Ladies of the Land
Our Agricultural Heroes
The agricultural burden in the country side of Barbados has fallen heavily on the women field workers.
Before mechanical harvesters and loaders made their appearance in the late 70s it was the women who carried the heavy bundles of cane on their heads and climbed ladders up the side of trucks to hand the bundles to male workers on the top of the truck.
The planting and weeding was also mainly done by women. Men did most of the cane cutting and handling of mechinery such as driving tractors and working in the sugar factories.
It seems to me that women have always had the hardest work in Bajan agriculture.
They were often there in the fields, rain or shine, and when I did photos the women always had humourous responses to being the center of attention.
When I returned to Barbados in 1974 I started to photograph some of the field work being done at the plantation nearby - Mount Wilton, St. Thomas.
This is where I met Edna McLean and her colleagues planting sugar cane ratoons.
I regret that I didn't spend more in-depth time with these subjects in particular – I was not a very good journalist – very few names, no interviews, no first person descriptions of what their whole day was like.
The great reward of getting these images more accessible to the public is that I am slowly finding out names of some of the people as others who knew them can fill in the missing details.
It is fantastic to have a visitor say "That's my Dad in this photograph with Queen Elizabeth" or that someone who worked directly with the workers of a particular plantation can name the person – as was the case with Elsie Lashley pictured here with her huge umbrella - could this be the umbrella that Rihanna was talking about?
Hi Craig, I’ve really been enjoying your photo posts. I especially like the one about the Ladies of the Land. This collection of historical photos reminds me of how skilled you are at taking photographs that convey emotions of the subjects. The women seemed to trust you and your camera.
Hi Fran,
So glad you are enjoying them! Hope you all are doing well. Kevin is 31 and doing well. I loved doing the photos of life in the land and on it – the women always had some fun tease to rib me with!
My mom is in 3 of those pictures above.
Hello Christopher – Very happy to hear from you – sorry that some of these files don’t have the file name attached – will work on getting it so you know the number of the photo – would love to hear any stories you have of growing up with her!
Some great photos. I’m scratching my head over which plantation Edna McClean worked. Mount Wilton or Castle Grant
Hi Arri, This one of Edna was shot in mid 1974 and the field was east of Mt. Wilton Plnt. yard near the bluff overlooking the gully and Lammings was on the other side of the gully to the east – will find some of the others from that.
I know that Edna lived half way down Bragg’s Hill on the left
Edna lived next to us in Braggs hill. Very nice lady. My dad worked at castle grant.
Wonderful photos! It is clear they worked hard, yet I also read they live longer than the rest of the population.
Hi Linda – Glad you are enjoying the pics – so glad to be getting them out of their dungeons! Those ladies were very tough, but also very kind – often you would come home and find a few yams on your front step. They also loved to laugh and tease each other and any photographers that happened to be in the vicinity ! Great souls.
These photos are absolutely beautiful and as you mentioned it would of been nice to have they names.
Hi Linda – happy you are enjoying them – are you by any chance a Parris from Sugar Hill and later Canewood off Hwy 3?