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# The English turned Barbados into a slave society. Now, after 396 years, we’re free
- URL: https://werd.io/the-english-turned-barbados-into-a-slave-society-now-after/
- Published: 2021-11-30T06:58:13.000Z
- Updated: 2021-11-30T06:58:13.000Z
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: #Import 2025-06-13 09:24

“Prof Hilary Beckles, a Barbadian historian, the current vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and a leading figure in the push by Caribbean islands to secure reparations, sums it up best. “Barbados was the birthplace of British slave society and the most ruthlessly colonised by Britain’s ruling elites,” he writes. “They made their fortunes from sugar produced by an enslaved, ‘disposable’ workforce, and this great wealth secured Britain’s place as an imperial superpower and caused untold suffering.””

\[[Link](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/29/english-barbados-slave-society-republic-barbadians?CMP=Share%5FiOSApp%5FOther)\]