page_title: Irish indentured servants
section_title: Barbados
hierarchical_section_title: Irish indentured servants / Barbados
caption_attribution_description: Admiral Sir George Ayscue (ca 1616–1671)
context_page_description: Irish indentured servants were Irish people who became indentured servants in territories under the control of the British Empire, such as the British West Indies, British North America and later Australia.
  Indentures agreed to provide up to seven years of labor in return for passage to the New World and food, housing, and shelter during their indenture. At the end of this period, their masters were legally required to grant them "freedom dues" in the form of either land or capital. An indentured servant's contract could be extended as punishment for breaking a law, such as running away, or in the case of female servants, becoming pregnant.
  Those transported unwillingly were not indentures. They were political prisoners, vagrants, or people who had been defined as "undesirable" by the English state. Penal transportation of Irish people was at its height during the 17th century, during the Cromwellian conquest and settlement of Ireland. During this period, thousands of Irish people were sent to the Caribbean, or "Barbadosed", against their will.
context_section_description: Servants who arrived in Barbados between 1640 and 1660 arrived at a time of great change, when the colony was transitioning from tobacco and cotton cultivation to sugar. The resulting "sugar boom" created a massive demand for labor, which prompted a gradual shift from white servant to black slave labor. In 1638, the population of Barbados was about 6,000, with 2,000 of that number being indentured servants and 200 being African slaves.  Fifteen years later, the Islands slave population had grown to 20,000, while indentured servants numbered 8,000. There were also more than 1,000 Irish freemen (former indentured servants whose term had expired) living on the island at that time. By 1660, there were 26,200 Europeans and 27,100 African slaves on the Island. During the initial stages of sugar production, white servants sometimes found themselves working side-by-side with black slaves, and according to historian James Dunn, they "became wild and unruly in the extreme" during this period. By the mid-1650s, however, white servants and black slaves no longer worked side-by-side, and by the mid-1660s, white servants were used only in skilled or supervisory roles.
  Irish servants on Barbados were often treated poorly, and Barbadian planters gained a reputation for cruelty.  The decreased appeal of an indenture on Barbados, combined with enormous demand for labor caused by sugar cultivation, led the use of involuntary transportation to Barbados as a punishment for crimes, or for political prisoners, and also to the kidnapping of laborers who were sent to Barbados involuntarily.
  Irish indentured servants were a significant portion of the population throughout the period when white servants were used for plantation labor in Barbados, and while a "steady stream" of Irish servants entered the Barbados throughout the seventeenth century, Cromwellian efforts to pacify Ireland created a "veritable tidal wave" of Irish laborers who were sent to Barbados during the 1650s. Due to inadequate historical records, the total number of Irish laborers sent to Barbados is unknown, and estimates have been "highly contentious." While one historical source estimated that as many as 50,000 Irish people were transported to either Barbados or Virginia unwillingly during the 1650s, this estimate is "quite likely exaggerated." Another estimate that 12,000 Irish prisoners had arrived in Barbados by 1655 has been described as "probably exaggerated" by historian Richard B. Sheridan. According to historian Thomas Bartlett, it is "generally accepted" that approximately 10,000 Irish were sent to the West Indies involuntarily, and approximately 40,000 came as voluntary indentured servants, while many also traveled as voluntary, un-indentured emigrants.
caption: George Ayscue, an English Governor of Barbados. He conquered Barbados for the Cromwellian forces in 1651.
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