A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados

If you want to know exactly what things looked like and what living in Barbados felt like in the 17th century, this is the book. Originally published in 1657, this is like a travelogue of the Island that became a prosperous English colony known for its sugar plantations, rum, and slave trade. Ligon was a royalist in exile during the English civil war.

A refugee from the English Civil War, Ligon arrived in Barbados in 1647 and purchased a share of a sugar plantation there. In this surprisingly readable account of his experiences, he provides a vivid picture of a society newly colonized by the English but already deeply committed to plantation agriculture and an enslaved labor force. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the book is Ligon’s various interactions with Africans, whom he is able to see as individuals, and by whose personalities, appearance, and talents he sometimes finds himself captivated, yet whom he has few moral scruples about buying or selling.