{"product_id":"near-a-plantation-free-villages-in-barbados-1905-1945-9789766409616","title":"Near a Plantation: Free Villages in Barbados, 1905-1945","description":"The book is an attempt to show that, \u003cbr\u003econtrary to general belief, free villages were established in Barbados soon\u003cbr\u003eafter the end of the Apprenticeship in 1838. The term \"free villages\" is employed in the way that it was coined by\u003cbr\u003eits author, William Knibb, Baptist missionary in Jamaica. He said in November\u003cbr\u003e1838 that such villages were to be the blacks' routes of escape from their\u003cbr\u003e\"inveterate enemies\"; the emancipated black man could use the village as an \"asylum\" from which he\u003cbr\u003ecould \"defy them with scorn, and go to any estate he pleases to work\".\u003cbr\u003eTherefore, the fact that as many as 69 such settlements could be found within\u003cbr\u003ethirty years in small, densely populated Barbados suggests that the scenario\u003cbr\u003ewhich was being played out in less densely populated territories was not absent\u003cbr\u003efrom Barbados. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that every opportunity was\u003cbr\u003ebeing exploited by blacks to acquire land that they could control and therefore\u003cbr\u003eescape the restrictions of conditional tenancy on planters' lands. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHowever, free village development in\u003cbr\u003eBarbados can be seen as a variant. Unlike elsewhere in the Caribbean, free\u003cbr\u003evillages could not be equated with the emergence of a small farmer class of\u003cbr\u003esignificant size. In Barbados, the average size of holding was less than one\u003cbr\u003eacre, which meant that the vast majority of the villagers had to find regular\u003cbr\u003eemployment as agricultural labourers on the plantations. Therefore, by 1945, \u003cbr\u003ewhile free villages housed a majority of the rural population, that population\u003cbr\u003ewas forced to remain close to the plantation, not merely because of the size of\u003cbr\u003ethe island, but because the plantations were the main source of employment. In\u003cbr\u003ethis way, free village development in the island did not adversely affect\u003cbr\u003elabour supplies on the plantations.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of the West Indies Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50869778972946,"sku":"9789766409616","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5536b635-2abc-41a6-873f-1a35f6c60d83.jpg?v=1737769633","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/near-a-plantation-free-villages-in-barbados-1905-1945-9789766409616","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}