The Caribbean by and large was and is an agricultural economy founded on the backs of slavery and indentured servitude. In the regions where gold was not found, the Spaniards turned to agriculture and amongst the crops was sugar cane. On the Central and South American mainland, the indigenous people were enslaved in the gold mines and in the fields. On the Caribbean islands, the Spaniards eradicated the gentle Tainos on the larger islands but were unable to capture the fiercer Caribs on the smaller islands and so started the Caribbean slave trade from Africa. With the arrival of the British, the French, Dutch and Danes, whose islands were captured from the Spaniards or gained through various treaties, agriculture continued.

In the islands, European indentured servants were the first workers brought out to work the crops. The heat and hard labor sent many of these Europeans back to Europe or out of the fields when their seven years was up. Indentured servitude ended up being a bust. Another source of cheap labor was needed and enter the slave traders, often Dutch and Portuguese in the 16th century. The trade was also taken up later on by the French and British. The Caribbean islands, usually Barbados were the first port of call and many times the most unruly Africans were offloaded before continuing on to the American colonies.

Without slavery, a cheap source of labor, the islands and the plantocracy would not have thrived for over three hundred years until the abolition and emancipation of slavery in the 19th century. Slavery allowed for the phrase “Sugar is King” to be more than bluster. Sugar was indeed king and the economies of the entire region depended on sugar cane. Without slaves, the cane would not have been planted, tended to, harvested and processed. At many sugar mills, slaves were the energy used to turn the wheels that crushed the sugar cane. Slaves were present at each and every step in the process of manufacturing rum and sugar.

As time went by a mulatto class of free Blacks emerged who were the offspring of the Europeans, mostly members of the plantocracy, and slaves. The children were often educated and freed by their fathers and went on to form a middle class of lawyers, physicians, teachers, clergymen and merchants. The descendants of this class went on to become drivers of the post emancipation economy which had it’s roots in hundreds of years of slavery. With emancipation, the economy of the Caribbean hit a bump, many of the freed slaves left the plantations leaving a labor vacuum. At this point came the return of indentured servants, this time primarily from India and China with some Europeans.

The Chinese at the end of their seven years turned to shopkeeping or opened restaurants. The Indians who had planned to return to India often did not, and because they were all lower caste remained as laborers. Their descendants eventually ascended to the middle class as professionals. Agriculture remained the bedrock of the economy; sugarcane, citrus, bananas and coconut and slowly some of the freed slaves returned to the plantations.

The Caribbean islands until the last quarter of the 20th century shared an economy based on agriculture and slavery was the fuel for that economy.