Desperate for servants, the planters accepted growing numbers of convicted criminals and political prisoners, sent to the West Indies as a punishment. Between 1645 and 1655 the English government shipped to Barbados some twelve thousand captives taken in the suppression of rebellions at home. A mix of English, Scots, and Irish Catholics, such coerced servants rebelled or ran away early and often, despite brutal punishments for those caught. Because white men could more easily escape to pass as free on another island or aboard a pirate ship, planters increasingly saw an advantage in employing
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