Barbuda and the Provisioning of the Codrington Estates on Antigua

For most of the colonial period, the Codrington family had exclusive control over the island of Barbuda. Deploying the labor of enslaved African workers, they developed the island into an important source of food and other supplies to provision their sugar plantations on nearby Antigua. This chapter examines how Barbuda’s natural resources, built landscape, and labor system were all directed toward that purpose. In particular, it compares the Codringtons’ management strategies with those of Samuel Martin and William Byam, who sub-leased the island from 1746 to 1761. In addition, Anderson argues that enslaved people on Barbuda experienced a unique form of bondage geared toward herding and cultivation of food crops rather than sugar production. It also examines how the particular environmental conditions on Barbuda both offered opportunities and presented challenges for the people lived and worked there.