Members of the public may now purchase tickets for the Freedom Footprints: The Barbados Story Heritage Tours which will continue next Thursday, January 20, starting at 9:00 a.m.

After touring slavery-related galleries at the Barbados Museum, those participating in the trek will visit locations across the island that have been identified with the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the slavery experience.

They will visit "The Cage" at Heroes Square, Bridgetown; Bourne’s Land and The Newton Slave Burial Ground, both in Christ Church; Sweet Bottom (now called Sweet Vale), and the Gun Hill Signal Station, St. George.

??"The Cage" was a holding cell established in 1688 for individuals who ???misbehaved’ and runaway slaves who were awaiting the arrival of their owners to claim them; while Bourne’s Land, set up in 1831, was one of several villages across the island that was developed through property bequests and the process of manumission (freedom), which plantation owners granted to their slave mistresses and children.

Those who lived and died as slaves were interred at Newton, which is the only known and excavated communal enslaved burial ground in a plantation setting in the Western Hemisphere. Sweet Bottom is the oldest non-white village on the island, developed long before emancipation; while the Gun Hill Signal Station was constructed in 1818 mainly for relaying information on any impending slave revolts.?? It also provided communication on approaching ships and hurricanes to several other signal stations in Barbados.

The Ministry of Tourism has contracted the Barbados Museum and Historical Society to develop this new tourism attraction and conduct the 12 tours. Persons interested in going on these tours should contact the Museum at telephone number 427-0201 for??information on tickets and other details.??saustin@barbados.gov.bb

Pin It on Pinterest