Defense Date

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

History

First Advisor

Michael Dickinson

Second Advisor

Sarah Meacham

Third Advisor

Mary Caton Lingold

Abstract

This thesis deconstructs the “Redleg” identity that emerged in colonial Barbados by performing a deep analysis of the history of seventeenth-century Barbados. Although several scholarly works have been written about the “Redlegs” and even more research has focused on the emergence of racial slavery and plantation society in seventeenth-century Barbados, this thesis compares these two historiographies. My argument is centered on showing the inconsistencies within the established historical narrative of the “Redlegs” while emphasizing other aspects of the seventeenth-century Anglo-Atlantic that hold direct roots to the emergence of the “Redleg” identity. My research suggests that the frequently espoused origins of the “Redlegs’” as merely descendants of captive Irish rebels, brought to the island by Oliver Cromwell in the seventeenth-century, is problematic, and more pointedly, not as relevant to the modern plights of the “Redlegs” as has been stated by scholars, journalists, and popular historians. Rather, this thesis demonstrates that legal and social pretexts surrounding the emergence of plantation society, racial slavery, and a monolithic white identity in seventeenth-century Barbados held great significance for the emergence of the “Redleg” identity on Barbados, but also for the ways in which individuals have written histories about individuals identified as “Redlegs.”

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

5-10-2024

Available for download on Wednesday, May 09, 2029

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