page_title: Barbados
section_title: 18th and 19th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Barbados / History / 18th and 19th centuries
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Emancipation Statue
context_page_description: Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of North America. It is 34 kilometres in length and up to 23 km in width, covering an area of 432 km². It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 km east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, Barbados is east of the Windwards, part of the Lesser Antilles, roughly at 13°N of the equator. It is about 168 km east of both the countries of Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and 180 km south-east of Martinique and 400 km north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.
  Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Amerindians, Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and claimed for the Spanish Crown. It first appeared on a Spanish map in 1511.
context_section_description: The harsh conditions endured by the slaves resulted in several planned slave rebellions, the largest of which was Bussa's rebellion in 1816 which was suppressed by British troops. Growing opposition to slavery led to its abolition in the British Empire in 1834. However the white plantocracy class retained control of the political and economic situation on the island, with most workers living in relative poverty.
  The 1780 hurricane killed over 4,000 people on Barbados. In 1854, a cholera epidemic killed over 20,000 inhabitants.
caption: Statue of Bussa, Bridgetown. Bussa led the largest slave rebellion in Barbadian history.
exif: {}