Editing Demographics of Bermuda (section)

== Terminology ==
The term ''coloured'' was generally used in preference to ''black'', with anyone who was of wholly European ancestry (at least Northern European) defined as white, leaving everyone else as coloured. This included the [[multi-racial]] descendants of the previous minority demographic groups (Black, Irish and Native American) that had quickly blended together, along with some part of the [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant]] majority, as well as the occasional [[Jews|Jew]], [[Persian people|Persian]], [[East Asia]]n or other non-White and non-Black Bermudian.<ref>{{cite book |author=indexed by A. C. Hollis Hallett. Updated by: C. F. E. Hollis Hallett |date=2005 |title=19th Century Church Registers of Bermuda |url=https://nmb.bm/member-portal/product/19th-century-church-registers-of-bermuda-pdf |location=Bermuda |publisher=Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |at=Page x, Guide to the Use of this Index: Coloured and White |isbn=0-921992-23-8 |quote=Today, the term ‘Coloured’ as a racial distinction referring to the Black population is no longer used, but in the period covered by this index it was the usual term and has been retained......We suspect that the clergy generally made a decision whether they would describe a person as ‘White’, and the ‘Coloured’ designation was used for everyone not described as ‘White’. Users of this index should not confine themselves to ‘White’ or ‘Coloured’ registers (where they are separated) but should look at both. They should also not take too seriously the indication ‘Col.’ or ‘Wh.’ that appears often under Comments; these were occasionally written into the margins of the register by the clergyman or parish clerk.}}</ref>

[[File:Jacob Minors of St. David's Island, St. George's Parish, Bermuda 1791-1875.jpg|thumb|Jacob Minors (1791–1875) of St. David's Island, St. George's Parish, Bermuda]] It was largely by this method (mixed-race Bermudians being added to the number of Blacks, rather than added to the number of Whites or being defined as a separate demographic group) that Coloured (subsequently redefined after the Second World War as Black) Bermudians came to outnumber White Bermudians by the end of the 18th century, despite starting off at a numerical disadvantage, and despite low Black immigration prior to the latter 19th century. The scale of White relative to Black emigration in the 17th and 18th centuries also doubtlessly played a factor. Roughly 10,000 Bermudians are estimated to have emigrated, primarily to the North American continental colonies (particularly: Virginia; Carolina Colony, which later became South Carolina and North Carolina; Georgia; and Florida) before United States independence in 1783. This included white Bermudians from every level of society, but particularly poorer, landless ones as Bermuda's high birth rate produced population growth that could not be sustained without emigration. Many free black Bermudians also emigrated, but this was less likely to be voluntary given that they would be leaving families behind and generally faced poorer prospects outside of Bermuda (although white fear of the growing number of blacks did result in free blacks being coerced to emigrate, though how many did is not recorded).