% of all enslaved Africans died within 3 years of their arrival at the Codrington plantations in Barbados from 1741 to 1746.⁵ Moreover, the life expectancy of an enslaved person from birth was between 20 to 29 years on average, whereas white persons in Barbados had a life expectancy of about 35 years on average, similar to that in England.⁶

Planters made minimal provisions for enslaved Africans, as they were considered property, and not people. The enslaved people suffered from malnutrition and starvation among the other horrors. Despite a steady influx of about 4,000 annually, the number of enslaved Africans in Barbados diminished from 46,602 in 1683 to 46,462 in 1685.⁷ The decline highlights the result of the inhumane conditions endured by young people, who were literally worked to death. The former colonisers instilled fear, using the most brutal forms of extreme physical abuse, including rape and torture, to ensure their ‘property’ worked hard and resisted the urge to escape. The treatment of the enslaved people in Barbados became the template of control by law – aka The Slave Codes – which introduced legal justification to mistreat and murder without recourse and were later adopted by other Caribbean islands.⁸