author
Richard Ligon
d. 1662
Best known for his vivid 1657 account of Barbados, this 17th-century English writer turned personal experience into one of the most frequently cited early descriptions of the island and its sugar economy. His work is still read for the window it opens onto colonial life, labor, and empire.
1 Audiobook
A true & exact history of the island of Barbados
by Richard Ligon
About the author
After losing much of his fortune during the English Civil War, he sailed to Barbados in 1647 hoping to rebuild his life. He spent about two years there and became part-owner of a sugar plantation, experiences that later shaped his best-known book, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados.
Published in 1657, that book mixes travel writing, observation, and personal memoir. It describes the island’s landscape, plants, trade, and plantation system in striking detail, and it remains an important primary source for readers interested in the early English Caribbean.
Not much else about his life is widely documented with confidence, but his reputation rests securely on this one influential work. For modern readers, it is valuable both as a lively firsthand narrative and as a revealing record of the colonial world he witnessed.