Barbados Plantation Houses

I suppose if we write about the little Chattel houses we should probably write about the big Plantation houses. Plantation houses are also called "Great Houses" and were the homes of the plantation owners who got rich from exploiting slaves. Local folklore includes stories of sailing ships arriving from Africa with slaves and stopping at Barbados first as it the first stop due to the direction of the prevailing trade winds. The Plantation owners would select the most easy-going and pleasant slaves and send the rest downwind to the next island.

It is estimated that between 1627 and 1807, approximately 387,000 enslaved Africans were sent to Barbados. Barbados then re-exported many slaves to North America, other Caribbean islands, and to Venezuela. Later, the Royal African Company established offices in Jamaica and Barbados. The Royal African Company in Barbados had its own preference on the origins of the slaves for work. Thus, the company considered that certain slaves from a specific region in Africa were worth more than other slaves, and they were then selected for Barbados.

To work the plantations, Black Africans were imported as slaves in such numbers that by 1700, there were 15,000 free Whites and 50,000 enslaved Blacks in Barbados.

The slave trade ceased in 1807, and slaves were emancipated in 1834.

This is a picture of the Emancipation Statue. The Bussa Emancipation Statue is a public sculpture of a slave rebellion leader in Barbados. Many Barbadians refer to the statue simply as 'Bussa", the name of a slave who helped inspire the revolt against slavery in Barbados in 1816. The statue was created 1985 by Bajan sculptor Karl Broodhagen 169 years after the rebellion. The statue symbolizes the "Breaking Of Chains". It is located east of Bridgetown - the capital of Barbados.

Wikipedia lists about 275 Barbados plantation homes of record as of 1915. Since then many have disappeared or have been let go to ruin. I have included a very short list of photos and stories of plantation homes that I thought might be of interest. There are many many more...

The building of plantation houses, and great houses, is the work of the British, after they arrived in Barbados in 1625. Plantations are large tracts of lands and fields where crops are grown for export. The British planned to grow tobacco, cotton and sugar.

Barbados' plantations and great house properties were instrumental in the islands' booming sugar trade. Families often owned several plantations and the acreage of each often changed when owners bought and/or sold plots of nearby land.

After emancipation over half of the estates became tenantry villages and remain villages to this day. Many of the remaining properties are now protected by the Barbados National Trust and very few may have been passed down to current family members to own / manage. Some have been restored to become private homes, bed and breakfast accommodations and hotels. In some cases the old great house is surrounded by new homes, or, in the worst case scenario, the plantation house has been completely demolished.

St Nicholas Abbey is located in Saint Peter, Barbados. It is a plantation house, museum and rum distillery. Colonel Benjamin Berringer built the house in 1658. It is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere. St Nicholas Abbey has no church connection, it has always been a sugarcane plantation house. The exact origin of its name is not known but rumour has it that it was named after George Nicholas, husband to Berringer's granddaughter, Susanna. Colonel Berringer was poisoned by his neighbor, Sir John Yeamans after long rivals for the attention of Berringer's wife - who apparently enjoyed the attentions of the neighbour. After Berringer's death, Sir John Yeamans married Berringer's widow and claimed the abbey as his own property! In 1669, the Colonel's children took the matter to court and were awarded ownership of the property. Sir John Yeamans and his new wife then moved to the United States, where they helped found South Carolina. The house was later acquired by the eminent baronet, planter and legislator, Sir John Gay Alleyne, through his marriage to Christian Dottin. He lived there from 1746 until his death in 1801. Alleyne family traditions hold that Sir John planted the impressive mahogany avenue leading to Cherry Tree Hill. The house passed by marriage to Charles Cave in 1834.

St Nicholas Abbey stopped being a fully functioning plantation in 1947, but they do still crush sugar cane and have a small rum distilling and bottling operation set up for tourists to see. However, the Foursquare Rum Distillery in St Philip, owned by R.L. Seale and Co. Ltd., distills and bottles the bulk of the rum bearing the name St. Nicholas Abbey. This is the bottle that holds the world famous, award winning, 12 year old and 18 year old rum that is enjoyed everywhere by rum experts and aficionados. Sugarcane has been grown on the plantation since 1640 and there is still the evidence of the old mill and sugar making edifices. The abbey is now owned by a wealthy Bajan architect, Larry Warren (since 2006).

Drax Hall Estate is a working sugarcane plantation in the Parish of Saint George in central Barbados. It is the site where, in 1642, the first sugar cane was cultivated and harvested in Barbados. It is one of two (the other is St Nicolas Abbey) remaining Jacobean architectural style Great Houses remaining in Barbados, and it is the oldest. The estate has belonged to the Drax family since it was built in the early 1650s by James Drax and his brother, William. The estate is still a working sugar plantation but the house is not open to the public. It's land holdings span much of the eastern landscape of the Parish of Saint George. William Drax later moved away from Barbados to found a new Drax Hall Estate on the island of Jamaica in 1669. By 1680, the Drax family also owned the largest plantation in Barbados, then in parish of St. John.

Sunbury Plantation House was built around 1660 by Matthew Chapman, an Irish/English planter, one of the first settlers on the island. He was related to the Earl of Carlisle and through this association, was granted lands in Barbados. The name Chapman appears in the first map of the island in 1638. The 1674 map shows Chapman Plantation operating with a Cattle Mill. Matthew purchased neighbouring lands and thus enlarged his Plantation. In 1777, local diaries describe Sunbury as having a garden resembling that of St. Michael's Cathedral in layout. To this day some of the black willow trees date back to this era. Sunbury has been described as "one of the best built plantation houses on the island".

Villa Nova Country Hotel sits on land that was once a sugar plantation. The Barbados hurricane of 1831 destroyed the original building and the crops on the estate. Records show that it was not called Villa Nova at the time. Shortly after the hurricane a new home was built on the property of hand-cut coral stone. It has fifteen walled acres and they were rejuvenated and covered by tropical forest and gardens. It sits on a hill in the Parish of St. John's offering breathtaking views of the countryside.

The Barbados Government purchased Villa Nova and some of the land surrounding it, in 1907. Sir Anthony Eden, was Prime Minister of Britain from 1955 and resigned in 1957 due to ill health. He purchased Villa Nova in 1965 and sold it again in 1971. The family carried out much needed renovations on the property, during their residency there. In the 1990s, the property was renovated once again and in 2001 became a five star hotel. Many Hollywood stars and royalty have stayed there during visits to Barbados.

George Washington House in Barbados is a historic house where the future first U.S. President George Washington visited, in 1751. He was 19 years old at the time, and he stayed in the house with his ailing half-brother, Lawrence Washington. In 2011, the property was designated as a UNESCO protected property within the World Heritage Site of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison area. Barbados apparently is the only country outside the present United States that George Washington ever visited.

This is the ruins of Harrismith Plantation House. Harrismith originates from a namesake town in South Africa founded in 1849 and named after British Governor Sir Harry Smith.

Perched oceanfront on the cliff-top, just beyond the backdrop of coconut trees, is the site of the Harrismith Plantation mansion. It was built in the 1920s from cut coral stone by Roland Henry Taylor, a planter from Wakefield (St John). The Harrismith mansion was used as a seaside house on the coast of St Philip, just a bit north of where Sam Lord had his estate. It now lies in ruins and is locally referred to as the Harrismith Great House, and overlooks the beautiful, yet deserted, Harrismith Beach below. Rumour has it that the mansion is currently owned by a member of the British royal family and that it's haunted!

Samuel Hall Lord, also called "Sam Lord" was one of the most famous plantation owners on the island of Barbados.

He was born in Barbados in the late 1700s and lived in Long Bay, St. Philip.

When his parents died in the early 1800s, Samuel, and one of his brothers inherited everything their parents owned, including their slaves.

There was an old mansion on the Long Bay property. It was replaced in the 1800s by a new Georgian mansion, sitting on a 72 acre plot. The Barbados hurricane of 1831 partially destroyed the castle and it took three years to rebuild it.

Sam Lord along with his brother owned the Long Bay and close-by Pool plantations, and they amassed great wealth. Folklore suggests Sam did this through the direct plundering of ships stranded in the coral reefs just off the coast of his estate... also according to legend, Sam Lord would hang lanterns high in the coconut trees around his estate. Ships passing far out at sea would think it was the port city of Bridgetown and would sail towards the reef in the area, leading them to wreck their ships. Sam Lord would then board the ships and keep the riches. This is how he earned the title of "Pirate". It is said by some that the treasures were stored in a network of tunnels and in the dungeon located under the beach and the castle. However, this tunnel has never been located.

In 1884, at the age of 67, and after constantly being at odds with the law, Samuel Hall Lord left Barbados for England and died there on November 5 later that year. He was buried in the catacombs of the Kensal Cemetery.

Sam Lord's Castle eventually became a luxury hotel and, partially due to the legend of his piracy practices, was one of the main tourist attractions in Barbados. I was lucky enough to stay in that hotel when I visited the island in the early 1980's.

It was a shock to me when I learned it burned in a massive fire in October 2010, and now sits in a crumbled ruin. I have heard rumours that the elaborate furnishings where sold via auction just before the fire occured. Other rumours abound of a deteriorating hotel facility and an arson event to collect on insurance. Nothing has been proven. There are also rumours that someone has purchased the ruins of the castle and they intend to bring it back to its former glory through a major renovation project to make it a hotel again.