Washington was nineteen years-old when he went to Barbados with his half-brother Lawrence in 1751. There is a museum inside the bright yellow house where they resided during their stay in Barbados. The first floor is set up to show what his life would have been like when there, with staged bedrooms and a large dining room. While there are exhibits upstairs showing dining ware and other daily items from the eighteenth century, most of the second-floor content is about the trade of enslaved people and enslavement. One display case includes items used to restrain enslaved peoples during the trade, such as reproductions of a coiled-neck collar and an original manacle and chain (each found in Barbados). An exhibit highlights the similarities and differences between Barbados and Virginia, where Washington and his wife enslaved people at Mount Vernon.[3] One section reads, “In Virginia, up until the late 1700s, there were fewer slaves than masters. In Barbados, the opposite prevailed, with four slaves to every one white inhabitant, resulting in much harder methods of subjugation and discipline by Barbadian slave owners.” This comparative element between Barbados and Virginia is intriguing, as scholars are more likely to study Barbados relative to South Carolina, because colonists from Barbados were among the earliest settlers in South Carolina. However, Washington’s connection to both places offers a lens through which historians can view enslavement in Barbados and Virginia.
Washington’s immunity to smallpox was part of Barbados’ contribution to the American Revolution. Soon after his arrival, Washington caught the virus. In his role as our guide for the day, Carter explained to us that this was vital for Washington’s leadership during the American Revolution. Not only had Washington gained immunity to the disease, but he also understood the severity of its symptoms as it ravaged the Continental Army in the 1770s. Therefore, Washington ordered the inoculation of all his troops in 1777.[4] Mount Vernon’s interpretative website acknowledges how Washington gained immunity from the virus during his time in Barbados. The site explains, “If he had not suffered through smallpox in Barbados – and this acquired a lifetime immunity to further infection – he might have died from the illness during the Revolutionary War.” However, Carter reflected on a deeper transnational importance. As the Mount Vernon site notes, “Washington had not contracted smallpox as a child because the disease barely touched Virginia between 1732 and 1751.” Washington’s experience with smallpox in Barbados, not in the thirteen colonies, it was an immunity that saved the life of a revolutionary leader. It also saved the lives of others, and ultimately the revolutionary movement by calling for inoculations.