Remittance Villages in Barbados, c.1905–c.1935

Abstract:This paper examines the formation and impact of the villages which constitute the second phase of village development in Barbados. It is argued that the interaction between available land, the presence of sizeable amounts of remittance money, and the activity of land speculators ensured that descendants of the former enslaved could purchase land, which naturally became the basis for a rapid expansion in village development. It is suggested that the impact of this development was not so much an expansion of small farming as facilitation of the escape of many agricultural labourers from the severe limitations of the Located Labourer System.