Redleg

Redleg is a term used to refer to poor whites that live or at one time lived on Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands. Their forebears were sent from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Continental Europe as indentured servants, forced labourers, or peons.[1][2]

For other uses, see Redlegs (disambiguation).

Etymology

According to folk etymology, the name is derived from the effects of the tropical sun on the fair-skinned legs of white emigrants, now known as sunburn. However, the term "Redlegs" and its variants were also in use for Irish soldiers who were taken as prisoners of war in the Irish Confederate Wars and transported to Barbados as indentured servants.[3] The variant "Red-shankes" is recorded as early as the 16th century by Edmund Spenser in his dialogue on the current social condition of Ireland.[4]

In addition to "Redlegs", the term underwent extensive progression in Barbados and the following terms were also used: "Redshanks", "Poor whites", "Poor Backra", "Backra Johnny", "Ecky-Becky", "Johnnies" or "Poor Backward Johnnies", "Poor whites from below the hill", "Edey white mice" or "Beck-e Neck" (Baked-neck). Historically everything besides "poor whites" was used as derogatory insults.[5][6][3]

History

Many of the Redlegs' ancestors were transported by Oliver Cromwell after his conquest of Ireland.[7] Others had originally arrived on Barbados in the early to mid-17th century as indentured servants, to work on the sugar plantations.[3][8] Small groups of Germans and Portuguese prisoners of war were also imported as plantation labourers.[9]

By the 18th century, indentured servants became less common. African slaves were trained in all necessary trades, so there was no demand for paid white labour. The Redlegs, in turn, were unwilling to work alongside the freed black population on the plantations.[1] Therefore, most tried to emigrate to other European colonies whenever the opportunity arose, which reduced the white population to a small minority; and most of the white population that chose to stay eked out, at best, a subsistence living. The Redleg descendants of indentured servants today are extremely poor, almost all living in shacks in the countryside.

Because of the deplorable conditions under which the Redlegs lived, a campaign was initiated in the mid-19th century to move 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 St. Vincent as well as on the islands of Grenada around Mt. Moritz and Bequia.[6]

"Redleg descendants are still present on Barbados today – some of them in absolute poverty – isolated, unassimilated and uneducated."[10] The term "Redleg" is also used in South Carolina, where Barbadians had settled.[3]

See also

References
  1. Sheppard, Jill (1977). The "Redlegs" of Barbados, their origins and history. Millwood, N.Y.: KTO Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-527-82230-9.
  2. Haines, Lindsay (February 25, 1973). "Poor, Backward and Adamantly White in a Black World". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  3. The Redlegs of Barbados. Edward T. Price, 1957 (archived on 28 dec 2007)
  4. Spenser, Edmund. A View of the Present State of Ireland (PDF). p. 13.
  5. Blake, Renee (1997). "All o' we is one? Race, class, and language in a Barbados community". ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
  6. Keagy, Thomas J. (1972). "THE POOR WHITES OF BARBADOS". Revista de Historia de América (73–74).
  7. Fraser, Henry (1990). A-Z of Barbadian heritage. Kingston, Jamaica: Heinemann Publishers (Caribbean). p. 90. ISBN 978-976-605-098-6.
  8. O'Callaghan, Sean (2000). To Hell or Barbados: The ethnic cleansing of Ireland. Brandon. ISBN 1847175961 – via Google Books.
  9. Beckles, Hilary (1986). "Black men in white skins': The formation of a white proletariat in West Indian Slave society". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 15 (1).
  10. Magan, Manchán (1 January 2009). "Red Legs in Barbados". The Irish Times. ...most tend to be poorer than the black population. Speaking in reference to reports made 30 years ago, one Irish journalist reported in 2009 that, if the reports were accurate, "they farm smallholdings of sugar cane on the arid eastern coast of the island or live in Bridgetown, the capital, drinking in local grog shops or running white brothels for middle-class blacks."
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