Richard Ligon (1585?–1662), an English writer. He lost his fortune as a royalist during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
(1642-1651), and during this turbulent time in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
he found himself, as he notes in his narrative, a "stranger in my own country.” On 14 June 1647, he left for
Barbados
Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...
to gain his fortune in the Caribbean, like many of his fellow countrymen. After two years residence on the island he was attacked by a fever, and returned to England in 1650. He was soon afterward put into prison by his creditors. There are conflicting reports as to whether his narrative was conceived of in prison as a way to pay off his creditors and gain his freedom, or before his imprisonment at the urging of
Brian Duppa,
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...
. His work, a folio with maps and illustrations, is entitled ''A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados'' and was published in London in 1657 and again in 1673.
Importance in literary analysis
Ligon's portrait of life in Barbados has made it into a number of literary journals and historical texts in an attempt by many scholars to derive exactly what life in the islands was like and exactly how Europeans, particularly the English, perceived slaves and their role in the
sugar trade. One review in the journal ''
Early American Literature
''Early American Literature'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of North Carolina Press on behalf of the Society of Early Americanists and the Forum on Early American Literature of the Modern Language Ass ...
'' offers a more linguistic approach to Ligon's texts. Author
Thomas W. Krise reviews
Keith A. Sandiford's analysis of words like "sweet" and "negotiation" in Ligon and says that such an analysis calls attention to various systems of contradiction present in our current understanding of Old World Caribbean culture.
Sources
*
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
*Full text editions of Richard Ligon's ''History of Barbados'' can be found online at:
** Also available vi
HathiTrust
** Also available via th
Digital Library of the Caribbean
** Text and parenthetical pagination derived from 1657 edition, images from the 1673 edition, and original annotations.
by Saint Lucian government minister
Damian Greaves in 2001, quoting Ligon. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ligon, Richard
1580s births
1662 deaths
Colony of Barbados people
16th-century English writers
16th-century English male writers
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers
People imprisoned for debt