Editing Demographics of Bermuda (section)

== Testimonies of enslaved Black Bermudians ==
Enslaved Black Bermudians, by comparison, had little choice but to go where they were taken, and more affluent white Bermudians who settled on the continent or elsewhere often brought slaves with them, as was the case with [[Denmark Vesey]] (born in the West Indies, who was enslaved for years to a Bermudian who then resettled with him in South Carolina). Given the choice, enslaved black Bermudians consequently generally chose not to emigrate, even when it would have meant freedom. Abandoning their families in Bermuda was too great a step. Enslaved adult black Bermudian men, like white Bermudian men, were generally sailors and or shipwrights, and hired themselves out as did free men, or were hired out, with their earnings usually divided between themselves and the slave masters, who used the enslaved man's family bonds to Bermuda to control him; allowing slaves to carry out a small degree of control over their economic life and to accumulate meager savings also worked to discourage slaves from escaping overseas, where they might find freedom, but also likely face poverty and social exclusion.<ref>[https://uncpress.org/book/9780807872840/in-the-eye-of-all-trade/ ''In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680–1783''.] By Michael J. Jarvis. University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-7284-0}}. June 2012</ref>

By example, in 1828 the ship ''Lavinia'' stopped in Bermuda on a voyage from [[Trinidad]] to [[Belfast]], [[Ireland]], and signed on twelve enslaved Bermudian sailors as crew. On reaching Belfast, where slavery was illegal, in September, eleven of the enslaved Bermudians were brought before a magistrate with members of the [[Anti-Slavery Society (1823–1838)|Anti-Slavery Society]] in attendance after a member of the [[Society of Friends]] had reported their presence (the twelfth, Thomas Albouy, failed to appear as he was on watch duty aboard the Lavinia and unwilling to abandon his post). Each man was asked individually whether he wished to remain in Ireland as a free man. Their replies were:
* Benjamin Alick (written ''Alik''): "I wish to go back to my family and friends"
* Richard Place: "I wish to return to my mother"
* Francis Ramio: "I wish to return to my wife"
* Joseph Varman: wished to return
* James Lambert: wished to return
* Thomas Williams: wished to return to his wife and child
* Joshua Edwards: wished to remain free in Ireland
* Robert Edwards: wished to remain free in Ireland
* Joseph Rollin: wished to remain free in Ireland
* John Stowe (written ''Stow''): "I wish to go back to my family"
* George Bassett: "I am much obliged to the gentlemen for their offer of freedom, but I wish to return to my friends"

The Royal Gazette, on 13 December 1926, quoted a contemporary Irish newspaper as having described the enslaved Bermudians as ''they spoke English very well, and were stout, healthy men, clean and well dressed. They told the magistrate that in Bermuda their employment was not arduous, they did very little work on the Sabbath day, and they all attended a place of worship. They were usually hired out by their masters, who got two-thirds of their wage and they got the other third. They knew before they left Bermuda that they might be freed in Great Britain, but they had no complaint to make of their condition and, when they spoke of returning to their families, they indicated "the finest emotions and susceptibilities of affection".''<ref>''1828''. The Royal Gazette, City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 13 December 1926. Page 1.</ref>

Other contributing factors to the changing ratio of the coloured to white population during the 17th and 18th centuries included the greater mortality of Whites from disease in the late 17th century, and patriarchal property laws that transferred a woman's property to her husband upon her marriage. This, combined with the shortage of white males due to the steady outflow of marriageable white sailors from Bermuda who settled abroad or were lost at sea, resulted in a sizeable contingent of aging and childless white unwed women for which Bermuda was noted well into the 20th century.

Considerable written material (letters, official reports, petitions, et cetera, and, from 1783, the content of Bermudian newspapers) that survives in archives and museums gives insight into the social, economic and political life of Bermuda between its settlement in the 17th century and the mid-19th century. Most of the Bermudians mentioned by name in these documents, however, tend to have been the more prominent white males. The views expressed about Bermudians, certainly in official correspondence from governors, naval and military officers, and other representatives of the imperial government, were often negative, resulting from the antagonistic relationship with Bermuda's native elites, whose economic interests often were not aligned with imperial interests (this was not necessarily always the case for poorer whites and free or enslaved coloured Bermudians). After the American War of Independence, there was deep distrust of Bermuda's local government and the merchant class that dominated it due to the prominent Bermudians who had schemed with the continental rebels, supplying them with ships and gunpowder, and continuing to trade with them in violation of the law. Although it was observed that enslaved coloured Bermudians were generally less likely to revolt than slaves in other colonies, the experience of various slave revolts in other British colonies during the preceding decades and the then ongoing [[Haitian Revolution|uprising of slaves in Saint Domingue]] (now [[Haiti]]) during the French Revolution, the facts of which it was believed that well-travelled enslaved Bermudian sailors were particularly well-acquainted with and would be inspired by, combined with the relative freedom of movement and association of Bermuda's slaves, meant they were seen as a potential threat by officers of the British Government. As it was also perceived that slaves were not vital to the colony as slave-ownership was common among less well-to-do white households in which much of the work performed by slaves should, and elsewhere would, have been carried out by the more common class of whites themselves (this may have been true of household slaves, who acted as servants and tended small adjacent plots of vegetables grown for the subsistence of the household, which was virtually the only agriculture carried out in Bermuda between 1684 and the 1840s, but most able-bodied enslaved men were actually engaged in maritime activities that were essential to Bermuda's economic survival), it was also felt that the threat of a slave revolt was an unnecessary one.

This was not the only instance where the assumptions of officers of the British government, who were usually aristocrats or from the most privileged class of commoners, coloured their views of Bermudians and Bermudian society. A frequent comment made of Bermudians in the late 18th and early 19th century was that they were lazy or indolent. Most frequently cited in evidence of this was the apparent failure of Bermudians to fell the cedar forest cloaking the archipelago in order to adopt any manner of intensive agriculture. Numerous governors attempted to encourage agriculture, with little success due partly to the stigma in Bermuda against working the land. What was not obvious to many outside observers was Bermuda's shortage of wood, specifically [[Bermuda cedar]], upon which its maritime economy relied. Bermuda's shipbuilders struggled not to exhaust this precious resource, and land-owning Bermudians counted cedars on their property as wealth which accrued interest over decades as the trees grew, and the remaining forest was consequently protected.

The voices of Bermudians themselves, at least of the poorer ones, the enslaved, and the women, were not generally recorded in the documents that were handed down by those generations.

Bermuda was a popular subject for playwrights, authors and poets in England during the early years of its colonisation, given the drama of its unintended settlement through the wreck of the [[Sea Venture]] and its being by far the more successful of the Virginia Company's two settlements until the 1620s. However, as Virginia developed and new colonies were established in the West Indies, Bermuda slipped from the view of writers and the public in England (nearly a century after its settlement, Bermuda, along with the rest of the [[Kingdom of England]], united with the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] to become the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]). Although rarely mentioned in histories or other reference books between the latter 17th century and the 19th century, Bermuda's designation as an [[Imperial fortress]], Britain's primary naval and military base in the region of North America and the West Indies following US independence, and the emergence of the tourism industry in the latter 19th century, brought many erudite visitors and short-term residents, some already published authors, and more comprehensive ethnographic information on the people of Bermuda was included in many subsequently published recollections, travel guides, and magazine articles, such as the book ''BERMUDA; A COLONY, A FORTRESS AND A PRISON; OR, Eighteen Months in the Somers Islands'', published anonymously (the author, Ferdinand Whittingham, was identified only as ''A FIELD OFFICER'' who had served in the Bermuda Garrison) in 1857,<ref>''BERMUDA; A COLONY, A FORTRESS AND A PRISON; OR, Eighteen Months in the Somers Islands'', published anonymously (the author, Ferdinand Whittingham, was identified only as ''A FIELD OFFICER''). Published by LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS AND ROBERTS, London. Published 1857. Printed by Spottiswoode and Co,. New-street Square, London</ref> though the authors' observations often gave more reliable insight into the assumptions and nature of their own societies and classes.

In 1828, Purser ''Richard Otter'' of the Royal Navy published ''Sketches of Bermuda, or Somers' Islands'',<ref>''SKETCHES OF BERMUDA, OR SOMERS' ISLANDS''. BY RICHARD OTTER, PURSER, R. N. London : PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE, AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS; ALSO BY THE PRINCIPAL MAP AND CHART SELLERS. 1828. PRINTED BY PLUMMER AND BREWIS, LOVE LANE, EASTCHEAP. Dedication: ''TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY, DUKE OF CLARENCE AND ST. ANDREW'S, EARL OF MUNSTER, GENERAL OF MARINES, LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF GREAT BRITAIN, K.G. K.T. K. S. E. D. C. L. & F.R.S. THE FOLL0WING Sketches of Bermuda, or Somers' Islands, ARE, BY HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS'S GRACIOUS PERMISSION, HUMBLY DEDICATED, BY HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS' MOST GRATEFUL, MOST OBEDIENT, AND DEVOTED SERVANT, RICHARD COTTER.''</ref> a description of Bermuda based on his own observations while serving there, assigned to the [[North America and West Indies Station]]. Of his reasons for writing the account, he wrote in the preface:

{{blockquote|The obscurity in which the Bermuda's, or Somers' Islands, have remained in point of historical facts, since they were first peopled, and my fruitless endeavours to gain information respecting that Colony, on my appointment to a public situation there, four years ago, determined me to glean all I could during a residence of that period.

I am free to confess that I had many motives in collecting all I could on a place that at first sight interested me in no trifling degree.

The friendly hospitality of the men, the mild and gentle demeanour of the women, that needed not a frown to awe the libertine to respect them, the curiosity natural to a citizen of the world, the wish to become useful to my country, and last, though not least, a desire to make my researches as advantageous as possible to my numerous family, were irresistible inducements, first to collect all the materials I could, and now to trust my feelings and my fate to a generous public.}}

Of Bermuda's importance to the British Empire, he observed:

{{blockquote|The possession of Bermuda, as the key of all our Western Colonies, is of the first importance to England, for if a foe of any maritime strength had possession of it, our trade would be exposed to much annoyance, if not total destruction.}}

Of the prevailing opinion of Bermudians as expressed by other Imperial government officials who had served there, and of his own opinion of Bermudians, he wrote:

{{blockquote|It has become too much the fashion amongst the officers of the various branches of the public service to ridicule the Bermudians, after partaking of their hospitality, but the latter are not inferior in any particular to the people of the Mother country; the women are as chaste and as fair, and the men as clever, as friendly, and as hospitable too in proportion to their relative means. It is true, that owing to the relaxation consequent to a warm climate, added, to the expensiveness of apparel, the ladies do not find it convenient to be at home at all times to receive idle visitors, but at the Governor's parties, public balls, and amateur plays, they are neatly dressed, and each lady may claim the merit of being her own dressmaker.

The men of business are shrewd and well-informed, many of them have acquired their knowledge of trade in America, the mode of that country being better suited to the limited traffic of Bermuda, than the broad scale upon which the mercandize of England is conducted.}}

The rich history of Bermudians and Bermuda, and the important roles they had played in almost every Imperial endeavour of England and Britain in the Americas and beyond during the 17th and 18th centuries, eluded Otter, who briefly summarised the first few years of settlement before recording:

{{blockquote|The Archives of the Colony present nothing worthy of notice after this period, and tradition hands down no more than the quarrels between a long succession of Governors and the people.}}

And:

{{blockquote|...when one of the first writers of the age declared, after several years residence at Bermuda, that its annals afforded nothing upon which a history could be founded, it would be great presumption in a man who has spent his life at sea to attempt swelling out those annals into a large volume.}}

On the subject of contemporary Bermudians, he wrote:

{{blockquote|...the Bermudians have neither vinegar nor cayenne in their composition, and a stranger who does not meet kind treatment from them has to blame himself only...}}

{{blockquote|...The population of Bermuda is between nine and ten thousand souls, (if negroes have souls, and one is apt to be of uncle Toby's opinion, that "it would be putting one sadly over the head of another if they had not,") something more than half of this number are whites of whom nearly two thirds are females. This may be accounted for in part from the men, who are of an enterprising spirit, being often obliged to risk their lives in crazy little vessels, badly manned and indifferently navigated, to the West Indies and different parts of America, in search of a field for industry in a commercial line, which their little Colony does not afford.

The attachment of the women does not die with their husbands; there are many instances where a lady, widowed in the prime of youth, rejects every offer of conjugal consolation, however advantageous, during the rest of her life.

The negro population of Bermuda (all natives) is distressing to their owners, as well as to the Colony in general, and the prohibition of sending them to the West India Islands falls heavily on them, inasmuch as the owners are obliged to have recourse to America for live stock, flour, India corn, and corn meal for their maintenance; added to which, the arrival of seven hundred convicts for the public works, threw back upon their (in several instances) helpless owners, many of this ill-fated race of our species.

Many of the females of Bermuda have no other property than a place to live in and a few slaves, left them by their deceased relatives. There being little field work, the black children being cherished as property, are brought up in the house of their mothers' owners, and become playmates to the owners' children; this creates an attachment that lasts through life.

An instance of this occurred not long ago. A lady complained to a magistrate of a negro man having struck a negress, (a fellow slave;) the case having been fully proved, the magistrate ordered the delinquent to be punished, when the mistress exclaimed in agony, "what! flog my poor Jem, who has been brought up from infancy with me," and fainted. The female slave joined her supplications to the silent but powerful eloquence of the mistress, and Jem of course had his punishment remitted.}}

He also wrote at length about the industry, economy and subsistence strategies of Bermuda, showing the usual attitude of Imperial officials to Bermudians perceived failure to clear forest to turn land over to commercial agriculture:

{{blockquote|...Of the twelve thousand acres which Bermuda is said to contain, two thousand might be brought into cultivation if there was less veneration for cedar trees, and a trifling exertion made to drain or embank the marshes, whereas at present there are not two hundred acres disturbed by the spade or the plough; indeed there is but one plough in the Colony, and that belongs to an Englishman named Winsor, who has proved what could be made of ground apparently barren...}}

{{blockquote|...The facility of receiving supplies from America, has too long made the Bermudians regardless of internal resources; and the produce of the soil, even with the quick succession and perpetual vegetation, will not keep pace with the active mind of a man accustomed from boyhood to the more quick returns of commercial speculations...}}

{{blockquote|...Almost all the occupiers of land sow a small quantity of barley, but in getting in their harvest they seem to scorn the copying system; neither scythe nor sickle are in use, but an old woman (generally a black) is furnished with a basket, and a pair of scissors, of equal standing in the family with herself: thus equipped, she proceeds to cut off the ears of Barley, and in the course of time she has the satisfaction to see a whole rood of barley reduced to headless straw, which is soon converted into bonnets. Europeans are highly amused on witnessing, this novel mode of farming. Their method of preparing the barley is by boiling it into a thick jelly, which they call barley broth, having first deprived it of its husks in a mortar...}}

{{blockquote|...The great variety and abundance of fish is considered by some the reverse of a blessing, as it draws off the attention of the lower orders from the cultivation of the soil. The better sort of people, and a few provident fishermen, have ponds which they stock in summer for winter supply, but the lower order of whites are the most miserable of the human creation. When they catch fish, they reserve as much as will sustain nature as long as the price of what they sell will produce rum enough to keep them in a state of intoxication, using neither bread nor vegetables; their wives and children live on the bounty of the ladies of their respective neighbourhoods, who are without exception kind-hearted and charitable. These fishermen live in hovels or old ruins, and are little encumbered with cloathing...}}

{{blockquote|...Bermuda, until the restriction of trade in 1826, derived all its supplies of oxen and sheep from the United States of America, but since that period the Bermudians have in part imitated the mode used by the Americans in naturalizing British subjects, and without the process of rocking the ox in a cradle, naturalize them in droves by driving them over the boundary into our North American dominions, and thence shipping them for our insulated Colonies.

The American Farmer has no other mart for the disposal of his surplus produce but our Colonies in the Western Archipelago, hence the restriction in commerce must press more heavily on the American citizens than on our Colonists; but this mode of supply is attended with greater expence, inasmuch as the Americans are cheaper carriers than the English.

Bermuda produces fresh butter and milk sufficient to meet the demand for those articles, but they do not rear more cattle than what are merely necessary to keep up their stock, killing the calves when about two months old. Except with a few who can afford to enclose their grounds, the cattle of Bermuda are tethered on the pasture; even hogs and goats can range no farther than the length of their strings, the Bermudians being very jealous of trespassers. They rear but few sheep, there being scarcely any enclosure in the country capable of restraining the roving propensity of these animals. The country is very productive in the propagation of every species of domestic poultry except geese, which do not thrive here, although several have been introduced at various times from America. A few wild geese are sometimes driven thither in the winter gales...}}

{{blockquote|...It is a mistaken notion that Bermuda cannot produce sufficient of all the necessaries of life to support its population, even with its redundancy of blacks, if proper exertions were made to cultivate the soil, but it may be repeated that with half its present number of negroes the Colony would be more prosperous...}}

''Susette Harriet Lloyd'' travelled to Bermuda in company with the Church of England's Archdeacon of Bermuda [[Aubrey Spencer]], Mrs Spencer, and Ella, Miss Parker, Major and Mrs Hutchison and their daughter, the Reverend Robert Whitehead, Lieutenant Thompson of the 74th Regiment of Foot, and Lieutenant Young, aboard {{HMS|Wanderer}}, which was delivering a military detachment from England to the [[Bermuda Garrison]]. Lloyd's visit to Bermuda lasted two years, and her ‘’Sketches of Bermuda’’ (a collection of letters she had written en route to, and during her stay in, Bermuda, and dedicated to Archdeacon Spencer) was published in 1835, immediately following the abolition of slavery in Bermuda and the remainder of the British Empire in 1834 (Bermuda elected to end slavery immediately, becoming the first colony to do so, though all other British colonies except for Antigua availed themselves of an allowance made by the Imperial government enabling them to phase slavery out gradually).<ref>‘’Sketches of Bermuda’’. By Susette Harriet Lloyd. Published by James Cochrane and Co., 11, Waterloo-Place, London. 1835. Printed by W. Wilcockson, Whitefriars. 1835.</ref> Lloyd's book gives a rare contemporary account of Bermudian society immediately prior to the abolition of slavery.

Of white Bermudians, her observations included:

{{blockquote|The last assertion, that 'the women are without colour,' I cannot treat as I do the remarks on birds and flowers, for you will expect something beyond a mere description of their persons. Like the plants, they languish in the summer, and when we landed, I saw but few whose cheek retained any tint of the rose ; the children, in particular, struck me as having a sickly appearance. But this month of cool weather has already restored their bloom to many. They are tall and slender ; though there are a few handsome brunettes, they are generally fair, with light hair and full blue eyes. I have seen some who are really lovely-but it is that evanescent loveliness which does not survive the first bloom of youth. The young girls, who at the age of fifteen or sixteen are just merging into the woman, have an air of charming simplicity-a certain naivete and winningness of manner, which is very pleasing to strangers. They are amiable and affectionate, exemplary in the discharge of the domestic duties, and extremely quiet and retiring ; which surprised me, when I heard that, with but few exceptions, the young ladies receive their education in a boys' school. In several of the grammar-schools nearly a third are females, some of whom learn to construe Greek and Latin. As they are great sufferers under a system which prevents them from acquiring the more feminine accomplishments, I am glad to find that several ladies' seminaries are about to be established in Bermuda, which will call forth the talents they undoubtedly possess, and open a wider field for intellectual conversation.

The gentlemen are very domestic, distinguished for their hospitality and attention to strangers, and for the uprightness and integrity which characterize their commercial transactions. Many of them have been called to offices of high trust in other colonies, as well as in the mother country.}}

She devoted more attention to the subject of black Bermudians, writing:

{{blockquote|Some most Caliban looking negroes have just been dancing on the lawn ; for in this season of general festivity, they are all permitted to indulge in the wildest mirth and revelry. The oldest among them participates with the child in the delights of their [[Gombey]]-a show which reminds me of the 'Jack-in-the-Green' scenes of our May-day chimney-sweepers. Here nature clothes them with their dusky livery, and they endeavour to heighten the effect by a plentiful bedaubing of red and yellow paints, scarlet cloth, flowers and ribbons. They completely besieged my room, which opens on the garden, so that I was forced to remain a close prisoner, and listen to their rude songs, which I should fancy must be very like the wild yelling scream that we read of in African travels. How much would the diffusion of true christian principles do for these poor people, by teaching them the real nature of rejoicing, and the folly of all these superstitious festivities.

The most famous Gombey parties are those of Hamilton and Hearne Bay ; they were preceded by really tolerable bands, composed of negroes dressed in a neat white uniform with scarlet facings. These musicians are all self-taught, and play many favourite airs with great accuracy. This is the more surprising, since they do not know a single note in music. They learn and play every thing by ear, and certainly have great natural taste, and love for music.

When engaged about their work, or walking along the road, they generally beguile the time with a song; and in the evening you frequently hear the sounds of a flute or violin from a negro cottage. Many also possess the talent of extemporaneous composition, which they exercise in finding words for ''Di piacer'' and various Italian airs. Others content themselves with singing the last new song, and '[[Thomas Haynes Bayly#Life|I'd be a butterfly]],' and '[[Thomas Haynes Bayly#Songs|Oh, no, we never mention her]],' are beginning to be general favourites.

There is a black woman here who ranks high as an improvisatrice; every passing event, every one who is so unfortunate as to incur her displeasure, is made the subject of her verse. A slave, an industrious man, to whom she does not bear a very friendly feeling, had the misfortune, a short time ago, to be robbed of a bag in which he had been hoarding some doubloons towards the purchase of his freedom. All pitied the poor fellow; when he one day came up to me in tears, saying that no one would credit his story since Piny had been making a song upon him, which had got all over Hamilton; and when he attempted to enquire after his doubloons, the negroes answered him by singing this song. These verses are of course very uncouth, but possess a great deal of wit.

A thoughtless gaiety of disposition characterises the negro; and it has perhaps been wisely bestowed to counterbalance the pressure of the religious and moral degradation under which he labours. In proportion as this is removed, will his mind be open to more serious impressions.

The islands of Bermuda were first colonized in the year 1612, and were soon afterwards supplied with Negroes, partly from the coast of Africa, and partly from the West Indies, which had been previously settled. The population of Bermuda consists of about 10,000 souls, of which the proportions of white and coloured are nearly equal.

The latter are mostly in a state of slavery, not above seven hundred and forty having been emancipated, or born free. Instances of manumission are not frequent, and it was only during a late session of the local legislature, that a law was passed which gave the slave a legal right to property that might purchase his emancipation.

It must be confessed that in these islands slavery wears the mildest aspect of which that pitiable condition is susceptible. The character of the Bermudians is kind and humane, and their slaves enjoy many secular advantages of which the poor in our own country are frequently destitute. To the enslaved Negro all the wants of nature are amply supplied. He is, under every contingency, clothed, fed, and attended in sickness, at his master's cost. The ancient laws of slavery, odious and merciless as they are, are never enforced against him, and instances of domestic or private cruelty are, I believe I may venture to assert, almost unknown. Indeed, in many houses the young Negro grows up with his master's children, and is considered as one of the family.

Still, however, after all these concessions, the coloured inhabitants of Bermuda are bondsmen, and have long suffered the two heaviest ills of bondage, a political incapacity to receive equal justice, and a spiritual privation of religious instruction and happiness.

The gleam of Christianity which penetrated the dreary dungeon of their African superstition, was at first so faint that it served rather to discover the gloom than to dispel the darkness which shrouded them; and having embraced the profession of the gospel, they adopted its name without receiving its influence in their heart. It is only within the last five or six years that any ''regular'' system has been adopted to give the coloured people instruction in schools connected with the church of England. This blessing is now imparted to nearly 1000 persons, in which number I do not include those who are educated in the schools under the dissenters, some of which are very flourishing.

As there are no plantations of sugar-cane, the negroes are employed in light agricultural labour, but principally as domestic servants. The entire wealth of many individuals often consists in two, three, twelve, or more of these slaves; and if the owner has no occasion for their services himself, he hires one out as a carpenter, another as a mason, house-servant, &c. They regularly bring their full wages to their master, who commonly allows them a small proportion of their earnings. The price of labour varies from a pistorine (tenpence sterling), to a dollar (four shillings sterling) per day.

In their spare hours they (I mean the mechanics) are permitted to work on their own account; and it is by no means unusual for slaves to work out their freedom.

A singular circumstance occurred a short time since. A slave, after having obtained his own freedom by his industry, went to his master to purchase his wife. When her owner offered to give him her deed of manumission, the man positively refused to have one drawn up: and thus the wife is literally her husband's slave. Surely, if slavery knew no other evil, the abuse of such a power as this would prove the iniquity of the system.

Some of the free negroes are industrious and respectable; every thing, as among us, of course, depends upon individual exertion. If the negro is inclined to work, there seems to be no reason why he should not be as successful as an English labourer. That slaves are frequently so little disposed to labour, is probably because they know that, whether they work or not, their master is bound to support them. The slothful are therefore not made to feel so sensibly the consequences of their idleness, while the upright and conscientious have only the very abstract motive of their master's interest to encourage them to diligence and fidelity:-altogether the system of slavery is a sad check upon active industry and persevering exertions; and I am convinced, that, even with a temporary loss, the slave-owners would ultimately be infinite gainers by the introduction of free labour, and the power of employing only such workmen and servants as should produce a given quantity of labour for fair and stipulated remuneration.

It is a great misfortune to a slave if he happens to be married to a free woman. His time is of course his master's, and yet he must find a house, food and clothing for his wife and family. There is a poor man here, a native North American Indian, who is in this situation, and his family are consequently in great poverty.

The price of a slave varies from 25l. (but these are of the very lowest class,) to 70l. and even 100l. currency. But there are some who are above all price, and whom their owners would not part with for any sum.

I know a slave, a religious and well-informed young man, who is a carpenter by trade, and being an excellent workman, can earn one dollar per day-that is, about 100l. currency, or 70l. sterling per annum. This sum he takes regularly to his owner. As it would of course enable him to maintain himself respectably, he is very anxious to be free, and has offered any sum that may be asked, but his master refuses to listen to any terms. As he has laboured faithfully many years, he naturally feels himself aggrieved; and yet such is the strength of his Christian principles, that he never speaks of his master but in terms of the highest respect. To such a character as this, who can doubt that emancipation would prove a blessing?

Several persons have given freedom to their slaves-oftenest I think to a female. But should the poor woman happen to marry a slave, she is in most cases a sufferer, as all her children are of course free, and dependent upon her for support.

I do not think that there are above three or four native Africans in Bermuda, the rest are born here. One of these Africans is a female, who has her face curiously slashed and tattooed; another, a man, who lives near us, and is one of the most good tempered, gay, and thoughtless beings in the world. He one day told me a long story of his having been carried off in a big ship while playing in a garden with his brothers and sisters. But I rather suspect there was some little romance about this. Having by chance seen my guitar, he now comes frequently and begs for some of my 'fiddle strings,' promising that in return he will play me the bravest tune at the gombeys. I had often remonstrated with him for not attending church; when he one afternoon made his appearance there, and told me very gravely the next morning that he had put the date into the little book which I had given him ; that he would look at it every Sunday, and that when he died he would have it laid upon his heart and buried with him. 'And surely,' said he, 'if I can find legs to go every morning to Hamilton to get doubloons for my mistress, I may as well get a bit  of good to my soul by going to church on Sundays.'

A Negro is the most loquacious being on earth-he seems to talk in spite of himself, and is a very child in the expression of his feelings.}}

Lloyd's negative comments on the ''dissenters'' reflected the Church of England's belated attempts to counter the inroads made by [[Methodists]] with coloured Bermudians. Although the [[Anglican Church of Bermuda|Church of England]] is the [[established church]], and as such was the only church originally permitted to operate in Bermuda, Presbyterians were permitted to have separate churches and to conduct their own services during the 18th century, and Methodists were permitted worship in the 19th century, despite initial steps taken by the Government to prevent this. The [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodists]] sought to include enslaved blacks resulting in 1800 in the passage of a law by the [[Parliament of Bermuda]] barring any but Church of England and Presbyterian ministers from preaching. In December 1800, the Methodist Reverend [[John Stephenson (minister)|John Stephenson]] was incarcerated for six months for preaching to slaves.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bermudabiographies.bm/Biographies/Biography-John%20Stephenson.html|title=Biography &#124; John Stephenson}}</ref> The Methodists also promoted education of slaves. The Church of England had generally been unwelcoming to slaves, and was never able to catch up to the Methodist's lead. In 1869, the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] was launched in Bermuda, and today the Anglican Church of Bermuda (as the Church of England in Bermuda was re-titled in 1978), though the largest denomination, has a disproportionately white membership.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/news/article/20110208/races-in-bermuda-flock-to-different-churches/|title=Races in Bermuda flock to different churches|first=Raymond|last=Hainey|date=29 December 1995|website=www.royalgazette.com}}</ref> Stephenson was followed in 1808 by the Reverend [[Joshua Marsden]]. There were 136 members of the Society when Marsden left Bermuda in 1812. The Methodists were permitted to conduct baptisms and weddings, but not funerals for some time (the only civil cemeteries in Bermuda prior to the 20th century having all been attached to the churchyards of the nine Church of England parish churches and the Presbyterian [[Christ Church in Warwick]]), which were the remit of the established church.

The foundation stone of a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was laid in [[St. George's, Bermuda|St. George's Town]] on 8 June 1840, the local Society (by then numbering 37 class leaders, 489 Members, and 20 other communicants) having previously occupied a small, increasingly decrepit building that had been damaged beyond use in a storm in 1839. The inscription on the foundation stone included: ''Mr. James Dawson is the gratuitous Architect; Mr. Robert Lavis Brown, the Overseer. The Lot of Land on which the Chapel is built was purchased, 24 April 1839, from Miss Caroline Lewis, for Two hundred and fifty pounds currency. The names of the Trustees are, William Arthur Outerbridge, William Gibbons, Thomas Stowe Tuzo, Alfred Tucker Deane, James Richardson, Thomas Richardson, John Stephens, Samuel Rankin Higgs, Robert Lavis Brown, James Andrew Durnford, Thomas Argent Smith, John P. Outerbridge, and Benjamin Burchall.''<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Communicated |url= |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |date=16 June 1840 |page=2 <!-- unsupported parameter |column=2 --> |access-date=}}</ref> The [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] (AME) First District website records that in the autumn of 1869, ''three farsighted Christian men—Benjamin Burchall of St. George's, William B. Jennings of Devonshire and Charles Roach Ratteray of Somerset—set in motion the wheels that brought African Methodism to'' Bermuda.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://firstdistrictame.org/bermuda|title=''Welcome to the Bermuda Conference!''. Website of The First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church|access-date=1 September 2021|archive-date=25 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725003312/https://firstdistrictame.org/bermuda|url-status=dead}}</ref> The first AME church in Bermuda was erected in 1885 in [[Hamilton Parish]], on the shore of Harrington Sound, and titled ''St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church'' (the congregation had begun previously as part of the [[British Methodist Episcopal Church]] of Canada).<ref>{{cite book |last=Chudleigh |first=Diana |author-link= |date=2002 |title=Bermuda's Architectural Heritage: Hamilton Parish |url=https://www.bnt.bm/shop1/bermudas-architectural-heritage/bermuda-39-s-architectural-heritage-hamilton-parish-detail |location=Bermuda |publisher=The Bermuda National Trust |page= |isbn= |access-date=1 September 2021 |archive-date=28 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828012312/https://www.bnt.bm/shop1/bermudas-architectural-heritage/bermuda-39-s-architectural-heritage-hamilton-parish-detail |url-status=dead }}</ref> Although the Church of England (since 1978, titled the Anglican Church of Bermuda) remains the largest denomination in Bermuda (15.8%), the AME quickly flourished (accounting for 8.6% of the population today), overtaking the Wesleyan Methodists (2.7% today).

Among other observations of coloured Bermudians, Lloyd also recorded:

{{blockquote|But notwithstanding all this good humour, the passions of the negro are violent, and his anger easily roused. A few evenings ago a fine and generous hearted youth, whose complexion may vie with the raven's wing, felt his honour mortally offended on being called a ''black nigger'' by a negro a few shades lighter than himself; he instantly seized a knife that was lying before him, and would have plunged it into the man's breast, had not some one providentially held back his arm. To be called a Black Nigger seems to be considered the very acme of insult, and, like the [[Academic fencing#History|'Dummer Junge']] of the German students must be avenged.}}

Usage of the word "[[nigger]]" was generally avoided in Bermuda, where blacks and whites always lived in close quarters (and language was characterised by euphemisms), even by the most [[Negrophobia|negrophobic]] whites, and, unlike the ''reclamation'' of the word by some blacks in the United States of America, it has not been adopted or made in any way acceptable today by Bermuda's blacks and remains the foulest and most unutterable racial slur. Lieutenant-Colonel John McMaster Milling, an avid fisherman who befriended coloured Bermudians who shared his passion, wrote of his period serving in Bermuda as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, The [[Bedfordshire Regiment]], from 1910 to 1912:<ref>{{cite book |author=Lieutenant-Colonel John McMaster Milling |date=<!--Not stated--> |title=Great Days With Rod and Gun |page=79 |location=Plymouth, England |publisher=The Mayflower Press}}</ref>

{{blockquote|...they are blacker still. But you mustn't say so! The word nigger is the highest insult. He's a coloured gentleman, and you must be very careful about it indeed.

[[Tommy Atkins|Thomas Atkins]] used to find this nicety of nomenclature of great inconvenience on first arrival. To him, with his easy-going tongue, and an aptness at the best of times to refer to a spade as a spade, everything connected with a black skin was automatically a nigger. It led at first to an odd fracas or two, but, like everything else in Nature, given time and a hopeful constitution, rectification came all in its own due course".}}

Later writers generally agreed on the subject of Bermuda's politely mannered society, generally understood to be a requirement in a small, tightly knit community which could not afford to allow tempers to be frayed.

As Christiana Rounds wrote in [[Harper's Magazine]] (re-published in an advertising pamphlet by A.L Mellen, the Proprietor of the [[Hamilton Hotel (Bermuda)|Hamilton Hotel]] in 1876):<ref>''Bermuda''. By Christiana Rounds. Harper's Magazine. Re-printed in an advertising pamphlet for the Hamilton Hotel by A.L Mellen, Proprietor. Hamilton Hotel, Church Street, City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda (the hotel was destroyed by arson in the 1950s, and the site is now occupied by the Hamilton City Hall, an adjacent carpark, and the Hamilton Bus Terminal). 1876</ref>

{{blockquote|Those who plume themselves on their culture, and who regard all places except those in which they have resided as very benighted quarters, would, of course, look upon Bermuda as almost outside the limits of civilization. Closer acquaintance would dispel many of these delusions. A stranger would be impressed at once with the marked courtesy of the people. From the lowest to the highest one will receive the most polite attention. A simplicity almost Arcadian characterizes their manners, especially those of the women. Many who have led very circumscribed lives, who have never been away from Bermuda, possess an ease and grace which would do credit to habitues of society, arising apparently from perfect faith in others, and an earnest desire to add to their pleasure in every possible way. In matters of etiquette they are generally much more exact than Americans. The kindliness and formality aside — and they are not to be underrated — one would hardly derive much inspiration from the Bermudian, whose outlook is not a broad one. His life has not fostered extended views, and he is, perhaps, as little to be blamed for not possessing them as for being born in mid-ocean.

They are a comfortable, well-to-do set of people, with here and there a family possessing ample means. As in England, property, especially real estate, remains in the same family for a long period. There is very little real suffering from poverty, though there are many poor people, who had rather be poor than make the necessary exertion to improve their condition. In this connection the colored people deserve some notice, forming, as they do, a large majority of the population. The importation of negroes from Africa ceased long before the abolition of slavery, which may account for the improved type of physiognomy one encounters here. The faces of some are fine, and many of the women are really pretty. They are polite, about as well dressed as anybody, attend all the churches, and are members thereof, are more interested in schools than the poor whites, and a very large proportion of them can both read and write. They have their own secret and benevolent societies, and are just as improvident here as elsewhere. If they have any money, work is uninteresting to them. When utterly destitute they are ready to improve their finances, but when pay-day comes they are quite apt to retire from business and spend their earnings, running the risk of again finding employment when compelled by necessity; and most of them live in this make-shift way all their lives. A strong feeling of prejudice exists against them, which will probably die out when they have acquired a few of the sterling virtues at present monopolized by white people.}}

H.C. Walsh wrote in the December 1890 issue of ''[[Lippincott's Monthly Magazine]]'':<ref>H.C. Walsh. December 1890, issue of [[Lippincott's Monthly Magazine]]</ref>

{{blockquote|The population of the islands amounts to about fifteen thousand souls, of whom something over sixty per cent, are colored. The white population is mostly composed of descendants of the old English settlers, with a sprinkling of immigrants from America and Portugal. The negroes are descended from African and American-Indian slaves : they were emancipated in 1834, and now enjoy the same political privileges as the whites; they seem anxious to improve themselves, and are gradually taking a better position. Their upward progress is looked upon with considerable uneasiness by the whites, who, of course, are anxious to retain the upper hand, and seem to fear the negroes as possible rivals in the local government of Bermuda.}}

As Bermuda's maritime economy began to falter during the 19th century, Bermudians would turn some of the woodland over to growing export crops, but most of the farming (or ''gardening'', as it is known in Bermuda) would be carried out by imported labour, beginning with immigration from [[Portugal|Portuguese]] Atlantic islands in the 1840s. Later in the 19th century, large-scale West Indian immigration began (initially, also to provide labourers for the new export agriculture industry, then greatly increased at the turn of the century during the expansion of the [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|Royal Naval Dockyard]]). The Black West Indians, unlike the Portuguese immigrants, were British citizens and not obliged to leave Bermuda, as many Portuguese were, at the end of a contracted period, although they were effectively indentured to the firm contracted by the Admiralty to carry out the construction work, and due to delays in construction, many found themselves in financial hardship.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/power-prejudice-the-story-of-the-1902-dockyard-riots-the-reverend-charles-monk-trial/|title=Power & Prejudice: The Story of the 1902 Dockyard Riots & The Reverend Charles Monk Trial|date=2 March 2023|website=The Bermudian Magazine}}</ref>

[[File:19th Century young Bermudian man.jpg|thumb|left|Young 19th-century Bermudian man]]
In the latter 20th century, those with any degree of [[sub-Saharan African]] ancestry (which was virtually everyone who had been defined as coloured) were redefined as Black, with Asian and other non-White Bermudians defined by separate racial groups (although it also, in the 1960s, ceased to be the practice to record race on birth or other records). On census returns, only in recent years have Bermudians been given the option to define themselves by more than one race (the 2000 Census gave respondents the options of ''black'', ''white'', ''Asian'', ''black and white'', ''black and other'', ''white and other'', ''other'', and ''not stated''),<ref name="royalgazette.com">[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20000221/NEWS/302219990 ''Census to measure more than numbers'', by Ben Greening. The Royal Gazette, Hamilton, Bermuda. Published 21 February, 2000]</ref> although there was considerable opposition to this from many Black leaders who discouraged Black Bermudians from doing so.

In the U.S., there is similar resistance from minority groups to defining themselves by more than one race on census returns, or as multi-racial, as it is feared that this will fragment demographic groups, and lower the percentage of the population recorded as belonging to a particular race, with possible negative effects on government policies (such as [[affirmative action]]) aimed at addressing the concerns of disadvantaged minority groups. As Bermuda's Blacks (whether perceived as a diverse, multi-racial group or as [[Homogeneity and heterogeneity|homogeneously]] Black African) have been in the majority for two centuries, but are still comparatively less well-off than White Bermudians (the Government of Bermuda's 2009 employment survey showed the median annual income for blacks for the year 2007-8 was $50,539, and for whites was $71,607, with white Bermudian clerks earning $8,000 a year more than black Bermudian clerks, and black Bermudian ''senior officials and managers'' earning $73,242 compared to $91,846 for white Bermudian senior officials and managers; the racial disparity was also observed among expatriate workers, with white non-Bermudian senior officials and managers earning $47,000 more than black non-Bermudian senior officials and managers),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bermudasun.bm/PrintArticle.aspx?aid=42781&uid=53511968-2f85-4258-93b6-906160fb7217|title=Print Article|website=www.bermudasun.bm}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bermudasun.bm/Content/Default/News-Older/Article/Median-Annual-Income-by-Bermudian-Status-Major-Occupation-Group-and-Race-2008/-3/1294/42791|title=Median Annual Income by Bermudian Status, Major Occupation Group and Race, 2008|website=www.bermudasun.bm|access-date=13 August 2020|archive-date=1 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401093731/http://www.bermudasun.bm/Content/Default/News-Older/Article/Median-Annual-Income-by-Bermudian-Status-Major-Occupation-Group-and-Race-2008/-3/1294/42791|url-status=dead}}</ref> this fear may presumably also be the cause for the opposition to census reform in Bermuda. Large-scale West Indian immigration over the last century has also decreased the ratio of Black Bermudians who are multi-racial, and hardened attitudes. Most academic books on the subject emphasise the characteristic multi-racialism of Bermuda's Black population <ref name="Bermuda 1976"/> (at least those who might be defined as ethnically Bermudian, as opposed to those resulting from recent immigration), and it has been pointed out in other publications <ref>''The Royal Gazette''. Opinion Editorial by Sanders Frith-Brown.</ref> that, if those Black Bermudians who have White ancestry were numbered instead with the White population, the Black population of Bermuda would be negligible.

[[File:Soldiers of the Bermuda Contingent of the Royal Garrison Artillery in a CCS in July 1916.jpg|thumb|Soldiers of the Bermuda Contingent of the [[Royal Garrison Artillery]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] in July 1916; volunteers for overseas service from the [[Bermuda Militia Artillery]] (BMA), which recruited coloured men, but restricted commissions to whites]]
[[File:Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps soldiers with Lincolnshire Regiment 1918.jpg|thumb|Soldiers of the [[Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps]] (BVRC), attached to the [[Lincolnshire Regiment]] on the Western Front. The BVRC only recruited whites]]
[[File:Bermuda Regiment - Recruit Camp 1993.jpg|thumb|The racially-segregated BMA and BVRC (re-titled the ''Bermuda Rifles'' in 1949) amalgamated in 1965 to form the Bermuda Regiment (now the [[Royal Bermuda Regiment]])]]
This overlooks the resentment felt by most Black Bermudians over a history of racial repression, segregation, discrimination and marginalisation that continued long after slavery, and that did not distinguish between black and bi/multi-racial Bermudians. With the increasingly racially divisive politics that have followed the election of the [[Progressive Labour Party (Bermuda)|PLP]] government, as well as the decades of increasing costs-of-living, the exclusion of unskilled workers from jobs in the white collar international business sector that has come to dominate Bermuda's economy, and the global economic downturn, all of which many Black Bermudians perceive as hitting them hardest, there is little sentiment today amongst people who have long been obliged to think of themselves as Black, in opposition to being White, to identify even partly with their European ancestry. Additionally, most multi-racial Bermudians do not today result from having parents of different races, but inherit diverse ancestry via many generations of mixed-race forebears, most of whom may have assumed themselves to have been entirely of Black African ancestry, and certainly were generally characterised as such by whites (and hence by the mainstream culture). The Progressive Labour Party, the first party formed in 1963 before party politics was legalised, quickly came to be dominated by West Indians and West Indian Bermudians such as [[Lois Browne-Evans]] (or more recently Rolfe Commissiong, the son of a Trinidadian musician,<ref>{{cite news |last=Strangeways |first=Sam |date=12 January 2022 |title=House of Assembly forced to ask UK how to deal with harassment claim against MP |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/politics/news/article/20220106/house-of-assembly-forced-to-ask-uk-how-to-deal-with-harassment-claim-against-mp |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Commissiong |first=Rudolph |date=22 May 2016 |title=Steel pan man's 40 years of music |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/news/article/20160521/steel-pan-mans-40-years-of-music |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref> Premier [[Edward David Burt]], whose mother is Jamaican),<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=23 July 2017 |title=New Bermuda premier a "miracle baby" |url=https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20170723/new-bermuda-premier-miracle-baby |work=The Gleaner |location=Jamaica |access-date=24 July 2024 |quote=An older sister of Bermuda’s new Premier David Burt says he was a “miracle baby” as their Jamaican mother, Merlin, suffered complications during her pregnancy.}}</ref> and Deputy Premier Walter Roban (son of Matthew Roban, from [[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines|St. Vincent and the Grenadines]]),<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=8 December 1998 |title=Roban: Happy to work in the shadows: He works quietly, believing in the gentle art of persuasion rather than decree. But, as Roger Crombie discovers, there  |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/business/article/20110209/roban-happy-to-work-in-the-shadows-he-works-quietly-believing-in-the-gentle-art-of-persuasion-rat |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=15 August 2024 |quote=Mr. Roban's father, Matthew Roban, came to Bermuda from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He married Charlotte Pavey and the couple had two children, Walter and his sister Teresa Pavey Roban.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Jonathan Kent |date=15 August 2003 |title=Roban denies that PLP ran a racist campaign |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/article/20110203/roban-denies-that-plp-ran-a-racist-campaign |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=15 August 2024 |quote=He denied any PLP involvement with printed material that Mr. Swan said had appeared on sports club noticeboards and in the mail suggesting that UBP candidates were "carrying out the slavemaster's agenda". "Speaking as one of the campaign managers, I can say that no such material was produced by the PLP," said Mr. Roban. "This had nothing to do with the PLP. "Mr. Swan should be very careful about who he is aiming these accusations against. He seems to be accusing the people who operate these clubs. "Race plays a role in many aspects of Bermuda life and we are aware of that and deal with it with sensibility. We do not deal with it lightly, certainly not in a way that could abuse or insult people."}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Sékou Hendrickson |date=15 August 2024 |title=OBA leader says Walter Roban's criticisms are worn-out |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/politics/news/article/20240815/oba-leader-says-walter-robans-criticisms-are-worn-out |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=15 August 2024 |quote=The Leader of the Opposition has hit back at an opinion piece by the former Deputy Premier, accusing its criticisms of being a repeat of old claims. Jarion Richardson added that Walter Roban’s article, published in yesterday’s edition of The Royal Gazette, reminded his party of how not to act. He said: “To Bermuda, we in the OBA double our commitment to not act like this Progressive Labour Party Government, to simplify government and governing, to exist solely to serve the interests of others.}}</ref> and is still derided by many white and black Bermudians as promoting racially divisive, black nationalist "plantation politics" (a term with double meaning in traditionally sea-faring Bermuda where there remains a strong stigma against agricultural work).

Many West Indian labourers emigrated from the West Indies at the end of the 19th Century as United States victory in the 1898 [[Spanish-American War]] was to result in United States companies (such as [[United Fruit Company]], formed in 1899) gaining control of the sugar and tropical fruit production of several former Spanish colonies, driving down the prices that British West Indian producers of the same products, exporting primarily to the United States, could obtain. This co-incided with the expansion of the Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda. The system of convict labour that had been relied upon to build the original yard (which became the "North Yard" with the completion of the new "South Yard") had ended in the 1860s, and with the price of labour being high in Bermuda, the Admiralty's contractor brought in desperate, impoverished manual labourers from the West Indies without consulting the local Government.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9504130 |title=Catalogue description West Indian Labourers for Bermuda. Sends correspondence with the Governor of Bermuda in...  |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2 November 1901 |website=National Archives |publisher=British Government |access-date=4 January 2024 |quote=West Indian Labourers for Bermuda. Sends correspondence with the Governor of Bermuda in respect to the immigration of West Indian labourers to that island to work as contractors for the Dockyard works. Regrets that arrangements were not made by the Dockyard works contractors through the Governor of Bermuda and thinks this could have been avoided if the labourers had been recruited from Barbados and elsewhere in a systematic manner.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Ziral |first=James A. |date=16 March 2023 |title=A Forgotton Chapter: Blacks in the Building of Dockyard |url=https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/a-forgotton-chapter-blacks-in-the-building-of-dockyard/ |magazine=The Bermudian |location=Bermuda |publisher=The Bermudian |access-date=5 January 2024}}</ref>

Bermudian blacks were generally antagonistic to West Indians, who, like the early Portuguese immigrants, were perceived as driving down the cost of labour, primarily to the disadvantage of Bermudian blacks, and in recent decades (Jamaicans especially) have often been blamed for the illegal drug trade and violent crimes, including the 1996 [[murder of Rebecca Middleton]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Shorto |first=Lieutenant-Colonel A. Gavin |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/article/20110204/the-roots-of-creole-charm/ |date=4 February 2011 |title=The roots of Creole charm |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=30 March 2023 |quote=In Bermuda, young men with attitude often affect a Jamaican accent when they're posing, or trying to chop each other up, or something of the sort. So we've come to associate Jamaican patois with criminality. It is, we think, a tell-tale sign of up-to-no-goodness.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Bell |first=Jonathan |date=13 October 2017 |title=Mundy returns to Jamaica |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/crime/news/article/20171012/mundy-returns-to-jamaica/ |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda |access-date=7 September 2022 |quote=The man jailed for his role in the brutal murder and rape of teenage tourist Rebecca Middleton has been deported from Bermuda. Sources said Kirk Mundy was flown by private jet to his homeland Jamaica last week after more than two decades in Bermuda's prison.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Zacharias |first=Adam |date=4 July 2016 |title=Bermuda remembers Rebecca Middleton |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/news/article/20160703/bermuda-remembers-rebecca-middleton |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda |access-date=7 September 2022 |quote=Ms Middleton was subjected to her horrifying ordeal and left to die. Justis Smith, 17, and Kirk Mundy, a 21-year-old Jamaican national, were accused of the killing. Mundy received five years in prison after admitting being an accessory to the crime, although DNA evidence later showed that he had raped the victim.}}</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19930713/NEWS/307139991 ''Jamaicans get warning''. The Royal Gazette. Published 13 July, 1993]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/news/article/20110209/jamaican-drug-runners-hit-with-prison-sentences/|title=Jamaican drug runners hit with prison sentences|first=Royal Gazette|last=Staff|date=16 November 1993|website=www.royalgazette.com}}</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19940518/NEWS/305189999 ''(Jamaican-)American women to be sentenced today''. The Royal Gazette. Published 18 May, 1994]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19950428/NEWS/304289984 ''Jamaican currency transfers were gifts''. The Royal Gazette. Published 28 April, 1995]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19951020/NEWS/310209977 ''Man died when drug pellets burst open in his stomach – inquest''. The Royal Gazette. Published 20 October, 1995]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19951115/NEWS/311159969 ''Three men charged with daring $68,000 bank heist''. By Danny Sinopoli. The Royal Gazette. Published 15 November, 1995]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19961017/NEWS/310179988 ''Man says he doesn't remember attacking wife with a machete''. The Royal Gazette. Published 17 October, 1996]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19961025/NEWS/310259995 ''Cabin steward denies importing drugs''. The Royal Gazette. Published 25 October, 1996]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/19961021/NEWS/310219989 ''Jamaican jailed for a year for attack with machete''. The Royal Gazette. Published 21 October, 1996]</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=29 January 2022 |title=Bermuda to deport convicted Jamaican sex offender |url=https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/bermuda-to-deport-convicted-jamaican-sex-offender |work=Jamaica Observer |location=Jamaica |access-date=7 September 2022 |quote=HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) — A 40-year-old convicted Jamaican sex offender with Bermudian family ties has lost a final court battle to stay in the island and will be deported to his homeland. Ten years ago, Brittonie Taylor was jailed for 16 years before being released in 2020. He was granted a temporary reprieve last October after his lawyer, Victoria Greening, argued that he had not been given a fair opportunity to challenge the deportation order. But the Supreme Court heard on Thursday that his challenge failed and British Governor Rena Lalgie had ordered him to be sent back to Jamaica}}</ref> In recent decades, West Indians also came to be associated in Bermuda with law enforcement. The difficulty faced by the [[Bermuda Police Service]] in obtaining recruits locally had long led to recruitment of constables from the British Isles, which resulted in criticism of the racial make up of the force not reflecting that of the wider community. Consequently, in 1966 the Bermuda Police Force (as it was then titled) began also recruiting constables from British West Indian police forces, starting with seven constables from Barbados.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=25 February 1966 |title=BERMUDA POLICE FORCE TRAINING SCHOOL |page=1 |work=The Bermuda Recorder |location=Bermuda |quote=P.C.'s Warner, Daisley, Strickland, Bridgeman, Timothy, Sealy, and McConnie arrived from Barbados in the early hours of last Monday morning.}}</ref> Although the practice of recruiting from the British west Indies would continue, it was not deemed entirely successful. As the ''"Bermuda Report for the year 1971"'' recorded:

{{Quote|More recently police have been recruited from the Caribbean with a view to correcting the racial imbalance in the force. This has not been particularly successful, Bermudians regarding West Indians as much, if not more, expatriate as recruits from the United Kingdom, which has been and remains the main source of recruitment.}}<ref>{{cite report |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1975 |title=Bermuda Report for the year 1971 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office (Printed in Bermuda by the Island Press Ltd) |at=pages 23 and 24 |isbn=0-11-580164-2 |quote=}}</ref>

Bermudian blacks described black West Indians disparagingly as "Jump-ups",<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=23 August 2002 |title=Celebrating Jamaicans put 'jump-ups' tag behind them |url=https://www.royalgazette.com/other/article/20110203/celebrating-jamaicans-put-jump-ups-tag-behind-them |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=23 July 2024 |quote=JAMAICANS in Bermuda have come a long way in only a few years. Once laughingly dismissed as "jump-ups", they have since established themselves as pillars of our community, gaining recognition for the many worthy contributions they have made to the island.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Wilson |first=Ceola |date=24 August 2012 |title=Tributes for icon of Bermuda's West Indian community |url=http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20120824/NEWS/708249993 |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=8 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Stovell |first=E. McNeil |date=8 December 2018 |title=Our Caribbean neighbours deserve more respect |url=http://www.royalgazette.com/opinion/article/20181208/our-caribbean-neighbours-deserve-more-respect |work=The Royal Gazette |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=8 May 2024 |quote=I have never forgotten the types of name-calling that was imposed upon Jamaicans and other Caribbean people by Bermudians. Names such as “Jiggerfoot”, “Jump-up” and “Sabe-trash” — and on it went. If it wasn’t bad enough to have some among the Bermudian community handling people in such a negative manner, to then hear it coming from some of our so-called leadership was most deplorable.}}</ref> and were in turn perceived by many West Indian blacks as what in the United States are described as [[Uncle Tom]]s, although more derogatory terms have been used for Bermudian blacks who oppose the party's agenda, especially on independence from the United Kingdom.<ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20081008/NEWS/310089986 '' Tuning out: Senator Burch leaves 'Bermuda Speaks' radio show'', by Tim Smith. The Royal Gazette. 8 October 2008]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20100305/NEWS/303059935 ''Commissiong denies using abusive term''. The Royal Gazette. 5 March 2010]</ref><ref>[http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20100304/COMMENT/303049964 ''Why did the PLP's race relations head call me a 'House Nigger'?'', Opinion editorial by Dueane S. Dill. The Royal Gazette. 4 March 2010]</ref> Consequently, the party long struggled to unite Bermudian blacks with West Indian Bermudians under a banner of racial solidarity against white Bermudians to whom Bermudian blacks were tied by common heritage and blood,<ref>{{cite news |author=Khalid al Wasi |date=12 April 2002 |title=The West Indianisation of Bermuda |url=https://archive.org/details/2002-04-12-mon-w-indianisation-of-bermuda-kalid-al-wasi |work=[[Mid-Ocean News]] |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda |access-date=15 August 2024 |quote=}}</ref> and did not win an election until 1998, after the [[United Bermuda Party]] (which PLP politicians characterised as the party for whites) was split by internal conflict following Premier [[John Swan (Bermudian politician)|John W. Swan's]] forcing an unpopular referendum on independence in 1995. The desire amongst black nationalists, and especially those of West Indian stock, to obscure the distinction between Bermudian blacks and West Indians by stressing black African heritage has also contributed to intolerance of Bermudian blacks identifying with their non-African, especially their white, ancestry.

Despite these concerns, small numbers of Black Bermudians have chosen to describe themselves on census returns as mixed-racial, and the Native American demographic, which had disappeared for centuries, is slowly re-emerging, as more Bermudians – especially on St. David's Island – choose to identify to some degree, if not exclusively, with their Native American ancestry (although many may feel that, in an increasingly polarised climate, this is a safer option than identifying themselves as in any way White or European).

[[File:1930s Gladys Misick Morrell & Sergt Henderson & table at Cavello Hill, Bermuda.jpg|thumb|right|A Police Sergeant confiscates women's suffrage activist [[Gladys Morrell]]'s table in the 1930s]]
Nonetheless, any assumption of Bermudian demographics that is based on census returns, or other sources derived from them, suffers from anecdotal evidence being the basis of all of the data, in asking Bermudians to self-identify, without resorting to any documentary evidence or genetic studies being used to confirm their ancestry, if not their identification. There is similar pressure on Black Bermudians (most of whom are multi-racial) not to self-identify as mixed race as there is in Blacks in the US, where President [[Barack Obama]], raised by his single, white mother, sparked debate when he identified himself on the census as black, rather than mixed race, and in the UK, in both of which countries greater flexibility is also now allowed for people to describe themselves racially.<ref>7284{{cite web |url=http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2011/04/black-or-mixed-race-obamas-census-choice-sparks-debate-over-how-people-identify |title=Black or mixed race? Obama's census choice sparks debate over how people identify &#124; Multi-American |access-date=13 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626185909/http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2011/04/black-or-mixed-race-obamas-census-choice-sparks-debate-over-how-people-identify/ |archive-date=26 June 2012  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.intermix.org.uk/pzone/FEA_08_tobeornottobe.asp|title=To Be Or Not To Be Mixed-Race:mixed-race parenting:Intermix.org.uk|website=Intermix.org.uk|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2010-03-02-census-multi-race_N.htm|title=Multiracial no longer boxed in by the Census - USATODAY.com|website=Usatoday.com|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30mixed.html?pagewanted=all |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|title=RACE REMIXED: Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above|date=30 January 2011 |access-date=30 August 2017 |last1=Saulny |first1=Susan }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=pocpwi6&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dblacks%2Bshould%2Bnot%2Bdescribe%2Bthemselves%2Bas%2Bmixed%2Brace%2Bon%2Bcensus%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D11%26ved%3D0CCMQFjAAOAo%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.unl.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1007%2526context%253Dpocpwi6%26ei%3DZ3xfT9iwEOKl0AX9u8yOBw%26usg%3DAFQjCNEuWOPO7BhawHj6WfMJ4HdjG8sAWA#search=%22blacks%20should%20not%20describe%20themselves%20as%20mixed%20race%20census%22|title=University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Check All that Apply: The Census and the Multiracial Population|website=Digitalcommons.unl.edu|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the US Population: Emerging American Identities |last1=Perez |first1=Anthony Daniel |last2=Hirschman |first2=Charles |journal=Population and Development Review |date=March 2009 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=1–51 |publisher=United States National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine |doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2009.00260.x |pmid=20539823 |pmc=2882688 |quote=}}</ref>

[[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] immigration, from Atlantic islands including the [[Azores]], [[Madeira]] and the [[Cape Verde Islands]], began in the 19th century to provide labour for the nascent agricultural industry. From the beginning, Portuguese labourers, who have emigrated under special agreements, have not been allowed to do so on the basis of permanent immigration. They were expected to return to their homelands after a fixed period. Some were able to stay, however and by the 1940s there was a sizeable number Portuguese-Bermudians who were legally Bermudian (and British by citizenship). Until the recession of the 1990s, however, Bermuda continued to rely on large-scale immigration of temporary Portuguese workers who laboured at jobs Bermudians considered unworthy (notably, anything to do with agriculture or horticulture). Many of these immigrants lived and worked in Bermuda for decades on repeatedly renewed work permits, without gaining the right to permanent residence, British citizenship, or Bermudian status. When work permits were not renewed, especially during the recession, many were forced to return to the Azores, often with full-grown children who had been born and brought up in Bermuda. Although the numbers of Portuguese ''guest workers'' has not returned to its former levels, the number of Bermudians today described as ''Portuguese'' (often considered a distinct racial group from Whites of Northern European ancestry, and historically [[Social stigma|stigmatised]] by all other Bermudians) is usually given as ten percent of the population. This number does not include many Black Bermudians with White Portuguese ancestry, and obscures also that some of the Portuguese immigrants were Blacks from the Cape Verde Islands. The actual percentage of Bermudians with Portuguese ancestry is likely far larger.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=270&ArticleID=30089|title=Bonds, rivalries that date back centuries – Bermuda Sun|website=Bermudasun.bm|access-date=30 August 2017}}</ref>

Noting that Bermudians of Portuguese heritage have made considerable contributions to the Island – from politics and public service, to sport, entertainment and industry – Premier [[Edward David Burt]] announced that 4 November 2019 "will be declared a public holiday to mark the 170th anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese immigrants in Bermuda.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bernews.com/2018/06/holiday-to-mark-arrival-of-portuguese-immigrants/|title=Holiday To Mark Arrival Of Portuguese Immigrants|date=1 June 2018}}</ref> Those first immigrants arrived from [[Madeira]] aboard the vessel the Golden Rule on 4th November 1849."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bernews.com/2018/06/portugal-honorary-consul-we-are-very-excited/|title=Portugal Honorary Consul: 'We Are Very Excited'|date=2 June 2018}}</ref>