EPISODE · Jun 17, 2026 · 15 MIN
House on James Street: Episode two - Building a slave society
from Radio Bimshire Presents · host Radio Bimshire
In Episode Two - "Building A Slave Society" - House on James Street explores the roots of the world that would one day define Sarah Ann Gill. Joining us is historian Professor Pedro Welch, who walks us through the 17th-century transformation of Barbados into a laboratory of plantation slavery. We trace how an overwhelmingly African population, brought from the Gold Coast, was systematically dehumanized by a "plantocracy"—and how they maintained their humanity within a brutal system that categorized them as property.From the specific names recorded in 1654 plantation lists to the complex bureaucratic labels used for the growing free coloured population—FM, FN, and FC—this episode uncovers the rigid social structures that dictated life in early Barbados. We begin to see how this history of violence, intimacy, and resistance created the very environment that Sarah Ann Gill would one day navigate and challenge.Produced and presented by Julius Gittens from a National Library Service lecture by late historian Professor Pedro Welch.
What this episode covers
In Episode Two - "Building A Slave Society" - House on James Street explores the roots of the world that would one day define Sarah Ann Gill. Joining us is historian Professor Pedro Welch, who walks us through the 17th-century transformation of Barbados into a laboratory of plantation slavery. We trace how an overwhelmingly African population, brought from the Gold Coast, was systematically dehumanized by a "plantocracy"—and how they maintained their humanity within a brutal system that categorized them as property.From the specific names recorded in 1654 plantation lists to the complex bureaucratic labels used for the growing free coloured population—FM, FN, and FC—this episode uncovers the rigid social structures that dictated life in early Barbados. We begin to see how this history of violence, intimacy, and resistance created the very environment that Sarah Ann Gill would one day navigate and challenge.Produced and presented by Julius Gittens from a National Library Service lecture by late historian Professor Pedro Welch.
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House on James Street: Episode two - Building a slave society
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