*1632 image of Barbados from a Spanish map.* An island of the "Lesser Antilles" chain. Barbados does not seem to have been permanently inhabited when Europeans arrived, and the Spanish and Portuguese considered the island to be too small to develop, relative to other opportunities in the [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Caribbean]]. This left it open for the English, who first landed on the island in 1625 and established a colony in 1627. Between 1640 and 1660, about two thirds of all English immigration was to the Caribbean. In 1650, there were 44,000 English in the islands (most on Barbados), compared to about 12,000 in the [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Chesapeake]] and 23,000 in [[New England]]. Most English people came to Barbados as [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Indentured Servant|Indentured Servants]], and many never survived their period of service. Church records from the 1650s show four times as many burials as marriages. Barbados planters switched from [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Tobacco]] to sugar production in the mid 1640s; at the same time relying less on indentured English and following the Spanish example of importing [[Slavery|enslaved]] Africans. In 1644, of the 30,000 people on Barbados, fewer than 1,000 were African. By 1660, there were 27,000 black and 26,000 white people, but during the 1660s many small planters sold out and moved to [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Notes to Fill/Jamaica]] or [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Carolina]]. In 1680 there were 20,000 English and 46,000 enslaved Africans on the island. For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados