The Barbados – New York Connection: Enslavement and Exchange

This presentation by Dr. Seth Kamil delves into the nature of the inter-colonial exchange and the shared places that define the Barbados-New York connection.

The historical connection between Barbados and New York is one of enslavement and exchange that shaped the colonial landscape in the 17th and 18th centuries. Barbadian planters were central to the establishment of provisioning plantations in mid-seventeenth century New York and New Jersey. These wealthy landholders, in the attempt to feed and supply their Barbados sugar plantations, brought with them the practice of matrilineal enslavement to the region. Previously regarded as migrants to the Middle Colonies these planters, along with merchants and traders, maintained family and property ties to Barbados and beyond. Understanding the bond with Barbados and the role of African slavery is crucial to comprehending the centuries-long ties between these colonial spaces.

Dr. Seth Kamil started his history graduate studies, at Columbia University, in1989. He departed in 1995, as an ABD. For the next 25 years running Big Onion Walking Tours, an internationally recognized education-based, historical, and cultural tourism company he started with another graduate student in 1991. Seth was inspired to return to Columbia to research and write his dissertation in 2021. Readmitted in January 2023, he received his doctorate in October 2024. Seth’s dissertation “The Inter-Colonial Provisioning of Barbados from New York and New Jersey, 1651-1765” explores the interconnected history of the colonial Atlantic World. The Middle Colonies, New York and New Jersey, were the previously unrecognized breadbasket that fueled the growth of sugar and slavery in Barbados and the English West Indies.

This talk will be presented both in-person at the museum and online via zoom. To register for the online talk, please do so here.