Liege People and Pagan Foes: Martial Patriotism and the Reproduction of Slavery in Barbados, ca. 1675

In the summer of 1675, shortly after the discovery of a major "design" by enslaved West Africans to seize control of the English colony of Barbados, some 8,000 men from the island held a combined muster of its infantry and cavalry units. This mighty host, which was comparable in size to the standing army of England itself, was primarily designed to terrify the island's majority Black workforce. Yet the "liege people" in arms, as they called themselves, also meant to silence the Quaker dissidents and Royal African Company officials who questioned the morality and legality of Barbados slavery. Indeed, large and semi-organized crowds would attack both Friends and RAC officials that autumn in a violent, and ultimately successful display of Barbadian patriotism. 

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