The "Redlegs" of Barbados, Their Origins and History

Sheppard, Jill, The "Redlegs" of Barbados, their origins and history. Millwood, New York: KTO Press, 1977.

Reviewed in The Americas © 1979.

See The Poor Whites of Barbados, by Thomas J. Keagy.

See also A Historical Sketch of the Poor Whites of Barbados: From Indentured Servants to "Redlegs" in Caribbean Studies.

Redlegs is a term used to refer to the class of poor whites that live on Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands. Their forebears came from Ireland, Scotland and the West of England.[1] Many of their ancestors were transported by Oliver Cromwell.[2] Others had originally arrived on Barbados in the early to mid 17th century as slaves or indentured servants. Small groups of Germans and Portuguese were also imported as plantation labourers. Many were described as "white slaves".[citation needed] According to folk etymology, the name is derived from the effects of the tropical sun on their fair-skinned legs. However, the term "Redlegs" and its variants were in use for Irish soldiers of the same sort as those later transported to Barbados, and the variant "Red-shankes" is recorded as early as the 16th century by Edmund Spenser in his dialogue on the current condition of Ireland.