Redlegs

Redlegs was a term used to refer to the class of poor whites that lived on colonial Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands. In Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago they are known as "Bakras" ("Back-Row"). Many of these people were English, Irish, or Scottish, and had originally arrived on Barbados in the early to mid 17th century as slaves, indentured servants, or as transported prisoners, notably from Oliver Cromwell's wars in Ireland and Scotland and from southwest England following the Monmouth Rebellion. Small groups of Germans and Portuguese were also imported as plantation labourers. Many were described as "white slaves". The name is derived from the effects of the tropical sun on their fair-skinned legs.

By the 18th century, white slavery was becoming more and more uncommon, and fewer and fewer whites existed on Barbados outside of the sugar plantation. African slaves were trained in all needed trades, so there was no demand for paid white labour. The Redlegs, in turn, were unwilling to work alongside the freed slave population on the plantations. Therefore, most of the white population that chose to stay eked out, at best, a subsistence living. Because of the deplorable conditions under which the Redlegs lived, a campaign was initiated in the mid-19th century to relocate portions of the population to other islands which would be more economically hospitable. The relocation process succeeded, and a distinct community of Redleg descendants live in the Dorsetshire Hill district on Saint Vincent as well as on the islands of Grenada and Bequia.

In addition to Redlegs the term underwent extensive progresssion in Barbados and the following terms were also used: "Redshanks", "Poor whites", "Poor Backra", "Backra Johnny", "Ecky-Becky", "Poor whites from below the hill" or "Edey white mice". Historically everything besides "poor whites" were used as derogatory insults.

References in Popular Culture

The song "Tobacco Island" by the Celtic Punk band Flogging Molly is told from the point of view of Irish Redlegs captured by Oliver Cromwell.

ee also

*History of South Carolina

External links

* [http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/CARIBBEAN/2001-04/0986680712 1957 article on Redlegs]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1510537,00.html The Sunday Times - "Poor Scots who became white trash"]
* [http://www.yale.edu/glc/tangledroots/Barbadosed.htm Tangled Roots - "'Barbadosed' - Africans and Irish in Barbados"]
* [http://multiracial.com/site/content/view/441/27/ The Multiracial Activist - "Barbados and the Melungeons of Appalachia"]