White Bahamian

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 5% of the Bahamian population.[3] White Bahamians are largely concentrated in Eleuthera, the Abaco Islands, Long Island, and New Providence.

White Bahamians
Total population
16,598 (2010)
4.7% of the Bahamas population[1]
Regions with significant populations
Spanish Wells, Dunmore Town, Eleuthera, Abaco Islands, Long Island, New Providence
Languages
English • Bahamian Creole
Religion
Christianity • Judaism
Related ethnic groups
English, Scottish, Jews[2]

History

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.[4]

Black Bahamian slaves were emancipated in 1834, but white Bahamians remained an economic and social elite in the Bahamas. No new land was provided to emancipated slaves and Black Bahamians were denied equal political rights and access to education. Many Black Bahamians lived in conditions of quasi-slavery, working for wealthy white Bahamians.

After World War II, greater accessibility to 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.[5]

In 1966, White Bahamians constituted approximately 11.5% of the population of the Bahamas.[6] Though the number of White Bahamians has not decreased since this time, the proportion of White Bahamians within the population of the Bahamas has decreased due to the higher birth rate of Afro-Bahamians, the largest ethnic group in the country.

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.[7] 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.[8] The largest concentration of white people in the Bahamas is in New Providence, which is home to 9,436 white Bahamians as of 2010.[9]

See also

References
  1. 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.
  2. "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov.
  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. "Commonwealth of the Bahamas" (PDF). University of Kentucky College of Education. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  6. Crowley, Daniel (2021). I Could Talk Old-Story Good: Creativity in Bahamian Folklore. University of California Press. p. 9. ISBN 0520338286.
  7. "Department of Statistics of the Bahamas" (PDF). bahamas.gov.bs. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  8. "Department of Statistics of the Bahamas" (PDF). bahamas.gov.bs. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  9. "Department of Statistics of the Bahamas" (PDF). bahamas.gov.bs. Retrieved 30 March 2022.


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