The history of Barbuda covers the period from the arrival of the Archaic people around 3700 BC to its current status as an autonomous island in Antigua and Barbuda. The first inhabitants of the island were hunter-gatherers that primarily lived on the island's southern coast. The Archaic people were later replaced by the Arawak, who came to the island from modern-day Venezuela and Guyana around 1000 BC. The Arawak flourished on the island between 1500 and 800 years ago. The Arawak built several villages on the island but mostly used it as a stopover point. The Arawak were likely conquered by the Kalinago, who came to the island around the same time as the Age of Discovery.
The first European settlers came from Saint Kitts, following a letters-patent issued in 1625. Then referred to as "Barbado" or "Dulcina", a Captain Smith and John Littleton led Barbuda's initial colonisation. Four grants were established on the island to prevent other Europeans from seeing the island as vacant land. Kalinago from Dominica and Saint Vincent decimated the small English settler community in a 1668 attack, with eight settlers dying and the colonisation project being left largely abandoned shortly after.
The Codrington family was granted a lease for the island in 1684, although they rarely visited and were represented instead by their attorneys and resident managers. John Codrington built a castle that became the nucleus of the village of Codrington. The Codrington family introduced the first African slaves to the island around this time, with the slaves from the initial shipment being the ancestors of the modern Barbudan people. Only eight slaves came to the island after this shipment. The original slaves all came from the Ghanaian coasts, west of Accra, part of the Fante ethnic group. They were shipped out of the port of Cormantin. The island had virtually no Europeans other than the manager, and the slaves engaged in cattle ranching and animal husbandry– the island being too dry for sugar cultivation. In the early 19th century, the Antigua-Barbuda-Montserrat colony was established, lasting until 1833. This was the first time that Barbuda was administratively linked with Antigua in practice. By 1831, there were 503 slaves on the island. Uniquely for the British West Indies, this population growth was natural rather than through the importation of slaves. Slaves had less oversight compared to other colonies, and were forced to work on provision grounds of several acres each. Slavery was abolished in 1834.
On 1 August 1860, Barbuda was formally merged with Antigua. The Codrington's lease over the island ended in 1870. This is when the Barbudan communal land system emerged. The island was later leased to the Barbuda Island Company by the crown in the 1890s, although this was short lived. The Barbuda Ordinance (still in effect as the Barbuda Act) was passed in 1904 by the Antiguan legislature and assigned a warden who served as the primary local government official on the island. The warden resided at the Government House in central Codrington. The Barbudan independence movement emerged in the 1960s. The warden continued to oversee the island until the passing of the Barbuda Local Government Act in 1976, which established the Barbuda Council. During the independence process for Antigua and Barbuda, fears emerged that the island would attempt a Republic of Anguilla–style rebellion. The majority of the population supported separate independence from Antigua. However, the British government ultimately decided to keep the islands together, enshrining the council in the constitution.
Following independence, the relationship between the two islands has been tumultuous. Voters on the island tended to deviate from national trends, and the central and local governments frequently clashed over sand mining. Following the election of the United Progressive Party government in 2004, close ties with the Barbuda People's Movement eventually led to an easing of tensions and the formal enshrining of Barbudan land rights in the law. These good ties ended in 2017 after the passing of Hurricane Irma, which passed directly over the island and destroyed almost all infrastructure. This began an ongoing sociopolitical crisis that revived the independence movement and led to significant changes to land legislation.
Pre-colonisation (–1625)
People have lived on Barbuda since around 3700 BC. The Archaic Age people, incorrectly referred to as the "Ciboney", were the first to live here. These people arrived in Barbuda by canoe and lived as hunter-gatherers in small bands. Scholars disagree on whether they came from South America, the Greater Antilles,Vincent Rousseau, Allison Bain, Jacques Chabot, S. Grouard, Sophia Perdikaris. The Role of Barbuda in the Settlement of the Leeward Islands: Lithic and Shell Analysis Along the Strombus Line Shell Midden . Journal of Caribbean Archaeology, 2017, 17, pp.1-25.Hofman, C. L., Bright, A. J. and M. L. P. Hoogland. 2006. Archipelagic Resource Procurement and Mobility in the Northern Lesser Antilles: The View from a 3000-year-old Tropical Forest Campsite on Saba. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 1:145-164.Hofman, C. L., Mol, A., Rodríguez Ramos, R. and S. Knippenberg. 2011. Networks Set in Stone: Archaic-Ceramic interaction in the early prehistoric northeastern Caribbean. Actes du 24e Congrès de l'Association Internationale d'Archéologie de la Caraïbe, pp. 157- 165. Martinique or from the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico. The oldest carbon dated artifact in the country dates to c. 3685 BC at The River. Around this time was also when the first sand dunes formed at Palmetto Point. These Archaic people did not live in villages, and instead were dispersed at various points in the island including at Suffers near Spanish Point, and Indian Town at Two Foot Bay. These people made tools, primarily with shells, and remnants of these tools continue to be found at the Strombus Line, which follows the southern coastline about a quarter kilometre inland. This line is considered to be a paleoshoreline and was likely once an important trading centre in the pre-Columbian Lesser Antilles. Along the Strombus Line, tools have been found that were used for digging queen conchs out of their shells, and flint-based tools were also sourced from the Flinty Bay in Antigua. These people were known to be active at areas today known as Boiling Rocks, Codrington, River, Sucking Hole, Factory, and Goat Pen.
The Archaic people were replaced by people usually classed as Arawak, usually identified with the Taíno. The Arawak lived on the island from around 1000 BC, and established several villages in the highlands and around Gravenor Bay. They were an agricultural people and described as 'peace-loving' by Spanish conquistadors. They did not have a hierarchical social structure. The earliest remains of these people are located at the Seaview site at Two Foot Bay. Staple crops of included sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, cotton, and tobacco. They also farmed fruits, medicinal plants, and vegetables. Their main staple was cassava. They also ate seafood products, eggs, iguanas, turtles, and small mammals. They made pottery known as Saladoid. The period between 1,500 and 800 years ago saw the largest settlement, although many only made stopovers and seasonal visits. There were several known villages during this time including ones located at Sufferers, Indian Town, Highland Road, Guava and Welches.
The Kalinago called Barbuda Wa'omoni. This is thought to mean "island of herons", although broader interpretations state that it could also mean "island of weather birds" or "island of large birds", likely in reference to the frigatebirds native to the region. These Kalinago came from Dominica and Saint Vincent, and it was also around this time that Christopher Columbus came to the region. The nature of Columbus's contact with Barbuda is unknown. The most recent carbon dated site attributed to indigenous people is from around 1520 at Indian Town.
Initial colonisation (1625–1684) Under a Letters Patent granted to the Earl of Carlisle in 1625, Captain Smith and John Littleton attempted to colonize Barbuda (referred to as "Barbado") from Saint Kitts. People in Saint Kitts knew the island as "Dulcina", assuming it to be good for colonisation. To their surprise, the island was barren and they left shortly after. It is also likely that attacks from the Kalinago disrupted this settlement. Present-day Codrington was the main settlement in 1666, and one attack on the colonists took place in 1668. The Kalinago that participated in this attack likely came from Dominica and Saint Vincent, and about 240 Kalinago attacked the 20 English inhabitants. They decided to raid the building that the family of Captain Francis Nathan was staying at. Nathan and several other English men were killed, while Nathan's wife, two children, and a servant among others managed to escape. The natives were noted to have been consuming alcoholic beverages during the attack.
By the 1660s, several Europeans were farming on the island.Sainsbury 1880 Lord Willoughby granted the island to four lessees to hinder a potential Dutch or Kalinago attack on Barbuda. Some of the people on the island included about twenty men living together with the goal of exporting goods to surrounding colonies. The lease explicitly stated that Barbuda was a dependency of Antigua.Sainsbury 1893Tweedy p25 Of the four lessees, three (Samuel Winthrop, Joseph Lees, and Francis Samson) were also members of the elite on Antigua.Oliver 1896 A letter dated to 22 November 1676 noted that about twenty servants lived on the island, keeping stocks of horses, cattle, and sheep. It was thought that this activity could aid in provisioning for the Royal Navy.
Codrington rule (1684–1870)
Establishment of the estate (1684–1761)