Barbados Unveils UNESCO Slave Route Signage Project

In an effort to promote cultural tourism and to honor Barbados’ slave heritage, Richard Sealy, Barbados’ minister of tourism, has unveiled a new “Slave Route Signage Project,” which will involve the identification, research and interpretation of sites linked to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade across Barbados.

The unveiling of the first historic plaque, one of five interpretative signs being put up across Barbados, commemorates phase one of the project, which is a collaboration among the Barbados Museum & Historical Society; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Barbados Tourism Authority.

The sites identified will form the basis for the development of the proposed Barbados Slave Route Heritage Trail and Tour. The Barbados project, which launched in 2003, comprises part of the Caribbean component of the UNESCO/WTO Slave Route Project, originally launched in Ghana in April 1995.

As the project develops, interpretative signage will be placed across Barbados at the following four locations: Gun Hill, St George; Sweet Bottom (Vale), St George; Bourne’s Land, Christ Church; and The Cage, Bridgetown. Meanwhile, a refurbished sign will be erected at the Newton Slave Burial Ground, Newton, Christ Church.