Editing Barbuda (section)

== History ==

=== Archaic period ===
The first settlements on Barbuda date to 2,900–3,000 BC with the arrival of [[Archaic period (North America)|Archaic Age]] people.<ref name=":25">{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvx1hst1 |title=Encyclopedia of Caribbean Archaeology |date=2014 |publisher=University Press of Florida |isbn=978-0-8130-4420-0 |pages=45–56 |doi=10.2307/j.ctvx1hst1 |jstor=j.ctvx1hst1 |access-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529034733/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvx1hst1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":26">{{Cite web |date=January 3, 2023 |title=New Year. Old Myths? |url=https://cpoise.gov.ag/tag/caribs-arawaks/ |website=Antigua and Barbuda Cultural Information System |publisher=Antigua and Barbuda Department of Culture |access-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-date=May 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529050532/https://cpoise.gov.ag/tag/caribs-arawaks/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":27">{{Cite web |title=Prehistory of Antigua & Barbuda |url=http://antiguahistory.net/Museum/prehistoric.htm |access-date=October 9, 2023 |website=antiguahistory.net |archive-date=February 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208141726/http://antiguahistory.net/Museum/prehistoric.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Some scholars have referred to these first settlers as [[Ciboney]] or Siboney.<ref name=":25" /><ref name="Amerindians" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/the-amerindian-presence/ |title=the amerindian presence |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=August 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801231147/https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/the-amerindian-presence/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Other scholars say these people were not the Ciboney, who inhabited [[Cuba]], [[Jamaica]], and [[Haiti]], and thus refer to them as Archaic Age people, "Archaic People", or first settlers.<ref name=":25" /><ref name=":26" /><ref name=":27" /> These first settlers arrived in Barbuda by canoe and were hunter-gatherers. Sources disagree on whether they came from South America or the Greater Antilles,<ref>Vincent Rousseau, Allison Bain, Jacques Chabot, S. Grouard, Sophia Perdikaris. [https://hal.science/hal-03047122/document The Role of Barbuda in the Settlement of the Leeward Islands: Lithic and Shell Analysis Along the Strombus Line Shell Midden] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906080744/https://hal.science/hal-03047122/document |date=September 6, 2024 }}. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology, 2017, 17, pp.1-25.</ref><ref>Hofman, C. L., Bright, A. J. and M. L. P. Hoogland. 2006. Archipelagic Resource Procurement and Mobility in the Northern Lesser Antilles: The View from a 3000-year-old Tropical Forest Campsite on Saba. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 1:145-164.</ref><ref>Hofman, C. L., Mol, A., Rodríguez Ramos, R. and S. Knippenberg. 2011. Networks Set in Stone: Archaic-Ceramic interaction in the early prehistoric northeastern Caribbean. Actes du 24e Congrès de l'Association Internationale d'Archéologie de la Caraïbe, pp. 157- 165. Martinique</ref> or from the [[Yucatán Peninsula|Yucatán]] region of Mexico.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ichen |date=November 10, 2016 |title=What About Barbuda? |url=https://www.auamed.org/blog/what-about-barbuda/ |access-date=August 1, 2023 |website=American University of Antigua |language=en-US |archive-date=August 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801235152/https://www.auamed.org/blog/what-about-barbuda/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Artifacts from the Archaic period include cutting blades made from [[Gastropoda|gastropods]], along with [[Hoe (tool)|hoes]], [[Pick (tool)|picks]], and water containers constructed from [[conch]], [[Ranellidae|trumpet]], and [[whelk]] shells.<ref name="Amerindians" /><ref name=":1" /> Archeological sites have been discovered on the southwest coast of Barbuda, from Coco Point up to River, and the southeast corner of the Lagoon.<ref name=":1" /> Additional habitat locations have been found in Codrington, River, Sucking Hole, Factory, and Goat Pen along the coast.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbuda – Antigua Sugar Mills |url=https://sugarmills.blogs.bucknell.edu/barbuda/ |access-date=August 1, 2023 |language=en-US |archive-date=August 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230801231139/https://sugarmills.blogs.bucknell.edu/barbuda/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kras |first=Sara Louise |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnItHSAgevMC&dq=amerindians+on+barbuda&pg=PA23 |title=Antigua and Barbuda |date=2008 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=978-0-7614-2570-0 |language=en |access-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=September 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906080748/https://books.google.com/books?id=TnItHSAgevMC&dq=amerindians+on+barbuda&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q=amerindians%20on%20barbuda&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> At Boiling Rocks, close to [[Spanish Point (Barbuda)|Spanish Point]], more recent human remains that were carbon-dated as being 3,100 years old were discovered.<ref name=":1" />

=== Ceramic period ===
The successors of the Ciboney were the [[Arawak]]s, who were present on Barbuda and Antigua from at least 1,000 BC.<ref>{{Citation |last=Turner |first=Barry |title=Antigua and Barbuda |date=2013 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-59643-0_166 |work=The Statesman's Yearbook: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World 2014 |pages=109–111 |editor-last=Turner |editor-first=Barry |access-date=October 9, 2023 |series=The Statesman's Yearbook |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-59643-0_166 |isbn=978-1-349-59643-0 |archive-date=September 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906080747/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-59643-0_166 |url-status=live }}</ref> Their population on Barbuda peaked between 1,500 and 800 years ago.<ref name=":1" /> They likely arrived from present-day [[Venezuela]] and [[Guyana]],<ref name=":1" /> and used Barbuda for brief stays or seasonal supplies. They lived mostly in the Barbuda Highlands and Spanish Point in the easternmost parts of the island,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nicholson |first=Desmond V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5JsAAAAMAAJ&q=barbuda+arawaks |title=The Story of the Arawaks in Antigua and Barbuda |date=1983 |publisher=Antigua Archaeological Society |isbn=978-0-900001-17-8 |language=en |access-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201348/https://books.google.com/books?id=s5JsAAAAMAAJ&q=barbuda%20arawaks |url-status=live }}</ref> but six or more village additional sites are known including Sufferers, Indian Town Trail, Highland Road, Guava, and Welches.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bain |first1=Allison |last2=Faucher |first2=Anne-Marie |last3=Kennedy |first3=Lisa M. |last4=LeBlanc |first4=Allison R. |last5=Burn |first5=Michael J. |last6=Boger |first6=Rebecca |last7=Perdikaris |first7=Sophia |date=January 2, 2018 |title=Landscape Transformation During Ceramic Age and Colonial Occupations of Barbuda, West Indies |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=global |journal=Environmental Archaeology |language=en |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=36–46 |doi=10.1080/14614103.2017.1345115 |bibcode=2018EnvAr..23...36B |issn= |access-date=October 9, 2023 |archive-date=September 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926130127/https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=global |url-status=live }}</ref> The Arawaks grew sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, cotton, tobacco, as well as a variety of other fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants.<ref name=":1" /> They also made intricate pottery known as Saladoid.<ref name=":1" /> This unique pottery, characterize its white-on-red designs, were decorated with zoned-incised [[Hatching|crosshatching]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Citation |title=The Saladoid Phenomenon |date=2007 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/archaeology-of-the-caribbean/saladoid-phenomenon/E9CC356188B1D67CBA3D1370F7CEC722 |work=The Archaeology of the Caribbean |pages=59–94 |editor-last=Wilson |editor-first=Samuel M. |access-date=October 9, 2023 |series=Cambridge World Archaeology |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511816505.003 |isbn=978-0-521-62333-9 |archive-date=June 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614095343/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/archaeology-of-the-caribbean/saladoid-phenomenon/E9CC356188B1D67CBA3D1370F7CEC722 |url-status=live }}</ref> The pottery has been found at Indian Town Trail, close to Two Foot Bay, as well as Sufferers in the Spanish Point region.<ref name=":1" />

The [[Kalinago]] people spent time in Barbuda as well. By the time the Europeans arrived, they had probably displaced the Arawaks.<ref name=":1" /> The Kalinago preferred the mountainous and well-watered islands of [[Saint Kitts]] and [[Dominica]], and visited Barbuda only sometimes to harvest seafood and whatever crops and land animals they could find.<ref name=":1" /> In the early 1700s, the British [[Royal Navy]] was forced to defend the people of Codrington against Kalinago raids because the Kalinago served as a deterrent to European colonization.<ref name=":1" /> The Kalinago called Barbuda "Wa'omoni",<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Antigua and Barbuda |url=https://azmartinique.com/en/all-to-know/caribbean/antigua-and-barbuda |access-date=August 1, 2023 |website=AZ Martinique |language=en |archive-date=September 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240906080754/https://azmartinique.com/en/all-to-know/caribbean/antigua-and-barbuda |url-status=live }}</ref> which is thought to mean "Island of Herons"; however, it may have also referred to frigate or weather birds, also common on Barbuda.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Antigua & Barbuda: Barbuda History |url=https://antiguanice.com/client.php?id=697 |access-date=August 1, 2023 |website=antiguanice.com |archive-date=July 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230730102036/https://antiguanice.com/client.php?id=697 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Colonial period ===
[[Christopher Columbus]] traveled through the eastern Caribbean south of Antigua in 1493, but it's unclear if he ever sighted Barbuda.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |url=https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/history/ |title=historical notes |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=July 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722171941/https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/history/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Under a Letters Patent granted to the [[Earl of Carlisle]] in 1625, Captain Smith and John Littleton attempted to colonize Barbuda from St. Kitts.<ref name=":2" /> Barbuda was referred to as "Barbado" in these Letters Patent.<ref name=":2" /> Due to strong Kalinago resistance, this attempt at colonization was unsuccessful; however, subsequent early settlers called Barbuda "Dulcina",<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=June 11, 2023 |title=Antigua and Barbuda {{!}} History, Geography, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Antigua-and-Barbuda |access-date=August 1, 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403214208/https://www.britannica.com/place/Antigua-and-Barbuda |url-status=live }}</ref> and by 1666 the village of Codrington had become the primary residential area.<ref name=":2" /> In 1678, Barbuda was colonized.<ref name=":3" /> The island was given to the Codrington family by the crown in 1685.<ref name=":3" /> The colonisers intended Barbuda to be a slave forced reproduction colony but this never went through.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lowenthal |first1=David |last2=Clarke |first2=Colin G. |title=Slave-Breeding in Barbuda: The Past of a Negro Myth |date=1977 |url=https://www.academia.edu/48964852 |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=292 |issue=1 Comparative P |pages=510–535 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1977.tb47770.x |bibcode=1977NYASA.292..510L |s2cid=84773420 |issn=0077-8923 |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201350/https://www.academia.edu/48964852 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lowenthal |first1=David |last2=Clarke |first2=Colin G. |title=Slave-Breeding in Barbuda: The Past of a Negro Myth |date=June 1977 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1977.tb47770.x |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=292 |issue=1 Comparative P |pages=510–535 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1977.tb47770.x |bibcode=1977NYASA.292..510L |s2cid=84773420 |issn=0077-8923 }}</ref>

The Codrington family held Barbuda from 1685 to 1870, and were absentee owners of the island.<ref name="Tweedy">{{Cite thesis |title=A history of Barbuda under the Codringtons 1738–1833 |url=https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/5356/#:~:text=Barbuda,%20a%20flat%20island%20twenty,by%201738%20concentrated%20in%20Antigua. |publisher=University of Birmingham |date=1981 |degree=m_mlitt |language=English |first=Margaret T. |last=Tweedy |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=August 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802000714/https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/5356/#:~:text=Barbuda,%20a%20flat%20island%20twenty,by%201738%20concentrated%20in%20Antigua. |url-status=live }}</ref> The Codringtons were represented on Barbuda by [[List of Attorneys and Resident Managers of Barbuda|their resident managers]].<ref name="Tweedy"/> The slave population in Barbuda grew from 172 in 1746 to 503 in 1831.<ref name="Tweedy"/> Due to the increase in the slave population, to increase profits, the Codringtons attempted to transfer some of slaves to Antigua, which was ultimately unsuccessful.<ref name="Tweedy"/>

Beach's Rebellion, the first slave rebellion on Barbuda, occurred in 1741 as a result of claims of cruel and inhuman treatment of the island's slaves by the island manager Thomas Beach.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=MBE |first=Agnes C. Meeker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KKyIDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Beach%27s+Rebellion%22&pg=PT369 |title=Plantations of Antigua: the Sweet Success of Sugar (Volume 2): A Biography of the Historic Plantations Which Made Antigua a Major Source of the World's Early Sugar Supply |date=October 19, 2018 |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1-5462-3973-4 |language=en |access-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201351/https://books.google.com/books?id=KKyIDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Beach%27s%20Rebellion%22&pg=PT369 |url-status=live }}</ref> This resulted in the killing of several animals, property of the Codringtons damaged, and the escape of several slaves.<ref name=":6" /> In 1774,<ref name=":6" /> another island manager, named McNish, was killed with seized arms<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://antiguaobserver.com/questions-from-barbudans-to-antiguans-and-vice-versa/ |title=Questions from Barbudans to Antiguans and vice versa &#124; Antigua Observer Newspaper |date=August 6, 2020 |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=August 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802002520/https://antiguaobserver.com/questions-from-barbudans-to-antiguans-and-vice-versa/ |url-status=live }}</ref> after the mutilation of slaves as a punishment for stealing sheep and cattle.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last1=Museum |first1=Carnegie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7O8dAQAAMAAJ&q=to+put+down+the+rebellion |title=Annals of the Carnegie Museum |last2=History |first2=Carnegie Museum of Natural |date=1997 |publisher=authority of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute |language=en |access-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=September 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928201350/https://books.google.com/books?id=7O8dAQAAMAAJ&q=to+put+down+the+rebellion |url-status=live }}</ref> The slaves successfully occupied the Codringtons' castle and its arms and ammunition.<ref name=":7" /> To put down the rebellion, soldiers were brought from Antigua, and two slaves (known as "afro heroes")<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=castle |url=https://sites.rootsweb.com/~atgwgw/sketches/castle.html |access-date=August 2, 2023 |website=sites.rootsweb.com |archive-date=August 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802002519/https://sites.rootsweb.com/~atgwgw/sketches/castle.html |url-status=live }}</ref> were burned alive in front of the castle at the main gate.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":8" />

In 1834, slavery was abolished in Barbuda per the [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]]. Because the entire island had been covered by a single land grant, the Barbudans kept on autonomous cultivation on communal property after slavery's abolition.

In 1860, Barbuda was annexed as a dependency of Antigua, after the passing of the [[Barbuda (Extension of Laws of Antigua) Act]] (c. 43 (Antigua)) in 1859. This made Barbuda subject to the laws of the Antigua colony.

=== Modern history ===
Barbuda was first granted a status of [[autonomy]] in 1976,<ref>{{Cite journal |date=January 1991 |title=Statehood, the Commons, and the Landscape in Barbuda |journal=Caribbean Geography |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=43–52 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Corbett |first=Jack |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/46081/chapter-abstract/404585256?redirectedFrom=fulltext |title=Statehood à la Carte in the Caribbean and the Pacific: Secession, Regionalism, and Postcolonial Politics |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2023 |chapter=Territory |pages=112–146 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780192864246.003.0004 |isbn=978-0-19-286424-6 |access-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813033545/https://academic.oup.com/book/46081/chapter-abstract/404585256?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live }}</ref> during the concluding era of the [[Associated State of Antigua]]. This autonomous status came after the passing of the [[Barbuda Local Government Act]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://laws.gov.ag/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cap-44.pdf |title=Laws of Antigua and Barbuda |publisher=The Ministry of Legal Affairs |chapter=The Barbuda Local Government Act |access-date=December 4, 2021 |archive-date=January 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119230904/http://laws.gov.ag/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cap-44.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This established the [[Barbuda Council]], which allowed Barbuda to regulate its own public works, finance, and agriculture, among other activities. The Barbuda Local Government Act was later enshrined in the constitution under the Antigua and Barbuda Constitution of 1981.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbuda Local Government Act (Hansard) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/acts/barbuda-local-government-act |access-date=August 13, 2023 |website=api.parliament.uk |archive-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813033545/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/acts/barbuda-local-government-act |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Antigua (Termination of Association) (Hansard, 8 July 1981) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1981/jul/08/antigua-termination-of-association#S6CV0008P0_19810708_HOC_447 |access-date=August 13, 2023 |website=api.parliament.uk |archive-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813033545/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1981/jul/08/antigua-termination-of-association#S6CV0008P0_19810708_HOC_447 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Barbuda Council elects a chairperson and a vice chairperson, with Devon Warner serving as chairperson since 2024.

In 1981, the island gained its independence from the United Kingdom as an integral part of [[Antigua and Barbuda]]. It remains part of the [[Commonwealth of Nations]], and remains a [[constitutional monarchy]], with [[King Charles III|Charles III]] as [[Monarchy in Antigua and Barbuda|King of Antigua and Barbuda]].

The right for Barbudans to use the island's lands in common was enshrined in the law in 2007 by the [[Baldwin Spencer (politician)|Baldwin Spencer]]-led [[United Progressive Party]] government.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |url=https://barbudaful.net/barbuda-land-act-2007/ |title=Barbuda Land Act 2007 |date=April 4, 2007 |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=August 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802004255/https://barbudaful.net/barbuda-land-act-2007/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/the-land-issue/ |title=barbuda land rights |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=April 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402174717/https://barbudaful.net/barbudaful-history/the-land-issue/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On April 5, 2007, the Barbuda Council released the final copies of the [[Barbuda Land Acts|Barbuda Land Act]], which created a land registry, a Barbuda Planning Commission, and a National Park Authority, all subordinate to the council.<ref name=":9" /> In 2017, immediately after [[Hurricane Irma]] which devastated Barbuda, this was considered the starting point of the Barbuda land grab which has resulted in various policies and laws made by the [[Gaston Browne]]-led administration relating to Barbudan land.<ref>{{Cite web |title=After Irma, Disaster Capitalism Threatens Cultural Heritage in Barbuda |url=https://nacla.org/news/2019/02/12/after-irma-disaster-capitalism-threatens-cultural-heritage-barbuda |access-date=August 2, 2023 |website=NACLA |language=en |archive-date=December 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225153657/https://nacla.org/news/2019/02/12/after-irma-disaster-capitalism-threatens-cultural-heritage-barbuda |url-status=live }}</ref> On August 1, 2023, it was announced by the [[Barbuda People's Movement]], which controls the Barbuda seat in parliament, and controls the council, that a bill proposed and passed days earlier that would end Barbudan communal land ownership, would vow to do everything to reverse the decision, with the council being in support of the stance of the Barbuda People's Movement.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://antiguaobserver.com/barbuda-mp-vows-to-reverse-bill-removing-communal-land-ownership/ |title=Barbuda MP vows to reverse bill removing communal land ownership &#124; Antigua Observer Newspaper |date=August 2023 |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230803023451/https://antiguaobserver.com/barbuda-mp-vows-to-reverse-bill-removing-communal-land-ownership/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Christianity is the largest religion on the island, and the main ethnic group being those of African descent. English and [[Barbudan Creole]] are the most commonly spoken languages on the island. Based on voter registration records, the population of Barbuda has grown significantly since Irma.