Skip to main content
Massachusetts State Seal
Commonwealth Museum   Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin
Commonwealth Museum Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin

The Caribbean Connection

During the 1600s Massachusetts played a limited role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade although connections to Caribbean slavery became essential to its economy.

“

“It pleased the Lorde to open to us a Trade with Barbados and other Islands in the West Indies.”

- Governor John Winthrop

”
“Isaac Sailmaker” painted this seventeenth century image of the “Island of Barbados,” featuring an impressively agile sea creature. - Yale Center for British Art “Isaac Sailmaker” painted this seventeenth century image of the “Island of Barbados,” featuring an impressively agile sea creature.
- Yale Center for British Art

Developing a Maritime Economy

The Massachusetts climate could not produce lucrative crops like sugarcane. Nor did colonists discover gold or silver. To survive economically, Massachusetts would rely on trade, including strong ties to Caribbean islands like Barbados and Antigua. To maximize profit, plantation owners on Barbados devoted most of their acreage to sugarcane while importing food, farm animals, and equipment from Massachusetts. Return voyages brought molasses for the production of rum and enslaved Africans for sale in Boston and other towns.

Harsh Realities

Slavery on the islands was harsh. By some estimates life expectancy was five to seven years on sugarcane plantations. Harvesting and processing was dangerous work. Axes were mounted to quickly sever arms if caught in the machinery. In a tawdry vein Massachusetts sold spoiled fish as food for enslaved workers. Some who were considered too weak were sold to Massachusetts as house servants. 

Bill of Lading, 1693 “The good Ship called the Friendship,” mastered by John Ware, “and by Gods grace bound for Barbados” will carry “fifteen hodgheads of Codd…and twenty fiv barrels of beef ten boxes of candles and one thousand of hoops.” Bill of Lading, 1693 “The good Ship called the Friendship,” mastered by John Ware, “and by Gods grace bound for Barbados” will carry “fifteen hodgheads of Codd…and twenty fiv barrels of beef ten boxes of candles and one thousand of hoops.”
-  Massachusetts Archives
Harewood House , West Yorkshire, England. Beginning in the seventeenth century the Lascelles family was active on Barbados. Eventually elevated to the House of Lords, they built Harewood House in the eighteenth century with profits from plantations and the slave trade. Massachusetts merchants had business dealings with them on Caribbean voyages. - Images: Gunnar Larrson, Michael D. Beckwith

Harewood House , West Yorkshire, England. Beginning in the seventeenth century the Lascelles family was active on Barbados. Eventually elevated to the House of Lords, they built Harewood House in the eighteenth century with profits from plantations and the slave trade. Massachusetts merchants had business dealings with them on Caribbean voyages.
- Images: Gunnar Larrson, Michael D. Beckwith

Harewood House , West Yorkshire, England. Beginning in the seventeenth century the Lascelles family was active on Barbados. Eventually elevated to the House of Lords, they built Harewood House in the eighteenth century with profits from plantations and the slave trade. Massachusetts merchants had business dealings with them on Caribbean voyages. - Images: Gunnar Larrson, Michael D. Beckwith

- Images: Gunnar Larrson, Michael D. Beckwith

Literacy and Servitude
Slavery was harsh whether on plantations or in Massachusetts towns. Still there were differences. Many Puritans taught reading to encourage Bible study. (This was forbidden in Southern colonies.) It was unusual to have a relatively literate population in bondage. Over time this led to freedom suits and other assertions of rights. During the nineteenth century well informed Black abolitionists would play an important role in the period leading to the Civil War.