ABSTRACT
The white population of Barbadoes, from 1740 to 1748, showed a decline of 2551, “The Reason of which Decrease,” wrote Governor Grenville, “is, That several of the Inhabitants have Quitted the Island with their Familys.” “Many hundred Familys have gone from Barbadoes to Carolina and Pensilvania,” wrote William Gordon in 1720. Some of the large planters also, at this time, left Barbadoes with their slaves and capital in search of fresh lands. In the production and shipping of Barbadoes there was a corresponding decline during these years. In the Leeward Islands the same tendency of the small planters to give way to large scale production took place. The dispersion of the poor inhabitants of the Leeward Islands among the other settlements was deemed by the government, at this time, a great danger to the islands from a military standpoint, 26 and called out strong protests and demands for reform.
