Sugar, Power & Plantation Society

Like many of Barbados’ great estates, Sunbury developed alongside the island’s sugar economy. Early agricultural attempts with tobacco and cotton proved difficult to sustain, but by the 1640s English settlers had established sugar cultivation on a large scale. The industry relied initially on indentured servants and transported convicts, and increasingly on enslaved Africans whose forced labour generated immense wealth while exacting a devastating human cost.¹

By the early eighteenth century Barbados contained more than 1,300 sugar plantations worked by an enslaved population estimated at over 40,000 people.² Though consolidation reduced the number of estates in later decades, the island remained one of the world’s major sugar producers for generations.

Plantations such as Sunbury were not only centres of agricultural production but also symbols of planter society — estates where the wealth generated by sugar was reflected in expansive houses, formal dining rooms, and cellars stocked with provisions and rum.

Sunbury’s cellar remains one of its most notable architectural features. Built of thick coral stone, it helped regulate temperature while also providing shelter during hurricanes and periods of unrest, including the island-wide uprising of 1816 led by the enslaved rebel Bussa.³ The durability of coral limestone — widely used in Barbadian construction — meant that many plantation houses could withstand both severe storms and fires far better than timber buildings.

At Emancipation in 1838 the plantation comprised approximately 413 acres and employed 244 labourers, a stark reminder of the human scale of the estate’s operations during the plantation era.

Crop Over

The plantation system also gave rise to traditions that continue to shape Barbadian culture today. Crop Over began in the 1680s as “Harvest Home,” a celebration marking the completion of the sugar cane harvest.⁴ By the late eighteenth century the custom had become widespread across the island’s estates.

The festival declined in the 1940s as the sugar industry contracted, but it was officially revived in 1974 following Barbados’ Independence. Today Crop Over remains the island’s most vibrant cultural celebration — a summer season of music, masquerade, heritage, and creativity running from June through early August.

In the 1980s the National Cultural Foundation even held Plantation Feasts on Sunbury’s grounds, reconnecting the historic estate with the harvest celebrations that once formed an integral part of plantation life.