From slavery to freedom: Children's health in Barbados, 1823–1838

Barbados was the only British sugar colony in the Caribbean to have a self-reproducing slave society by the time the slave trade was abolished in 1807. However, the estimated infant mortality rate was also among the highest in the region. High rates of infant and child mortality were particularly critical in times of food shortage and economic distress. The children of the labouring population occupied an ambiguous position in Barbadian society when their status changed during the transition from slavery to apprenticeship. This had direct consequences on their health. This paper explores the origins of some of these issues and links them to the wider socio-economic tensions in the colony in the early nineteenth century. The paper also introduces some challenges to studying children in former slave societies as well as investigates their shifting social, political and economic roles in early nineteenth century Barbados.