Editing History of Bermuda (section)

==Initial discovery and early colony==
[[File:Map_of_Bermuda_1511_legatio_babylonica.jpg|right|thumb|270x270px|The [[Peter Martyr map]], first map of the island of Bermuda in 1511, made by [[Peter Martyr d'Anghiera]] in his book ''Legatio Babylonica'']]

The earliest depiction of the island is the inclusion of "La Bermuda" in the map of [[Peter Martyr d'Anghiera|Pedro Martyr]]'s 1511 ''[[Legatio Babylonica]]''. The earliest description of the island was [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]]' account of his 1515 visit with [[Juan de Bermúdez]] aboard ''La Garza''. [[Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas]] in 1527 affirms the island was named after the captain who discovered it. [[Henry Harrisse]] documents earlier voyages by Juan Bermúdez in 1498, 1502, and 1503, though [[John Henry Lefroy]] noted Bermúdez left no account of visiting the island. [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] lists a 1505 discovery by Juan Bermúdez, citing the investigation into the ''Archivo de Indias'' by Roberto Barreiro-Meiro. Compounding the confusion is the record of a Francisco Bermudez accompanying [[Christopher Columbus]] on his first voyage, a Diego Bermudez accompanying Columbus on his [[Fourth voyage of Columbus|fourth voyage]], and Juan's brother Diego Bermudez accompanying [[Ponce de León]] in a 1513 voyage. Thus, the only clearly documented account is of Juan Bermudez visiting the island in 1515, with the implication he had discovered the island on an earlier voyage. The island was definitely on the homeward course for returning Spaniards, as they followed the [[Gulf Stream]] north followed by the [[Westerlies]] just north of Bermuda. The Spanish avoided the uninhabited island's reefs and hurricanes, calling it Demoniorum Insulam. Yet, Spanish Rock bears the date of 1543, but little further details. A Frenchman called Russell was wrecked there in 1570, followed by the Englishman Henry May in 1593, but both managed to escape. Spanish Capt. Diego Ramirez was stranded on the rocks of Bermuda after a storm in 1603, when he discovered the "devils reported to be about Bermuda" were actually the outcry of the [[Bermuda petrel]]. He did note the former presence of men, including remnants of a wreck.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harrisse|first1=Henry|title=The Discovery of North America|date=1892|publisher=James Clegg, Aldine Press|location=Rochdale|pages=665, 676, 691, 695}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Lefroy|first1=John|title=Memorial of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands|date=1877|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co.|location=London|pages=1–3, 6}}</ref><ref name=Wilkinson>{{cite book|last1=Wilkinson|first1=Henry|title=The Adventurers of Bermuda|url=https://archive.org/details/adventurersofber0000henr/page/416/mode/2up|date=1958|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|pages=18–24, 29–34|edition=Second}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Morison|first=Samuel|title=The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, 1492–1616|url=https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00mori_2|url-access=registration|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1974|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00mori_2/page/499 499]–501, 238, 506, 528}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Barreiro-Meiro|first1=Roberto|title=Las Islas Bermudas Y Juan Bermudez|date=1970|publisher=Instituto Historico De Marina|location=Madrid|page=9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.communityandculture.bm/pages/portuguese-rock|title=Department of Community & Cultural Affairs – Portuguese Rock|work=communityandculture.bm|access-date=2 December 2017|archive-date=17 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017030428/http://www.communityandculture.bm/pages/portuguese-rock|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In late August 1585, an English ship ''Tiger'' commanded by [[Richard Grenville]] on his return from the [[Roanoke Colony]], fought and [[Action off Bermuda (1585)|captured a larger Spanish ship]] ''Santa Maria de San Vicente'' off the shores of Bermuda.<ref name="Hakluyt">{{cite book|last1=Hakluyt Society|title=Works, Volumes 104–105|year=1967|pages=169 & 786|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHngAAAAMAAJ|author1-link=Hakluyt Society}}</ref>

=== The 1609 shipwreck of ''Sea Venture'' ===

[[File:Sylvester Jordain - Discovery of the Barmudas.jpg|right|thumb|267x267px|[[Silvester Jourdain]]'s ''A Discovery of the Barmudas''.]]
[[File:Bermuda-The State House.jpg|thumb|The [[State House, Bermuda|State House]], the building that housed the [[House of Assembly of Bermuda|House of Assembly]] from 1620 until 1815.]]

On 2 June 1609, Sir [[George Somers]] had set sail aboard {{ship||Sea Venture}}, the new [[flagship]] of the [[London Company|Virginia Company]], leading a fleet of nine vessels, loaded with several hundred settlers, food and supplies for the new English colony of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], in [[Virginia]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Sir George Somers (1554–1610)|author=Mark Nicholls|publisher=Encyclopedia Virginia|url=http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Somers_Sir_George_1554-1610|date=3 May 2011}}</ref> Somers had previous experience sailing with both Sir [[Francis Drake]] and Sir [[Walter Raleigh]]. The fleet was caught in a storm on 24 July, and ''Sea Venture'' was separated and began to founder. When the reefs to the East of Bermuda were spotted, the ship was deliberately driven on them to prevent its sinking, thereby saving all aboard, 150 sailors and settlers, and one dog. [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[The Tempest (play)|The Tempest]]'', in which the character [[Ariel (The Tempest)|Ariel]] refers to the "still-vex'd Bermoothes" (I.ii.229), is thought to have been inspired by [[William Strachey]]'s and [[Silvester Jourdain]]'s accounts of the shipwreck.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woodward|first=Hobson|title=A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest|url=https://archive.org/details/bravevesseltruet0000wood|url-access=registration|publisher=Viking|year=2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bravevesseltruet0000wood/page/191 191–199]}}</ref>

The survivors spent nine months on Bermuda. With ship's supplies mostly gone except for some [[Pig|domestic pigs]], the castaways subsisted on rainwater, palm tree pulp, [[Juniperus bermudiana|cedar berries]], fish, birds (such as [[Bermuda petrel]]), and by hunting for the plentiful [[Feral pig|wild hog]]s from past Bermuda shipwrecks.<ref name="calebj">{{isbn|9781462822393|1462822398}}</ref>

The [[master's mate]] and 7 other sailors were lost at sea when ''Sea Venture''{{'}}s longboat was [[pinnace (ship's boat)|rigged with a mast]] and sent in search of Jamestown to rescue the lot.<ref name="calebj" /> The sailors were not seen again. The remainder of castaways built two new ships: ''Deliverance'' at {{convert|40|ft|m}} and 80&nbsp;tons, and ''Patience'' at {{convert|29|ft|m}} and 30&nbsp;tons, mostly from [[Bermuda cedar]]. When the two new vessels were completed, most of the survivors set sail on May 10th, completing their journey to Jamestown on June 8, 1610. Christopher Carter and Edward Waters remained, the latter being accused of murder, while four others had died, including [[John Rolfe]]'s infant daughter. Later in Jamestown, Rolfe's wife died (and he would eventually marry a native, [[Pocahontas]]). The castaways arrived only to find the colony's population almost annihilated by the [[Starving Time (Jamestown)|Starving Time]], which had left only sixty survivors. According to [[William Monson (Royal Navy officer)|Sir William Monson]], the "[[swine]] brought from Bermuda" saved Virginia until the timely arrival of [[Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr|Lord De La Warre]].<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|43–56}}

Somers returned to Bermuda on ''Patience'' in June and found Carter and Waters alive. Somers soon died, however, and while his heart was buried at Saint Georges, his nephew, Captain Matthew Somers, returned his embalmed body to England for burial at [[Dorset]].<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|51–52}}

=== 1612 official settlement ===
[[File: State House of Bermuda (1614).png|thumb|[[State House, Bermuda]] by John Smith]]
Two years later, in 1612, the Virginia Company's Royal Charter was officially extended to include the island, and a party of sixty settlers was sent on ''Plough'', under the command of Sir [[Richard Moore (Governor)|Richard Moore]], the island's first governor. Joining the two men left behind by ''Deliverance'' and ''Patience'' (who had taken up residence on Smith's Island) and Edward Chard, they founded and commenced construction of the town of [[St. George, Bermuda|St. George]], designated as Bermuda's first capital, the oldest continually inhabited English town in the [[New World]].<ref name=Smithsonian/>

Bermuda struggled throughout the following seven decades to develop a viable economy. The Virginia Company, finding the colony unprofitable, briefly handed its administration to the Crown in 1614. The following year, 1615, King [[James I of England|James I]] granted a charter to a new company, the [[Somers Isles Company]], formed by the same shareholders, which ran the colony until it was dissolved in 1684. (The Virginia Company itself was dissolved after its charter was revoked in 1624). Representative government was introduced to Bermuda in 1620, when its [[House of Assembly of Bermuda|House of Assembly]] held its first session, and it became a self-governing colony.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|76–77,138–139,178–179}}

=== Somers Isles Company (1615–1684) ===
{{main article|Somers Isles Company}}
[[File:John_Smith_1624_map_of_Bermuda_with_Forts_01.jpg|right|thumb|Captain John Smith's 1624 map of the Somers Isles (Bermuda), showing [[St. George's, Bermuda|St. George's Town]] and related fortifications, including the [[Castle Islands Fortifications, Bermuda|Castle Islands Fortifications]].]]
[[File:The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles by Captain John Smith.jpg|right|thumb|[[John Smith of Jamestown|John Smith]] wrote one of the first [[The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles|Histories of Bermuda]] (in concert with [[Virginia]] and [[New England]]).]]

In 1615, the colony was passed to a new company, the [[Somers Isles Company]], named after the admiral who saved his passengers from the ''Sea Venture''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bearboat.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/tvlbt-bda-bd-11feb09_sailingtravel1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://bearboat.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/tvlbt-bda-bd-11feb09_sailingtravel1.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Bermuda's 400th Birthday|publisher=Bearboa.files.wordpress.com|date=11 February 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda_0002ae.htm|title=Somers Garden|publisher=Bermuda, Bermuda-attractions.com}}</ref> Many Virginian place names refer to the archipelago, such as Bermuda City, and [[Bermuda Hundred, Virginia|Bermuda Hundred]]. The first British colonial currency was struck in Bermuda.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|79}}<ref name=Jarvis>{{cite book|last1=Jarvis|first1=Michael|title=In the Eye of All Trade|date=2010|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=9780807872840|page=16}}</ref>

Bermuda was divided by [[Richard Norwood]] into eight equally sized administrative areas west of St. George's called "tribes" (today known as "parishes"). These "tribes" were areas of land partitioned off to the principal "Adventurers" (investors) of the company, from east to west – Bedford, Smiths, Cavendish, Paget, Mansell, Warwick, and Sandys.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|69}}

The company sent 600 settlers in nine ships between 1612 and 1615. Governor Moore dug a well in St. George, then built fortifications including Paget and Smith's batteries at the entrance of the harbour, King's and Charles' at the entrance to Castle Harbour, Pembroke Fort on Cooper's Island, and Gates' Fort, St. Katherine's Fort and Warwick Castle to defend St. George. In 1614, the first English-grown tobacco was exported, the same tobacco variety John Rolfe started to grow in Virginia. The exporting of [[ambergris]] was especially lucrative. 
====Slavery in Bermuda====
In August 1616, plantain, sugarcane, fig, and pineapple plants were imported along with the first Indian and Negro, the first English colony to use enslaved Africans. By 1619, Bermuda had between fifty and a hundred black enslaved persons.  These were a mixture of native [[indigenous people of Africa|Africans]] who were trafficked to the [[Americas]] via the [[Atlantic slave trade|African slave trade]] and [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] who were enslaved from the [[Thirteen Colonies]].<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica - Bermuda">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Bermuda |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Bermuda |access-date=23 August 2019 |edition=online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528082525/https://www.britannica.com/place/Bermuda |archive-date=28 May 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> The first African slaves arrived in Bermuda in 1617, not from Africa but from the West Indies. Bermuda Governor Tucker sent a ship to the West Indies to find black slaves to dive for pearls in Bermuda. More black slaves were later trafficked to the island in large numbers, originating from America and the Caribbean.<ref name="slavery">{{cite web |title=History and Culture |url=https://bdalondonoffice.co.uk/discover-bermuda/history-and-culture/#:~:text=The%20first%20slaves%20were%20brought,Colony%20to%20import%20Black%20people. |website=bdalondonoffice.co.uk |publisher=Government of Bermuda |access-date=4 October 2024}}</ref>

As the black population grew, so did the fear of insurrection among the white settlers. In 1623, a law to restrain the insolence of the Negroes was passed in Bermuda. It forbade blacks to buy or sell, barter or exchange tobacco or any other produce for goods without the consent of their master. Unrest amongst the slaves predictably erupted several times over the next decades.  Major rebellions occurred in 1656, 1661, 1673, 1682, 1730 and 1761. In 1761 a conspiracy was discovered that involved the majority of the blacks on the island. Six slaves were executed and all black celebrations were prohibited.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slavery in Bermuda |url=https://www.sankofabermuda.com/time-line |website=sankabermuda |publisher=Sankofa Bermuda |access-date=4 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Slavery in Bermuda |url=https://historiclandlosscoi.bm/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AL39-Bhattacharya-2017.pdf |website=www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2 |publisher=Bermuda Attractions |access-date=4 October 2024}}</ref>

====Agricultural diversification====
Though Bermuda exported more tobacco than Virginia until 1625, Bermuda diversified its agriculture to include corn, potatoes, fruit trees, poultry and livestock. This was especially true when prices collapsed in 1630, and tobacco took its toll on soil fertility, though the company continued to use tobacco as a medium of exchange and resist a diversified economy. Tobacco exports peaked in 1684, the last year of company control.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|60–61}}<ref name=Jarvis/>{{rp|17–18,26–29,38–39,84}}

English immigration essentially ceased by the 1620s when all available land was occupied. Because of its limited land area, Bermuda relied on emigration, especially to the developing English colonies in the Bahamas, the Carolinas, New York and the Caribbean. Between 1620 and 1640, 1200 emigrated, while the population reached 4000 in 1648. Between 1679 and 1690, 2000 emigrated, while the population reached 6248 in 1691.<ref name=Jarvis/>{{rp|29,45–47,86,101,324,372}}

The archipelago's limited land area and resources led to the creation of what may be the earliest conservation laws of the [[New World]]. In 1616 and 1620, acts were passed banning the hunting of certain birds and young tortoises.<ref>Meggs, Martin. "Developing a Small Island GIS: the Bermuda Experience". Bermuda Department of Planning.</ref>

=== English Civil War in the Bermuda ===
In 1649, the [[English Civil War]] was in its seventh year and King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] was beheaded in Whitehall, London. In Bermuda, related tensions resulted in civil war on the island; it was ended by militias. The majority of colonists developed a strong sense of devotion to the Crown. Dissenters, such as [[Puritan]]s and [[Independent (religion)|Independents]], were pushed to settle [[the Bahamas]] under [[William Sayle]].<ref>Forbes, Keith: [http://www.bermuda-online.org/history.htm "About Bermuda Online"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715004332/http://bermuda-online.org/history.htm |date=15 July 2017 }}, ''The Royal Gazette'' Ltd. Retrieved 22 September 2007.</ref> However, the [[Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset|Earl of Dorset]], a royalist, was replaced by the [[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick|Earl of Warwick]], a Puritan, as governor of the Somers Island Company. Sayle and most of the emigrants were allowed to return to Bermuda in 1656.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|251–252,270–272,279–280,398}}

Bermuda and Virginia, as well as Antigua and Barbados were, however, the subjects of the September 1650 Prohibitory Act of the [[Rump Parliament]], and the Atlantic fleet was instructed to bring these opposing colonies into obedience. At the same time, [[John Danvers]], governor of the Somers Island Company, and the other adventurers were forced to take the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth. Then in the 1651 [[Navigation Acts|Navigation Act]], trade was restricted to English ships.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|283–285}}

An Act prohibiting Trade with Barbados, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego, specified that:
<blockquote >''due punishment [be] inflicted upon the said Delinquents, do Declare all and every the said persons in Barbada's, Antego, Bermuda's and Virginia, that have contrived, abetted, aided or assisted those horrid Rebellions, or have since willingly joyned with them, to be notorious Robbers and Traitors, and such as by the Law of Nations are not to be permitted any maner of Commerce or Traffique with any people whatsoever; and do forbid to all maner of persons, Foreiners, and others, all maner of Commerce, Traffique and Correspondency whatsoever, to be used or held with the said Rebels in the Barbada's, Bermuda's, Virginia and Antego, or either of them.''
All Ships that Trade with the Rebels may be surprised. Goods and tackle of such ships not to be embezeled, till judgement in the Admiralty.; Two or three of the Officers of every ship to be examined upon oath.
</blockquote>

In 1658, the Company appointed Sayle Governor of Bermuda, and the islanders took the oath of allegiance to the [[Lord Protector]].<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|295–296}}

===Indentured servitude and slavery in 17th century Bermuda===
Among the emigrants after Norwood finished his survey were [[Bridewell]], [[Newgate Prison|Newgate]] and [[gaol]] transportees, [[indentured servitude in the Americas|indentured servants]], and "maids for wives". Yet most were emigrant families bound for four to five years as [[tenant farmer]]s, paying half the tobacco they grew as rent to their landlord. This tenantry, indentured servitude of five years in return for passage, and family labor, reduced the need for slaves in growing tobacco and provisions. Thus, though Bermuda was a slave society, slavery was not essential to the agriculture economy, and Bermuda did not actively import slaves, instead relying on those black and Indian adults captured by privateers, then sold as slaves in Bermuda. This was a break in the usual pattern, in which slaves were purchased in Africa from local chiefs who had enslaved them in wars, or for committing crimes. Black indentures were for 99 years or life. The few Scot exiles received after the Civil War were indentured for seven years, while the few Irish exiles from that same period caused the slave trouble of 1664, and were hence forbidden entry onwards. The indentured system importance ceased by 1668. This non-dependence on slavery changed however, when the island moved to a maritime economy in the 1690s, and incorporated slave sailors, carpenters, [[cooper (profession)|coopers]], blacksmiths, masons, and [[shipwright]]s. Hiring out of these skilled slaves became commonplace for their owners, with slaves retaining only a third of the wages they earned. By 1710, slaves were doing much vital work and constituted 3,517 of the total population of 8,366 in 1721.<ref name=Jarvis/>{{rp|23,31,101,105–109}}<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|96–97,357–358}}

Slaves could be obtained by sale or purchase, auction debt, legal seizure or by gift. The price of a slave depended on demand. Throughout the 17th century children sold for £8, women from £10 to £20, and able bodied men for around £26.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Brooke|editor-first=W. Michael|title=Blacks in Bermuda: A Historical Perspective|publisher=Bermuda College|year=1980|location=Bermuda|page=4}}</ref>

Slave revolts were a threat since 1623, while a revolt in 1656 resulted in executions and banishments. A 1664 revolt was stopped early, as was one in 1673, and again in 1681, which resulted in five executions. These revolts resulted in the orders of 1674 mandating that slaves straying from their premises, wandering at night without permission, or the gathering of two or three slaves from different tribes, be whipped. Any blacks deemed free were required to become slaves again or leave the island. The importation of additional slaves was also banned. A Jamaican slave named Tom was deported in 1682, when his rebellious plot was divulged by two Bermudian slaves.<ref name=Wilkinson/>{{rp|355–356}}<ref name=Jarvis/>{{rp|57,67}}