Redlegs For other uses , see Redlegs ( disambiguation ) . Redlegs was a term used to refer to the class of poor whites that lived on colonial Barbados , St . Vincent , Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands . In Jamaica they are known as `` walking buckras '' . Many of these people were English , Irish , or Scottish , and had originally arrived on Barbados as indentured servants , or as transported prisoners , notably from Oliver Cromwell 's wars in Ireland and Scotland and from the Monmouth Rebellion . Small groups of Germans and Portuguese were also imported as plantation labourers . Many were described as `` white slaves '' . The name is derived from the effects of the tropical sun on their fair-skinned legs . Because little existed on Barbados outside of the sugar plantation , and African slaves were trained in all needed trades , there was no demand for paid white labor . The Redlegs , in turn , were unwilling to work alongside the freed slave population on the plantations . Therefore , most of the white population that chose to stay eked out , at best , a subsistence living . Because of the deplorable conditions under which the Redlegs lived , a campaign was initiated in the mid- 19th century to relocate portions of the population to other islands which would be more economically hospitable . The relocation process succeeded , and a distinct community of Redleg descendants live in the Dorsetshire Hill district on Saint Vincent as well as on the islands of Grenada and Bequia . External link 1957 article on Redlegs This article related to an ethnic group is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it .  This Caribbean -related article is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : Ethnic groups in the Caribbean | Barbados | Ethnic group stubs | Caribbean stubs In other languages : Italiano 