Skip to content Skip to footer

George Washington and Barbados History Blog

HomeSlave Trade

The Slave Trade in Barbados During the 1700s

George Washington came from a slave-holding family in Virginia where slavery was an accepted form of labor. However, in Barbados, he encountered an even more entrenched form of slavery that permeated all levels of society. Some Eighty percent of the island’s population was made up of black Barbadians who were descended from West Africans. The other twenty percent were white Barbadians essentially of English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish ancestry.

The Museum at George Washington House uses artifacts such as iron collars that were used for restraint and punishment, visual representations of aspects of daily life experienced by the enslaved, and interactive quizzes about slavery in Virginia and Barbados. Also included are life-like models of slaves on the auction block, and an important eyewitness account of the middle passage of a slave ship and the events that transpired on arrival at Bridgetown.

Most surviving accounts of the slave trade are given from the perspective of Europeans who organized and engaged in the slave trade. However, a young African survived capture and enslavement and later wrote of his experiences. That young man was Olaudah Equiano, who later in life was freed and became a celebrated abolitionist in England. A moving passage from his account is read for the visitor at the touch of a button. This is without a doubt, the most authentic and memorable part of our effort to convey to the visitor aspects of the slave past of Barbados that George and Lawrence Washington encountered during their visit to the island in 1751.

To book a tour at the George Washington House in Barbados, available in 6 languages, click here or give us a call (246) 228-5461

A typical day of plantation work representing the slave trade in Barbados during the 1700s