Dear Barbados Free Press
I will be coming to Barbados in February, 2015. I’ve always wanted to visit as I have an interest in the Red Leg people and the history of the Irish who were sent to Barbados by Oliver Cromwell. I hope to take back a tour group with me in 2016 to show them the island with particular emphasis on its Irish history. I’m wondering if there are any locations that I could visit that might have some connection with this history and with the descendants of the Red Legs.
(Name withheld by editor)
AN ESTIMATED 50,000 “white slaves” were transported from Ireland to Barbados between 1652 and 1657. Having succeeded in recruiting Irish men to die in the services of France, Spain, Poland and Italy, Cromwell turned his attention to others – men and women press-ganged by soldiers, taken to Cork and shipped to Bristol where they were sold as slaves and transported to Barbados.
… see BFP’s article Irish Times: Most Barbados Red Legs have bad or no teeth.
Barbados Free Press 