In 1665 – All of the forest cover on the flatland of Barbados had been cleared, leaving only the area now known as ‘The Scotland District’ still forested. Remember it had LOTS more forest than the district has now, yet Barbados most wanted escaped criminal Winston Hall (who was NOT a jungle-born indigenous person) was STILL able to successfully evade and hide from an entire modern Barbados POLICE and ARMY using the latest technology in just 5% of that original forest cover over 350 years later! Why then would you NOT think that a few dozen indigenous Arawaks who were experts in the forest from birth to death - could not hide from far fewer settlers with no technology as I maintain?
In 1671 – The Quaker leader George Fox, mentions in a report that the Quaker families of Barbados owned many Indian (meaning Amerindian) and Negro slaves.
The premise of my counter-history asserts that the last few free native Arawaks in Barbados were not discovered and captured in the Scotland District until 1664, but from time to time some of their ever-dwindling number post-1627 - WERE infrequently spotted and captured between 1627-1664, and just kept as Amerindian slaves with others occasionally brought into Barbados and sold at the slave auction blocks.
If you are tempted to think some of these Amerindian slaves in Barbados in the 17th century were Kalinagos, think again, because the King of England expressly forbid Barbados from owning 'Caribs' as slaves, because they were sometimes needed as allies the English could use to fight the French and the Spanish, and Always needed to be on friendly terms with the Barbados whites - who needed to cut timber wood on Kalinago islands like St Lucia and Dominica without being murdered. So reluctant were Barbados English settlers to offend the Caribs - that even when the Antigua English settlers begged their kin in Barbados to help them fight the 'Caribs', the Barbados whites ALWAYS basically told the Antigua whites 'sorry - but we can't help you.' The Kalinago ('Caribs') of the Lesser Antilles did business with the Barbados whites, even paddled canoes here full of their people to trade for guns and other items like metal tools from them, and then continued to head up north along the inner island chain and attack the Antigua English settlers - every chance they got.
In 1684 – A population count of Barbados reported that the island had 72 Indians (meaning Amerindians), 19,468 Whites, and 46,204 Negros.
In 1725 – A Last Will & Testament of a white Barbadian family – gave a female Indian (meaning Amerindian) slave called ‘Sary’ as well as a number of Negros – to another person.
In 1732 – The Anglican Minister for Christ Church in Barbados, proudly notified the Anglican Bishop of London – that he had ‘lately baptized an Indian (meaning an Amerindian) slave and three Negros’.
In 1740 – Griffith Hughes recorded an oral history told to him in Barbados by the 80-90-year-old elder white second-generation settler family members he was staying with, who told him that “Before Barbados was cleared of its forests, there was an Amerindian town near a pond – which later was called ‘Indian Pond’ to mark the spot. The white elders also told him that after that - ‘whenever the Indians in Barbados wanted to escape from the whites they used to hide in the forest – where they lived.”..and at the time period, which they are referring to, only the Scotland District still had the original forest as it still does today.
I want you to note also that there were 2 'Indian Ponds' in Barbados, one in St John (that you probably know about from the Yarico tale) - and the other in St Peter, both abutting the Scotland District, and furthermore - the one in St Peter was ALSO near to a Cave that was called 'Indian Castle' by the settlers because they found a huge trove of Amerindian clay artifacts, including figurines, pots, and a huge clay Statue that was on top of a stone pedestal over one meter high - and the head ALONE of which weighed 60 lbs! You can do the math and fairly reasonably estimate the size of the entire statue! NO AMERINDIAN CLAY STATUE OF SUCH SIZE HAS EVER BEEN FOUND IN THE CARIBBEAN, yet the English settlers immediately destroyed it, that is why you nor I were ever taught about this unprecedented local Amerindian discovery EVER, and most Barbadians would never have learned about it - if I did not publish this article.
This is a SOLID limestone block that weighs only 40 lbs just so you get an idea of the size of the statue if the HEAD alone weighed 50% MORE than this at 60lbs!
1747 – Barbados English Governor Robinson reported to the Board of Trade – that ‘The island of Barbados had no Indian (meaning Amerindian) slaves’.
YET, In:
1783 – On October 25th, the Barbados Mercury Newspaper published a notice that ‘A dark-complexioned Indian (meaning Amerindian) slave named James had run away from his owner’. Now, where do you honestly think any runaway slave expecting to successfully hide from the slave-owners where he could obtain water and food in secret would go? Only the Scotland District to this DAY in Barbados fits the bill.
Thus proving, as I maintain, that we cannot trust the word of English Officials – when they also lied and claimed ‘the Island of Barbados was uninhabited’. JUST AS THEY ALSO FALSELY CLAIMED WHEN THEY SETTLED IN AUSTRALIA.
Note also, that ‘Six men's Bay’ in St Peter, in Barbados, was so named because the settlers saw 6 Amerindian men in that bay, where did they come from? The academic assumption that they were Caribs (meaning Kalinagos) who traveled 100 miles from Saint Vincent in a canoe – to do what they could have done effortlessly on their own coastline - is far more difficult to believe than my assumption that they were in fact 6 local Arawak men from the small remnant survivors in the Scotland District forested hills & gullies – who simply walked over the hills from the Scotland District to that bay in St Peter – as they were accustomed doing...not expecting to be spotted by newly established English settlers.
Don't just take my word on this, read Robert Schomburgks own words taken from his colonial-era book below:
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