REVIEWS & READER'S COMMENTS ON LOVE CHILD

"Love Child: A Genealogist's Guide to The Social History of Barbados is a candid and informative look at family, settlement, and genetic ancestry in the nation of Barbados, and the role slavery played in both its history and gene pool. From the native people who lived in Barbados before 1627 down to its twentieth century melting pot at a boil, Love Child is an unvarnished, fascinating, and solid amalgam of little-known history, and a much-welcome contribution to Barbados History supplemental reading lists and International Genealogical reference collections."

Mr. J. Cox, Midwest Book Review www.MWBOOKREVW@aol.com

 

"Love Child is an interesting, indeed a fascinating book because it sets out to expound a thesis that no one has attempted before, namely that the Amerindian presence in Barbados was considerable and was responsible for many of the interracial unions which have up to now been attributed to Afro-European unions. The Author seems to me to be more convincing in dealing with other West Indian islands than in Barbados although she is able to quote many examples which demonstrate that there was an Amerindian presence in Barbados during the 17th century. But the book goes much further than this. The Author examines West African society during the slave period . She shows that Africans were almost as deeply involved in the slave trade as were Europeans. She deals with African names and tribal differences and finally, she shows how, in the West Indies, all these affected society. She then goes on to deal with the production of a mixed-race population in Barbados and shows how white fathers strove to get their coloured children accepted. To do this, the Author has made an exhaustive study of baptismal and marriage records as well as wills housed in the Barbados department of Archives. I have read this book with great interest, which has in no way been lessened by the fact that I do not agree with all of Mrs. Salazar's conclusions. This is a pioneer work and is therefore worthy of close attention".

Mr. R. Hughes, Genealogist and Local Historian Barbados

 

"I received the book safely. I took it up this week and I have not been able to put it down or keep it far away ... I am impressed by the way you have been able to marry great scholarship with your humanist ideals and vision. I must tell you what an eye-opener your book has been, particularly as you have challenged much of the socio-historical orthodoxy on race and ethnicity. ... Your book is the most fascinating book I've read so far this year."

Mr. T. Ducreay, Journalist New York

 

"I have read your material and find it absolutely fascinating. Thoroughly researched and beautifully written. I strongly suspect the connections to our people are there."

Professor Brent Kennedy, Author of The Melungeons Virginia

 

"This time carries the spirit of rediscovery of one's past and ethnic roots, of finding one's identity, so much talked about on many levels. Well, L.E. Salazar's book LOVE CHILD is a milestone in this endeavour ... I can only encourage all who are interested in facts not fiction to read L.E. Salazar's book LOVE CHILD .... "Truth is stranger than fiction", you will find out for yourselves. This book is an eye-opener, a surprise It belongs in every 'reading' family...."

Mrs. G. Johnson, Artist and Sculptress Barbados

 

"I did enjoy "Love Child" and it gave me a broad perspective into a field of history which was new to me. It also explained specialised terms that were unfamiliar and gave the meanings of other which I had not found before. The differences between slavery and the New South Wales convict system were of interest also. I believe that "Love Child" is required reading for anybody working in this field and who starts out as ignorant as I was."

Mr. G. Telfer, Antiquarian Australia

 

"I finished reading your book and my initial feeling is that I must look up some of those references in your bibliography to read them for myself. There is a wealth of information in your book, quite a lot which (for me) is disquieting, not because of you, but because of the facts which you have unearthed."

Mrs. N. Meek, Writer and Poet Barbados.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY L.E. Salazar was born in 1942 in St. Michael, Barbados and is a descendant of planter families. She is herself a multiracial person tracing her ancestry back to the Caribs of Dominica. Her passion for history began at her grandmother's knees where the oral history of the islands and its people was recounted. The historical research for this book, Love Child: A Genealogist's Guide to the Social History of Barbados, began in 1994 and is an expansion of a Caribbean Studies Paper on the Free and Franchised Coloured of the Nineteenth Century to fulfil the requirements of the University of the West Indies B.A. Honours Degree in History. L.E. Salazar has worked in the private Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados as a secretary and as a Hansard Reporter.