In the preface to his 2016 book The First Black Slave Society, Beckles wrote that English enslavers’ decisions to invest in plantation slavery on Barbados “accelerated the pace of mass enslavement of Africans as the basis of Europe’s colonial projects in the Atlantic world.”įor two centuries, British forces enslaved nearly half a million African people on Barbadian sugar plantations, reported Jon Hurdle for the New York Times in 2017. Beckles of the University of the West Indies has argued that chattel slavery on Barbadian soil set the standard for similarly brutal enslavement on other Caribbean islands. By the end of the so-called sugar revolution in the early 19th century, European enslavers had deported some 2.3 million enslaved Africans to sugar plantations in Barbados and other Caribbean colonies, generating huge profits for English investors. Indigenous Arawak and Carib people inhabited the island between roughly 5 C.E.Įnglish colonizers laid claim to Barbados in 1625, rapidly establishing farms staffed by enslaved African people. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the region’s first settlers may have migrated from South America as early as 1600 B.C.E. As Amy McKeever reports for National Geographic, the association took shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when wars and decolonization movements weakened the once-dominant British Empire.įifteen realms in the Commonwealth, including Canada and Jamaica, still recognize Elizabeth as their head of state, report Yuliya Talmazan and Shira Pinson for NBC News.Įuropean colonization of Barbados dates to the 16th century. Though its leaders no longer swear loyalty to the crown, Barbados remains part of the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary organization of 54 former British colonies that the queen has sought to uphold throughout her reign. Mottley honored the singer as a “national hero,” citing her “extraordinary commitment to the land of her birth,” reports Livia Albeck-Ripka for the New York Times . Mottley presided over Tuesday’s watershed ceremony, which counted many famous Barbadians-including international pop star Rihanna-among its attendees.
Pride of Nationhood: Declaration of the Republic and Installation of the President of Barbados - Mia Amor Mottley November 30, 2021īarbados’ Parliament chose Mason to take on the newly created role of president last month. “Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state.” “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” wrote Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley in a speech prepared for Mason. The country’s leaders first revealed their plan to become a republic in September 2020. “May she weather all storms and land our country and citizens safely on the horizons and shores which are ahead of us.” “Vessel Republic Barbados has set sail on her maiden voyage,” said Mason following the ceremony, per BBC News. Sandra Mason, who previously served as Barbados’ royally appointed governor-general, was sworn in as the republic’s new president. By removing the queen from her position, the democratic nation of 300,000 people has finally cast off one of the last institutionalized vestiges of British colonialism, officially becoming the world’s newest republic.īarbadian soldiers fired a 21-gun salute as the country’s national anthem played during a crowded ceremony at Heroes Square in the capital of Bridgetown.
The former Caribbean colony declared its independence from the United Kingdom on November 30, 1966, but retained Elizabeth II as its ceremonial head of state until this week.
Barbados officially became a republic early Tuesday morning, casting off Elizabeth II as head of state and swearing in Sandra Mason as the country's new president.Ĭrowds cheered as fireworks illuminated the sky in Bridgetown, Barbados, early Tuesday, marking the formal end of the island nation’s nearly 400-year relationship with the British monarchy.