Before the Sugar Boom, most of the labour on the island of Barbados was provided by indentured European servants. During the Cromwell era, many undesirables or Prisoners of War were legally or illegally rounded up and sent across. The demand for sugar increased the labour demand. In 1644, the population of the island was about 30,000 with about 800 of African descent. Traders from Dutch Brazil provided financing, equipment and enslaved Africans. By 1680, there were 17 slaves for every indentured servant. The Bussa rebellion in 1816 was the first of three large-scale slave rebellions in the British West Indies which shook the British Faith in slavery. I imagine the reaction 'back home' was similar to what happened when news of the Concentration Camps and Scorched Earth policy that won the Anglo-Boer war for the British. Suddenly the sugar didn't taste as good in the tea. At emancipation in 1833, the slave population of the island was 83,000.
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