‘Freedom footprints: the Barbados story’ – a slavery heritage trail

ABSTRACT

Freedom Footprints: The Barbados Story is a heritage trail created around six slavery landmarks. The trail is an outcome of Barbados’ Slave Route Signage Project, implemented by the Ministry of Tourism with the aim of identifying sites of memory linked to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery, researching them and installing interpretive signage. Freedom Footprints was piloted in 2011 with much fanfare and sold-out tours. However despite significant publicity prior to and during the pilot, the voices touting the trail as an outstanding heritage tourism attraction have all but fallen silent. The reasons for this silence are unknown. A case study on Freedom Footprints was developed using a combination of stakeholder interviews, observations, analysis of media reports and archival research, among others. Indications are that the trail has potential to attract both the local and tourist market. However appropriate marketing strategies must be implemented for the trail to achieve desired outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Freedom footprints
• Barbados
• slave route
• heritage trail
• Caribbean

Acknowledgements

This case study would have been significantly more difficult to compile without the individuals who shared their knowledge of Freedom Footprints with me: Victor and Melva Cooke, Eco Adventures; Madge Dalrymple, Barbados Product Development Authority; Kevin Farmer, Barbados Museum & Historical Society; Morris Greenidge, Author and Historian; Tara Inniss, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill; Kevin Rowe, Gun Hill Signal Station; Selma Thompson, formerly of the Barbados Ministry of Tourism, assigned as project officer for The Slave Route Signage Project; Terry Vanterpool-Fox, Barbados Product Development Authority. I owe them a debt of gratitude, but any errors in the work are mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Mechelle N. Best is an associate professor in the Department of Recreation and Tourism Management at California State University Northridge. While her academic background is in tourism and natural resource management, she has been interested in Caribbean history and heritage for many years. She teaches courses focused on cultural heritage tourism and cultural impacts from tourism. Barbadian by birth and Caribbean in outlook, Mechelle is currently conducting research on the intersection between slavery heritage and tourism in the Caribbean.

Notes

1. The additional sites identified are Cotton Tower Signal Station, Sharon Moravian Church, Lowther’s Plantation, Bayleys Plantation, the East Coast Road, and Codrington College (Hutchinson, 2010b).

2. ‘Cage’ was a term used in many slave ports and destinations to mean ‘slave pens’ or holding areas (Thompson, 2010).

3. The other two signal stations are Cotton Tower (not open to public) and Grenade Hall (open to the public). A total of 11 signal stations were constructed between 1816 and 1818.

4. When hosted by BMHS lunch and transportation are included in the price.

5. The Barbados National Trust displays this data on site.

Additional information

Funding

A grant from California State University Northridge’s Competition for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Awards facilitated this research.