Richard Ligon was a low-level member of the English aristocracy who opted for the wrong side in the English Civil War (1642–1649). He was put off his land by angry commoners in 1642 and thus chose to join the side of his king, Charles I, in the war. Charles would eventually be captured and have his head cut off by members of the English parliament. Ligon was captured and imprisoned by the parliamentary forces in 1646, having lost his entire fortune and his place in English society. In a bid to rebuild his finances after getting released, Ligon set sail in 1647 for England's Caribbean colonies, landing in Barbados. A comparatively new English colony, having been bought from the Dutch, Barbados was then in the throes of what historians would refer to as the “sugar revolution,” the development of sugar cane as a massively profitable enterprise in the New World. Ligon worked as an aid on the plantation of another migrant for three years before getting sick and returning to England. Upon his return, he was imprisoned for his debts, and at the behest of the Bishop of Salisbury he agreed to write the following account of his time in Barbados, which proved exceedingly popular in its day.