Good info, Rick and Lee.  It also should be noted that for those ships taking the Southern route (and that was most), not only were the islands - Barbados, etc. - the first water and victualling stops after the long voyage from the Canaries, but those also were the first locations PERCEIVED by would-be settlers/servants as safe from the evils, diseases, and "savages"  of the "VA" colonies.  Thus, it those ports rapidly became favored places for any settlement until the crowding there was intolerable and the safety of Virginia was more apparent; a bottleneck of perception, it was said.   Then too, and because of all these motives and reasons and since until almost the 18th century supplies were not assured in the American colonies, the islands became a haven for early entrepreneurs and traders in, as you stated, water, sugar, and slaves, but also in ships' stores, pitch and repairs, sail material, rope and hemp, hardwoods, including such as mahogany, plants and herbs thought to have medicinal value, and - of course - indentured servants.  Many VA colonists maintained "factors"/agents there to meet the ever burgeoning markets of the colonies from Charleston north.   Paul    
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rick Arnold 
  To: VA-
  Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 5:45 PM
  Subject: RE: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Barbados Ancestors:


  Sorry for the confusion.  I did not mean to imply that the Barbadians were not English (primarily).  The first English colonization of Barbados was about 1627 as I recall. The backgrounds of these adventurers and settlers were similar to those of the other British colonies of the time.  Barbados however was more than just a watering hole on the way to Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, etc.  It was in fact the MOST important British colony of the 17th century, and most British indentured servants - and later African slaves- were destined for Barbados or the other West Indian Islands, not for the North American Colonies.  The sugar trade was much more lucrative than the tobacco trade.  According to Alan Taylor in his book "American Colonies" (2001, Penguin Books), "In 1686 London imported West Indian produce worth L 674,518, compared with L 207,131 obtained from all the North American mainland colonies.  Sugar constituted 586,528 of the West Indian total, while tobacco accounted for 141,600 of the mainland produce."  He also gives population figures:  "in 1650 more white colonists lived in the West Indies (44,000) than in the Chesapeake (12,000) and New England colonies (23,000) combined. The great majority of the English West Indians dwelled on a single island, Barbados ...30,000"   Eventually the white population rose as high as 40,000.  However, by the early 1700s it had fallen to about 15,000.  As the sugar barons of Barbados bought up more farms, pressure on landless whites to emigrate grew.   Contemporary accounts indicate that many of these people went to Virginia and the Carolinas.  As I indicated in my earlier post, many of the Barbados names are found in Southside VA. For anyone who's interested, here's a link to some online 17th century Barbados records - 
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~brbwgw/PubForums.htm  Hope someone finds this useful.
  --Rick Arnold

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