British Empire in the West Indies.

The British West Indies were colonies of the Kingdom of the Great Britain. This affected me as an individual because my family descended from this area from the countries Trinidad and Guyana. The West Indies, also known as the Caribbean is a tropical area of over one million sq. feet of 27 territories. Britian took advantage of the region's sugar industry, owning five of the ten most profitable sugar islands. Slaves and indentured servents worked on the sugar, cotton and rice fields and plantations. Some were given the opportunity to work in the factories, but were still deprived of their rights. From the 17th century until the 19th century, almost twelve million Africans were brought to the New World against their will to perform back-breaking labor under terrible conditions. The Africans were sold in many ways. Some were sold to traders by other Africans, others were forced aboard ships to be taken across the Atlantic on a voyage that was called "the middle passage”. Africans were chained and packed into quarters unfit for movement or proper breathing. The only hope of escape rested in suicide by jumping overboard. They had the right to punish slaves in any way with any weapon, Slaves were preferable choices over indentured servants. Slaves had no right to food or shelter like indentured servants. When slavery ended in the British Empire in 1833, plantation owners turned to indentured servitude for inexpensive labor. These servants arrived from across the globe; the majority came from India. Slaves and Indentured Servants were tortured on these plantations. Britain influenced this region with the religion of Christanity; Sports, cricket, rugby and soccer; food, tea, bread and cheese; and the English language.(Source:http://www.caribbeanislands.us,http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/gothic/imperial.html)