At first, Indigenous constituted the majority of the Barbadian population. With colonization, Europeans came to constitute the majority, with the island being used as a penal colony much as Australia would be later, until the transition of the Barbadian economy to one based on sugarcane production; importation of African slaves to the island altered its demographics, making European Barbadians a minority. During much of the colonial period, whites formed the island's political and economicelite. Since independence from Britain in 1966 when most European Barbadians left for the United Kingdom, most political power has shifted to the black majority.[3]
Among European Barbadians, there exists an underclass of predominantly Irish descent known as redlegs;[4] the descendants of indentured servants, and prisoners imported to the island, redlegs have historically formed a disadvantaged group within Barbadian society.[5][6]
History
Spaniards were the first Europeans to discover and land in Barbados.[7] The Spanish regularly seized large numbers of Amerindians from Barbados to be used as slave labour on other regional plantations. This prompted the Kalinago to flee Barbados for other Caribbean destinations such as Dominica and St. Vincent. Europeans caused the disappearance of the indigenous people in Barbados. The first white European settlement on Barbados consisted of British colonists.[8]
