This book is the first general history of Barbados written by a professional historian. Using a vigorous and unbiased approach to the collective experience of all the island's inhabitants, the author traces the events and ideas that shaped contemporary society. He examines the influences of the Amerindians, European colonisation, the sugar industry, the African slave trade, emancipation, the civil rights movement, independence and nationalism. Dr Beckles has blended an impressive quantity of primary research and published literature to produce an exciting and provocative history of this island state.