White Bahamians
Total population
46,920[1] (2010)
9.3% of the Bahamas population[2]
Regions with significant populations
Spanish Wells, Dunmore Town, Eleuthera, Abaco Islands, Long Island, New Providence
Languages
Bahamian English • Bahamian Creole
Religion
Christianity • Judaism
Related ethnic groups
English, Irish, Scottish[3]

White Bahamians are Bahamian citizens of European ancestry, most of whom trace their ancestry back to England, Scotland and Ireland. Bahamians of European descent are sometimes called "Conchs", a term that is also applied to people of White Bahamian descent in Florida. White Bahamians were a majority in the 18th century, but now constitute less than 10% of the Bahamian population.[4]

History

Christopher Columbus' first landfall in the Americas was in the Bahamas, but after the Spanish had removed all of the native Lucayans from the archipelago by 1520, they showed little interest in the islands. A group of religious dissidents from Bermuda who settled on Eleuthera in 1648 consisted primarily of people of European descent, but included a few slaves of African descent. Later migrants from Bermuda to Eleuthera also consisted primarily of white people, but included a few free and enslaved black people. Starting in 1666, immigrants, again primarily white, from Bermuda, Jamaica, and elsewhere began settling on New Providence and other islands in the Bahamas.[5][6]

By 1783 blacks outnumbered whites in the Bahamas. The Bahamas remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolutionary War. During and after the war, approximately 1,600 white Loyalist refugees, many with slaves of African descent, settled in the Bahamas. A survey in 1783 found 1,380 taxable persons, presumably adult males, in the islands. About two-thirds of those taxable persons were black, primarily slaves. In 1788, the number of white male heads of families had increased by a little over one-half, while the number of slaves had almost tripled.[7][8]

After World War II, greater accessibility to the US mainland led to the rapid growth of industry. The minority white population benefited most from this new-found prosperity, as they controlled the government and economy. White Bahamians owned many successful hotels, restaurants, and stores at a time when American money was flowing into the economy and causing the construction of numerous new hotels and other establishments.[9]

In 1966, White Bahamians constituted approximately 11.5% of the population of the Bahamas.[10]

Demographics

White Bahamians constitute the majority (81.95%) of the district of Spanish Wells, which is located on St. George's Cay and Russell Island, north of Eleuthera.[11] White Bahamians are also a significant minority in Long Island (18.07%) and the Abaco Islands (13.76%), in which several settlements and small cays are majority white.[12] The largest concentration of white people in the Bahamas is in New Providence, which is home to 9,436 white Bahamians as of 2010.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ What Is The Ethnic Composition Of The Bahamas?
  2. ^ The Commonwealth of the Bahamas (August 2012). "2010 Census of Population and Housing" (PDF). pp. 10 and 82. In 1722 when the first official census of the Bahamas was taken, 74% of the population was European or native British and 26% was African or mixed. Three centuries later, and according to the 99% response rate obtained from the race question on the 2010 Census questionnaire, 90.6% of the population identified themselves as being Afro-Bahamian, about five percent (4.7%) Euro-Bahamian and two percent (2%) of a mixed race (African and European) and (1%) other races and (1%) not stated.
  3. ^ "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov.
  4. ^ Foster, Charles C. 1991. Conchtown USA, with Folk songs & tales collected by Veonica Huss. Boca Raton, Florida: Florida Atlantic University Press. ISBN 0-8130-1042-X
  5. ^ Albury, Paul (1975). The Story of the Bahamas. MacMillan Caribbean. pp. 21–33, 41–51. ISBN 0-333-17131-4.
  6. ^ Johnson, Howard. (1996) (1996). The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783–1933. University Press of Florida. pp. 3–4. ISBN 0-8130-1858-7.((cite book)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Turner, Grace S. R. (2013). An Allegory fior Life: An 18th century African-influenced cemetery landscape, Nassau, Bahamas (PDF) (PhD). The College of William and Mary. pp. 20, 24–25.
  8. ^ Craton, Michael J. (1986). Settlements in the Americas: Cross-cultural Perspectives. University of Delaware Press. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-87413-411-7. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  9. ^ "Commonwealth of the Bahamas" (PDF). University of Kentucky College of Education. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  10. ^ Crowley, Daniel (2021). I Could Talk Old-Story Good: Creativity in Bahamian Folklore. University of California Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0520338289.
  11. ^ "Department of Statistics of the Bahamas" (PDF). bahamas.gov.bs. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Department of Statistics of the Bahamas" (PDF). bahamas.gov.bs. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  13. ^ "Department of Statistics of the Bahamas" (PDF). bahamas.gov.bs. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
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