History of Bermuda

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This is the history of Bermuda. See also the history of the Caribbean, history of the Americas, and History of present-day nations and states.

Contents

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Initial discovery and settlement

Bermuda was discovered in the early 1500s, probably in 1503, although the evidence for the exact year, and the identity of the discoverer, is sketchy. It was certainly known by 1511, when Peter Martyr published his Legatio Babylonica, which mentioned Bermuda. The discovery is attributed to a Spanish explorer, Juan de Bermudez. Nothing is known of his supposed first visit; he returned again in 1515, with the chronicler Oviedo y Valdés. Oviedo's account of the second visit (published in 1526) records that they made no attempt to land because of weather.

During the following decades, other visits from explorers of various nationalities ensued, including many whose stays resulted from being shipwrecked on the treacherous reefs surrounding the then-uninhabited islands. Among the latter were a group of Portuguese sailors in 1543, and Henry May in 1593.

Bermuda was first settled in 1609 by shipwrecked English colonists who were originally headed for Virginia. A fleet of nine ships owned by the Virginia Company of London set sail from Plymouth, England with fresh supplies and additional colonists for the new British settlement at Jamestown. The fleet was commanded by Admiral Sir George Somers on board the flagship, the Sea Venture. During a fierce storm the Sea Venture strayed from the rest of the fleet, and struck Bermuda's reefs. Somers managed to land all 150 crew and colonists on the uninhabited island without the loss of a single life.

They were stranded on the islands for 10 months while they built two new ships to replace their shipwreck. By 1610 Somers had managed to construct the Deliverance and the Patience, and set sail from Bermuda for Jamestown. On arrival Somers found the colony decimated by starvation, illness and attacks by Native Americans. Fortunately, the supplies he brought saved them from oblivion.

After they eventually reached Virginia (leaving behind three men who had elected to stay on Bermuda), their reports aroused great interest about the islands in England. Two years later, in 1612, the Virginia Company laid claim to the island, and sent a party of 60 settlers to Bermuda. Under the command of Sir Thomas Moore, the island's first governor, they founded and commenced construction of the town of St. George.

Initially the Charter of the Virginia Company was extended to include them, but in 1615 King James granted a charter to a new company, the Somers Isles Company, which was formed by the same shareholders, and ran the island until 1684. Representative government was introduced to Bermuda in 1620, when its House of Assembly held its first session, and it became a self-governing colony.

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The early colony

Bermuda was divided equally into one public territory (today known as St. George's) and eight "tribes" (today known as "parishes"). These "tribes" were areas of land partitioned off to the "adventurers" (investors) of the Company - Devonshire, Hamilton, Paget, Pembroke, Sandys, Smith's, Southampton and Warwick (thusfar, this usage of the word "tribes" is unique to the Bermuda example).

Initially, the colony grew tobacco as its only crop. The Company repeatedly advised more variety, not only because of the risks involved in a single-crop economy, but also because the Bermuda-grown tobacco was of particularly low quality (the Company was frequently forced to burn the supply that arrived back in England). It would take Bermuda some time to move away from this, especially as tobacco was the main form of currency.

The first slaves were brought to Bermuda soon after the colony was established. Unlike in the plantation economies that developed in North America and the West Indies, the system of indetured servitude, which lasted til 1684, ensured a large supply of cheap labour. Many of the Black slaves brought to Bermuda arrived as part of the cargoes seized by Bermudian privateers. The first Blacks to come to Bermuda in numbers were free West Indians, who emigrated from territories taken from Spain. They worked under seven years indenture, as did most English settlers, to repay the Company for the cost of their transport. As the size of the Black population grew, however, many attempts were made to reduce it. The terms of indenture for Blacks were succesively raised to 99 years. The local government attempted to legislate the emigration of free blacks, and during times of war, with food supplies scarce, it was considered patriotic to export horses and slaves. The first two slaves brought into the Island, a Black and a Native American, had been sought for their skills in pearl diving (but, Bermuda proved to have no pearls). Slaves were also brought directly from Africa, and in large numbers from North America, where various Algonquian peoples were falling victim to English expansion. Following Cromwell's adventures in Ireland, and his attempt to force his protectorship on independant Scotland, Irish prisoners of war (POW) and ethnically-cleansed civilians, and smaller numbers of Scots, were also sent to Bermuda. After the uncovering of a coup-plot by Irish and Black slaves, however, the import of further Irish slaves was banned. The slave trade would be outlawed in Bermuda in 1807, and all slaves were freed in 1834. At the end of the 17th Century, Whites, whether free or enslaved, composed the majority of Bermuda's population. Blacks and Native Americans were both small minorities. They combined, however, absorbing the Irish and Scots, and no small part of the White English bloodline, to be described as a single demographic group a century later, with the Bermuda's population being divided into White and Black Bermudians. As 10,000 Bermudians had emigrated, prior to American independence, most of them White, this left Blacks with a slight majority. Portuguese immigration, which began with a shipload of Madeiran families in the 1840s has been offset by sustained immigration from the West Indies which began at the end of the 19th Century. Today, about 60% of Bermudians are described as being of African descent (although many may have greater European ancestry), and almost all Bermudians would be able to easily find ancestors and relatives of either African or European descent.) As Bermuda's primary industry became maritime, following the 1684 removal of the impediments placed by the Somers Isles Company, most Bermudian slaves worked in shipbuilding and seafaring, or, in the case of the most unfortunate, in raking salt in the Turks Islands.

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Later development

Due to the islands' isolation, for many years Bermuda remained an outpost of 17th-century British civilization, with an economy based on the use of the islands' Bermuda juniper (Juniperus bermudiana) trees for shipbuilding, and the salt trade. Since the loss of Britain's ports in the former thirteen colonies, Bermuda was also used as a stopover point between Canada and Britain's Caribbean possessions. Hamilton, a centrally located port founded in 1790, became the seat of government in 1815.

Tourism to the island to escape North American winters first developed in Victorian times. In the early 20th century, as modern transportation and communication systems developed, Bermuda's tourism industry began to develop and thrive, and Bermuda became a popular destination for wealthy US, Canadian, and British tourists. In addition, the tariff enacted by the United States against its trading partners in 1930 cut off Bermuda's once-thriving agricultural export trade—primarily fresh vegetables to the US—spurring the island to develop its tourist industry,

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Bermuda in World War II

During World War II, Bermuda became important as a military base because of its location in the Atlantic Ocean. The Royal Naval dockyard on Ireland Island played a role similar to that it had during the Great War, overseeing the formation of trans-Atlantic convoys composed of hundreds of ships. The military garrison, which included four local territorial units, maintained a guard against potential enemy atttacks on the Island itself.

In 1941, the United States signed a lend-lease agreement with the United Kingdom, giving the British surplus U.S. Navy destroyers in exchange for 99-year lease rights to establish naval and air bases in certain British territories. Although not included in this trade, Winston Churchill granted the US similar 99-year leases "freely and without consideration" in both Bermuda and Newfoundland. (The commonly held belief that the Bermudian bases were part of the trade is not correct.) The advantage for Britain of granting these base rights was that the neutral US effectively took responsibility for the security of these territories, freeing British forces to be deployed to the sharper ends of the War. The terms of the base rights granted for Bermuda also included that the airfield constructed by the US would be used jointly with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

The Bermuda bases consisted of 5.8 square kilometers (2.25 sq. mi.) of land, largely reclaimed from the sea. The USAAF airfield, Fort Bell (later, US Air Force Base Kindley Field, and, later still, US Naval Air Station Bermuda) was on St. David's Island, while the Naval Operations Base, a Naval Air Station for maritime patrol flying boats, (which became the Naval Air Station Annex after US Naval air operations relocated to ) was at the western end of the island in the Great Sound. These joined two other air stations already operating on Bermuda, the pre-war civil airport on Darrell's Island, which had been taken over by the RAF, and the Fleet Air Arm's Royal Naval Air Station, HMS Malabar, on Boaz Island.

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Recent events

Bermuda has prospered economically since World War II, developing into a highly successful offshore financial center. Tourism remains important to Bermuda's economy; it is second behind international business in terms of economic importance to the island.

Internal self-government was bolstered by the establishment of a formal constitution in 1968; debate about independence has ensued, although a 1995 independence referendum was soundly defeated. For many, Bermudian independence would mean little other than the obligation to staff foreign missions and embassies around the world, which can be a strong obligation for Bermuda's small population, and the loss of British passports (which could severly restrict travel, as few enough countries have even heard of little Bermuda, and could regard travellers with suspicion). The current government is promoting independence - by means of a general election (that is, the government of the day would have the power to decide whether to go independent or not) as opposed to a referendum (a direct vote by the people) - by establishing a committee to investigate (though the committee is notably staffed with party members, and without representation by the opposition party). This stance is being supported by the UN, who have sent delegations to the island claiming that Bermuda is being suppressed by the British.

Effective September 1, 1995, both US military bases were closed; British and Canadian bases on the island closed at about the same time. Unresolved issues concerning the 1995 withdrawal of US forces -- primarily related to environmental factors -- delayed the formal return of the base lands to the Government of Bermuda. The United States formally returned the base lands in 2002.

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References

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Further reading

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Basic history

  • Terry Tucker, Bermuda: Today and Yesterday 1503-1980s (Baxter's, Hamilton, 1983)
  • Wesley Frank Craven, An Introduction to the History of Bermuda (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1990)
  • Jean de Chantal Kennedy, Isle of Devils: Bermuda under the Somers Island Company (Collins, London, 1971)
  • Henry C. Wilkinson, Bermuda from Sail to Steam: The History of the Island from 1784 to 1901: Volumes I and II (Oxford University, London, 1973)
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Specific topics

  • Virginia Bernhard, Slaves and Slaveholders in Bermuda 1616-1782 (University of Missouri, Columbia, 1999)
  • Edward Cecil Harris, Bermuda Forts 1612-1957 (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Somerset, 1997)
  • Wilfred Brenton Kerr, Bermuda and the American Revolution: 1760 - 1783 (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1995)
  • Nan Godet, Edward Harris, Pillars of the Bridge: The Establishment of the United States bases on Bermuda during the Second World War (Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, 1991)
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References

  • John Smith, The General Historie of Virginia, New-England and the Summer Isles (reprinted World, Cleveland, 1966)
  • Vernon A. Ives (editor), The Rich Papers: Letters from Bermuda 1615-1646 (Bermuda National Trust, Hamilton, 1984)
  • J. H. Lefroy (editor), Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685: Volumes I and II (reprinted Bermuda Historial Society and National Trust, Hamilton, 1981)
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External links

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