The First Plantation

Drax Hall in Barbados is the oldest continuously-owned and operated sugar plantation in the Americas. It served as a template for subsequent plantations and is still functioning today. The plantation’s inheritance by Richard Drax, one of the wealthiest members of Britain’s parliament, ignited protests within an intensifying debate over reparations for the descendants of transatlantic slavery. In November 2021, Barbados broke away from the British crown and declared itself a republic, making international headlines. Filmmaker Jason Fitzroy Jeffers flew home to witness the ceremony and explore the island of his childhood. He delves into its history, from the legacy of Drax Hall to the present-day reparations campaign mounted by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley against Richard Drax.

Drax Hall was built within the British colonial experiment that created the Barbados Slave Code of 1661. This served as the first legal justification for slavery in the New World and the foundation for slave codes across the American South. Jeffers links the racist modalities in his homeland to those in his new home in the U.S. The First Plantation grapples with racial reconciliation in lands where the families of slaveholders still profit from slavery’s vestiges.