500 Years of Bermuda History

by Historian William Zuill
Compliments of Bermuda Department of Tourism.

Centuries ago they were known as the “Isles of Devils”. Isolated, uninhabited andsurrounded by treacherous reefs, Bermuda was a navigational menace. Marinerswho sailed the trade routes of the Atlantic treated the uncharted islands withthe same fearsome respect as the plague.

No one knows exactly when the islands were discovered, but their discoverer,Spanish records say, was Captain Juan Bermudez when commander of La Garza in 1505 and 1506. For the next hundred years sailors from wrecked shipsfound their way ashore, built new vessels or repaired their own, and sailedaway. The first known Portuguese arrived in 1543 (and left a rock carving atmis-called Spanish Marks, Smith’s Parish); the first Frenchman between 1560 and1570, and the first Englishman in 1593. The first black man recorded to havecome to Bermuda was Venturilla, in 1603.

The next shipwreck, in 1609, had important consequences. An English fleet, boundfor the new settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, was hit by a hurricane and theflagship, the Sea Venture, ended up wedged between two of Bermuda’s reefs. All aboard were saved. The ship’scompany built two vessels, the Patience and Deliverance, and ten months laterarrived at Jamestown where only 60 settlers were left alive of the 500 therethe autumn before. Bermuda supplies saved them, but all decided to give up thecolony and sail back to England. Just as the survivors were nearing the mouthof the James River they met a relief fleet and all turned back, never to giveup again. Apart from some Newfoundland fishing hamlets, Jamestown was the firstsuccessful English settlement in the Americas - and Bermuda was the second.

Sir George Somers, the Admiral of the Sea Venture fleet, returned to Bermuda to obtain more supplies for Virginia. Hedied in Bermuda, and the old capital, St. George’s, was named after him. Thishistoric town was made a UN Heritage Site in November, 2000. News of the beautyand plenty of Bermuda spread rapidly. William Shakespeare’s The Tempest was almost certainlyinspired by these events, and in 1612 the first colonists were sent out in the Plough. Presumably they were white. Thefirst recorded black man and native American to arrive came in 1616 on boardthe Edwin.

The settlement expanded rapidly and on August 1, 1620, the first meeting of theHouse of Assembly, a representative body, took place, one year after theVirginia House of Burgesses, and the same year as the Pilgrim Fathers sailedfrom England. The colonists tried tobacco as an export crop and more whites,blacks and native Americans arrived. Some of them were indentured servants, andothers slaves.

Some 70 years after the founding of the colony tobacco growing was abandoned and thecommunity turned to the sea - a time of“cedar, salt and sailors”.

CEDAR was the principal Bermuda tree, a juniper which turned out to beexcellent for shipbuilding.

SALT came from the Turks Islands at the eastern end of the Bahamaschain, for a time Bermuda’s colony.

SAILORS - the men who sailed the ships.

Black men and white, freemen and slaves, participated in all these trades while the womenfolk did their best tokeep households together, particularly during the long months when husbands,brothers and sons would be away. Many did not return. Other sailors engaged inprivateering (in wartime) and to a lesser extent in piracy, in smuggling, andin salvaging sunken cargoes, with Bermuda’s reefs providing excellentpractice.

When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775 food to Bermuda and othercolonies was embargoed. It was suggested that if gunpowder sent to America theembargo might be lifted - and on the night of August 14/15 the colony’s powdermagazine was emptied - and food supplies were available again.

At the end of the war many trading links were shattered and Bermuda lost the TurksIslands. Fortunately for the island’s economy the British realised that they needed a naval base at Bermuda toreplace American ports, and Bermudians began to find a living working for thearmy and navy.

On August 1, 1834, Emancipation Day brought an end to the long anguish of slavery.Today it is celebrated with a cricket match which attracts crowds of holidaymakers. In the 1840s British Governor Sir William Reid awakened an interest inagriculture, and soon Bermuda spring crops were finding a ready market in NewYork. In 1849 the first Portuguese arrived to work on Bermuda farms.

During the American Civil War Bermuda experienced a brief boom as a base for blockade-runninginto the Confederacy, and fortunes were made. In 1883 Princess Louise, daughterof Queen Victoria, spent the winter here, and tourism received a tremendousboost. Another major improvement came in the 1920s when the British Furness,Withy Steamship Company invested heavily. There was a further tourist impetus from 1920sprohibition in the United States - andBermuda also became a base for run-running.

Bermuda was deeply involved in World War II. At first the tourist trade came to an end,causing depression, but then Britain and America evolved a deal in 1940 underwhich a 99 year lease on bases in Bermuda was given to the United States (otherbases were in exchange for 50 old U.S. destroyers) and an airfield was built.The US, Britain and Canada abandoned their bases in 1995.

Tourism gained from the airfield, and rapidly developed further. Other changes includedthe ending of much de facto segregation,the development of trade unions, and the end of a prohibition of cars.There was pressure to democratise the franchise, and this was achieved in 1963,the same year the first political party, the Progressive Labour Party, wasformed. Soon after, the United Bermuda Party came into being and quicklydominated the electoral scene, holding power for 30 years, until in 1998 thePLP finally came into power.

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Getting Around Bermuda Relax, enjoy, save and see Bermuda by bus. A blue or pink pole indicates bus stops. If the pole is topped with blue, the bus travels from Hamilton; if the pole is topped pink, the route is toward Hamilton.