Writing a paper on his History of Barbados, which I have, but where can I find a (free) biography on him, as well as (free) scholarly writings on his history, and also maybe other similar writings from the time period in the Caribbean? By chance, I would love also to read more about musical development (he talks about the slaves playing music) in the area at the time, hopefully from somewhere that relates in part to the work.
Thanks!
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If you are at a university, you should have access to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which has an entry for Ligon by Karen Kupperman. Kupperman also has an edition of Ligon's History of Barbados (2011) that should be available in most libraries that has a lot of background to the document. Another place you might find good contextual work is in Krise's anthology of Caribbean literature, Caribbeana (1999). Again, these should all be in your university library.
A solid bit of googling should get you some of the older encyclopedias or DNB resources that will get you started on his life. The standard work for the history of the islands during the seventeenth century is still Richard Dunn's Sugar and Slaves (1972). Any work by Hilary Beckles would also be useful, except his books on the history of cricket.