Cotton Tower Signal Station, Barbados

This melancholic survival of the last years of slavery, is one of a chain of six signal stations as part of the tropical island's defense against invasion and as rallying points in the event of rebellion. The slave trade had been abolished in 1807, but slavery itself was not abolished in the British Empire until 1833. As a result the plantation owners lived in fear of rebellion by the victims of this vile practice.

Messages wee relayed from signal station to signal station by hoisting semaphore arms and flags. The stations were built to be defended as the slits, high up in the walls demonstrate.

Cotton Tower was opened in 1819 and named after Lady Caroline Cotton, daughter of Lord Combermere, then Governor of Barbados. Lady Caroline laid the foundation stone.