Teachers Resource1 - Department of Education

Transcription

Bermuda
FIVE CENTURIES
Teachers Guide
Text copyright © Rosemary Jones, 2011
Written and designed by Brimstone Media Ltd.
Published by Panatel VDS Ltd.
Printed by Island Press Ltd.
Produced for the Ministry of Education, Bermuda
TEACHERS GUIDE
Contents
4
How to Use this Guide
Navigating Bermuda: Five Centuries
52
First-Person Accounts
Ways to integrate first-person accounts
into social studies lesson plans, including
discussion themes and points of view
PLUS: page-finder and synopses of
the book’s 48 first-person accounts
6
Section Synopses: Sections 1 to 5
An overview of the five thematic sections
spanning 1505–2000s, with summaries,
notes, key topics and history-makers
12
Section 1: Isle of Devils 1505–1684
59
History-Makers
Mini-biographies of those who made
Bermuda history, with discussion guide
and chapter listings
62
Image Study
Analysing the book’s historic artwork and
photos, discussion guide and activities
66
Connecting to the Curriculum
Ways to use the book in Social Studies,
Language Arts, Media Studies, Maths,
Drama, Art, and Science classes
70
Real-World Resources
Information to help plan enrichment
fieldtrips to Bermuda museums and
historic sites
The Fight for Rights; A Perfect Paradise;
the New Tourism; Second World War
76
Multi-Media Resources
Further reading, websites, film
Section 5: Coming of Age 1945–2010
78
Timelines
Comparing and contrasting Bermuda
events in a worldwide context, with
discussion guide and activities
CHAPTERS 1– 4 LESSON PLAN MATERIALS
Age of Discovery; The Sea Venture;
The First Settlers; The Company Island
20
Section 2: Sea, Salt & Slavery 1684–1834
Call of the Sea; Scourge of Slavery;
Wars and Defence; Freedom and Reform
28
Section 3: Boomtown to Boers 1834–1918
From Sea to Soil; The Portuguese;
American Civil War; Tourism Takes Off
36
Section 4: Votes, Visitors & Victory
1918–1945
CHAPTERS 13–16 LESSON PLAN MATERIALS
44
CHAPTERS 17–20 LESSON PLAN MATERIALS
Progress in Peace; Growing Pains;
Troubled Times; Into the Future
Contents
3
BERMUDA: FIVE CENTURIES
How to Use This Guide
Bermuda: Five Centuries brings our island’s history
alive and makes it accessible, especially for young
people. This special Teachers Guide was created
to offer instructional support and help teachers
and their students get the most out of this
unprecedented narrative history that won the
prize for non-fiction in the 2008 Bermuda Literary
Awards. Now you can prepare dynamic lesson plans
and take your classes on a fascinating journey back
in time and experience the most dramatic moments
of Bermuda’s past.
Exploring our history: choose your path
This Teachers Guide will aid you to navigate
Bermuda: Five Centuries, which is divided into five
thematic sections, each with four chapters, that tell
our history in chronological sequence. Teachers can
decide whether they wish to approach the book
section-by-section and chapter-by-chapter, compare
and contrast historic and social themes through the
centuries, or take explore history through any of
several other focus areas, including:
First-Person Accounts—narratives of those
who actually lived through historic events
and described them throughout the book.
See Pages 52–58
Image Study —images, both illustrative and
photographic, can be found throughout the
book, many from Bermuda’s national archives,
museums or family and individual collections.
These images capture the people and places
of Bermuda’s past in a graphic way and can
be examined as stand-alone features.
See Pages 62–65
4
TEACHERS GUIDE
History-makers—the characters of our
history, from students to statesmen, played
their different parts in an unfolding drama.
History can be examined through the
framework of such people, whose profiles
span the chapters and centuries.
See Pages 59 –61
Timelines—the island’s story unfolds against
that of the world at large, allowing teachers
and students to compare and contrast the
two in historical, socio-economic and
political contexts.
See Pages 78–79
Connecting to the Curriculum—multidisciplinary ways to use Bermuda: Five
Centuries in Social Studies, Language Arts,
Maths, the Arts, and Science classes.
See Pages 66–69
Chapters in the guide explore each of these separate
options, offering myriad ways in which teachers can
guide students through Bermuda history in classes
that are both informative and engaging. Included
throughout are sections on vocabulary, timelines,
questions for group discussion, critical thinking,
individual research and activities, as well as thematic
connections, allowing instructors to adapt material
to different grade levels in Bermuda’s middle and
secondary schools.
You will also find chapters containing Resources
(books, websites, films) to enhance topic learning,
plus a full listing of the island’s historic sites and
museums (complete with contacts, locations and
websites), to enable educators to build on lesson
plans with additional fieldtrips and group visits.
5
SECTION SYNOPSES
SECTIONS 1 to 5: 1505–2000s
An overview of Bermuda: Five Centuries
Bermuda’s historical evolution can be deconstructed and examined via major changing
themes. Bermuda: Five Centuries does this through five sections, with four chapters each,
spanning the island’s 500-year history—from Bermuda’s discovery in the 16th century
through to the present day.
6
TEACHERS GUIDE
SECTION ONE
Key topics
Isle of Devils
l Maps and early navigation
l Bermuda’s fearsome reputation among
1505–1684
Includes
Chapter 1: Age of Discovery
Chapter 2: The Sea Venture
Chapter 3: The First Settlers
Chapter 4: The Company Island
Summary
This section details the first period of human
history in Bermuda, from the island’s discovery by
Spaniard Juan de Bermúdez in 1505, to the 1609
accidental shipwreck by English colonists en route
to Virginia, to England’s decision to send the first
official colonists to the island in 1612, and the first
decades of settlement.
Teaching Notes:
l Only relatively recently have historians settled on the
date 1505 as the correct year of Bermúdez’s discovery of
the island; in texts prior to 2000, the date 1503 was
often used, but is now believed to be incorrect.
l Refer to “England” and the “English” (not “Britain”
and the “British”) in this section’s chapters. The United
Kingdom of Great Britain was not formed until 1707;
until then, England, Scotland and Ireland remained
separate political entities.
mariners
l World powers of the 1500s and 1600s
l How Spain’s disinterest in Bermuda
allowed for English colonisation
l Bermuda’s first early visitors (castaways)
l The Sea Venture shipwreck
l How Bermuda saved Jamestown (with
supplies on Deliverance & Patience)
l Bermuda and Shakespeare’s The Tempest
l Survival by Sea Venture’s crew and
passengers
l Bermuda’s first settlers in 1612
l St. George and Jamestown
l Defence and fortification
l Pocahontas and native people
l Colonial economic challenges
l Bermuda’s shareholder “tribes”
and parishes
l Hog money
l Witchcraft, crime and punishment
l How government in Bermuda began
l Bermuda’s first slaves
l The Virginia Company and Bermuda
Company
History-makers
l Juan de Bermúdez
l Diego Ramirez
l Christopher Columbus
l Sir George Somers
l Sir Thomas Gates
l William Strachey
l William Shakespeare
l Elizabeth I
l Richard Moore
l Richard Norwood
l John Rolfe and Pocahontas
l Daniel Tucker
l Captain Nathaniel Butler
Turn to Page 12 for a full analysis of Section One’s chapters
Isle of Devils
Section 1
7
SECTION SYNOPSES
SECTION TWO
Key topics
Sea, Salt & Slavery
1684–1834
Includes
Chapter 5: Call of the Sea
Chapter 6: Scourge of Slavery
Chapter 7: Wars and Defence
Chapter 8: Freedom and Reform
Summary
This section marks the end of private Bermuda
Company rule over the island, and the start of new
freedom as a Crown Colony. Strict economy-related
rules set by London investors for Bermuda’s settlers
were now lifted, allowing Bermudians to forge
ahead with new mercantile ventures—particularly
maritime pursuits. The 1700s can be categorised as
the major sea-going period of local history. Slavery
in Bermuda is dealt with in this section, as well as
Bermuda’s part in the American Revolution.
l Whaling
l Shipbuilding
l Piloting
l Atlantic maritime trade
l Pirates vs privateers
l Bermuda cedar
l Bermuda sloop
l Salt-raking in Turks
l Mary Prince
l Slavery in Bermuda
l Middle Passage
l American Revolutionary War
l The Gunpowder Theft
l Irish poet Thomas Moore
l Fortifications at Bermuda
l War of 1812
l Emancipation
l Reform for Bermuda blacks
l Friendly Societies
l The Enterprise incident
l The first newspaper
l New capital: Hamilton
History-makers
l John Bowen and Nathaniel North
l Jacob Minors and Jemmy Darrell
l Mary Prince
l Olaudah Equiano
l Sally Bassett
l Joshua Marsden
l George Washington
l Colonel Henry Tucker
l St. George Tucker
l Governor George Bruere
l Lieutenant Thomas Hurd
l Andrew Durnford
l Thomas Moore
l Governor Henry Hamilton
Turn to Page 20 for a full analysis of Section Two’s chapters
8
Section 2
Sea, Salt & Slavery
TEACHERS GUIDE
SECTION THREE
Key topics
Boomtown to Boers
1834–1918
Includes
Chapter 9: From Sea to Soil
Chapter 10: The Portuguese
Chapter 11: American Civil War
Chapter 12: Tourism Takes Off
l Convicts and the building of the
Summary
This section describes Bermuda’s economic return
to agriculture in the 1800s, after the demise of the
shipbuilding industry. The island is characterised at
the start of this era as an isolated, sleepy outpost,
largely cut off from world affairs. That would
change in the later 1800s, when Bermuda played a
key strategic role in the US Civil War. By the turn
of the 20th century, tourism was shaping up as the
island’s new economic pillar.
Royal Naval Dockyard
l Yellow fever and diseases
l Governor William Reid
l Gibbs Hill Lighthouse
l Agriculture and the export of onions
and lilies
l Portuguese immigration
l Civil rights for Portuguese
l Blockade-running in American Civil War
l Artist Edward James
l Princess Louise and the first tourism
l Mark Twain and early visitors
l Bermuda’s coat of arms
l Advent of tennis
l More fortifications
l West Indian immigration
l Boer War prisoners
l Bermuda and the First World War
History-makers
l John Mitchel
l Governor William Reid
l Captain Benjamin Watlington
l Monsignor Felipe Macedo
l Georgiana Walker
l Major Norman Walker
l US President Abraham Lincoln
l US Consul General Charles Maxwell Allen
l John Tory Bourne
l Joseph Hayne Rainey
l Edward James
l Princess Louise
l Mark Twain
l Mary Outerbridge
Turn to Page 28 for a full analysis of Section Three’s chapters
Boomtown to Boers
Section 3
9
SECTION SYNOPSES
SECTION FOUR
Key topics
Votes, Visitors & Victory
1918–1945
Includes
Chapter 13: The Fight for Rights
Chapter 14: A Perfect Paradise
Chapter 15: The New Tourism
Chapter 16: Second World War
Summary
This section follows Bermuda as it both is influenced
by world changes and participates in global events.
Civil-rights struggles by disenfranchised women
slowly change the island’s social landscape in the
first half of the 20th century. Labour unions take
root. Air travel and cruise ships bring mass tourism.
Bermudians take part in the Second World War,
and the island plays a critical role.
l Tourism takes off
l Gladys Morrell and suffragettes
l Birth of newspapers
l West Indians’ contribution to local culture
l Charles Monk and Jamaican workers
l First union: Bermuda Union of Teachers
l William Beebe’s deep-ocean discoveries
l Bermuda’s environmental history
l Cedar blight
l Return of the Bermuda petrel (cahow)
l New modes of travel (by air and sea)
l Bermuda Railway
l Celebrity visitors
l Second World War
l Bermuda’s baselands
l Censorettes
l Rations and local defence
l U-505
History-makers
l Gladys Morrell
l Charles Monk
l Marcus Garvey
l John Parker
l William Beebe and Oris Barton
l Louis L. Mowbray
l Louis S. Mowbray
l David Wingate
l Governor Sir J. H. Lefroy
l Captain Lewis Yancey
l Major Anthony “Toby” Smith
l Sir Winston Churchill
l Woodrow Wilson
l James Hartley Watlington
Turn to Page 36 for a full analysis of Section Four’s chapters
10
Section 4
Votes, Visitors & Victory
TEACHERS GUIDE
SECTION FIVE
Key topics
Coming of Age
1945–2000s
Includes
Chapter 17: Progress in Peace
Chapter 18: Growing Pains
Chapter 19: Troubled Times
Chapter 20: Into the Future
Summary
This section reveals a period of unprecedented
change in Bermuda and the world. The advent
of cars, home appliances, technology—and a new
airport—brought post-war Bermuda to modernity.
Tourism developed, and was later surpassed by
international business. Bermuda endured growing
pains of civil-rights strife as blacks fought to end
discrimination. Racial turmoil wracked the island.
Bermuda became a global citizen, sharing the
troubles of terrorism, the wonder of the Digital Age,
and the challenges of sustainable progress.
l The first cars
l Kindley Field Airport
l New technologies: TV, appliances
l Bermuda’s NASA station
l Post-war tourism (“Jet Age”)
l Departure of Royal Navy
l Bermuda and the Cold War
l Dr. E. F. Gordon and the BWA (BIU)
l Theatre Boycott
l New Constitution and party politics
l Labour strife
l Racial battles
l The Sharples murder
l The 1977 riots
l AIDS
l Independence debate
l First PLP government
l 9/11
l Digital Age
l “Bermuda Inc.”
History-makers
l The Talbot Brothers
l Wil Onions
l Martin Luther King Jr.
l Dr. E. F. Gordon
l Progressive Group
l Sir Henry Tucker
l W. L. Tucker
l Sir Edward Richards
l Kingsley Tweed
l Sir Richard Sharples
l Erskine (Buck) Burrows and Larry Tacklyn
l George Duckett
l Gina Swainson
l Ottiwell Simmons
l Rhondelle Tankard and Boyd Gatton
l Shaun Goater
l Pamela Gordon
l Jennifer Smith
Turn to Page 44 for a full analysis of Section Five’s chapters
Coming of Age
Section 5
11
ISLE OF DEVILS 1505–1684
CHAPTER ONE
SECTION 1
10
Age of Discovery
CHAPTER ONE
Age of Discovery
LAND-HO! ISLAND NAMED FOR A MARITIME PIONEER
I
n October 1603, a Spanish sea captain named Diego Ramirez found
himself exploring a deserted half-moon-shaped island in the Atlantic
where his galleon had run aground during a storm. Four other ships
in the same fleet had been destroyed, but he and his men lost only
provisions and were able to hobble into the nearest bay. They
anchored and went ashore to scout for fresh supplies. Ramirez would
describe his surroundings over the next 22 days in Edenic detail—a reefguarded oasis blanketed in cedar forests and palmetto
palms, where plump pigs roamed wild with herons,
sparrow-hawks and web-footed cahows so tame, his crew
caught hundreds of the strange birds to eat on their
return voyage to Europe. The island’s natural harbours
swam rich with turtles, parrotfish and red snappers and
its shallow inlets were littered with oysters, though
when he cracked these open, Ramirez found no pearls.
“The island is very peaceful, it is not high,” he wrote
of the idyllic but barely-known archipelago called
‘Bermuda.’ “One can travel all over it on foot or on
horseback, good black soil, thinly wooded, very good
level country. Very deep on the south side, no shoals
from end to end. A vessel can come within a musket
shot of land, for the sea breaks on the coast itself.”
The captain, who eventually resumed his voyage to
Spain from the Americas, sailed around the whole
island and drew a rough sketch, a chubby facsimile of the map of Bermuda
we recognise today. The drawing, together with his detailed account, provide
an engaging snapshot of early Bermuda before its eventual settlement by
the English nine years later. His description of a pearl-laden paradise also
renewed Spanish interest in the island, which for more than a century had
been decried as an “Isle of Devils” or “Isla de Demonios” and shunned by
mariners plying trans-Atlantic routes between the New World and Europe.
BERMUDA MARITIME MUSEUM
Summary
This chapter launches the human history of
Bermuda—that is, the first century (1500s) before
actual settlement by the English. This period of
world history is known as the “Age of Discovery,”
as mostly Portuguese and Spanish seafarers made
journeys of exploration to find previously unknown
territories. Bermuda was spotted by accident in
1505 by Spanish mariner Juan de Bermúdez as he
sailed back to Europe from the Caribbean. After
this milestone, Bermuda began to appear on maps,
and trans-Atlantic mariners started using the island
as a northern landmark for return voyages. Many
shipwrecked on Bermuda’s reefs. Survivors explored
the island, writing about it in diaries and letters.
Some built ships from cedar timber to escape.
Peter Martyr’s map of 1511 offers
the first cartographic record of
Bermuda, shown upside-down
at top right
Fast Facts
l Unlike some islands of the Caribbean, Bermuda
had no indigenous people.
l The first recorded sighting of Bermuda was by
Juan de Bermúdez in 1505.
l Bermuda didn’t appear on any map until six years
later—in 1511.
l Many 16th-century sailors landed on Bermuda,
usually by accident after shipwrecks.
l Mariners usually tried to avoid Bermuda because
of its dangerous reefs and their own superstitions.
l The island served a useful purpose as a navigational marker: ships returning to Europe sailed
north as far as Bermuda, then veered east on
homeward journeys.
l We have evidence of castaways spending time on
Bermuda, including maps, detailed accounts—
plus the Portuguese Rock carving at Spittal Pond
in Smith’s Parish.
12
Chapter 1
Age of Discovery
SECTION 1
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
What if the Spanish had claimed Bermuda
first? Stimulate discussion on hypothetical
history: have students imagine how
Bermuda’s past might have unfolded
differently, and how their lives would be
changed today, if our heritage and culture
were Hispanic.
abyss
archipelago
cartographic
emblem
encompassed
facsimile
fictitious
indigenous
inscribed
malevolent
Class activity
Brainstorm what it would have been like to
be the first human to walk on Bermuda.
Encourage students to describe in detail,
orally or in writing, what they see, feel and
hear, as well as list the probable plants and
animals they might encounter in the 1500s
before manmade and natural impacts on
the environment.
premature
prevalent
profound
rampant
rapaciously
repercussions
resourcefully
testimonials
unbridled
undeniable
Unit project
On a photocopied map of the world, have
students shade or otherwise indicate which
areas of the globe were known by European
world powers before—and then after—this
period of major exploration, and compare
differences. Trace the oceanic routes key
explorers took on major expeditions.
Research skills
Direct students to go online or consult other
nonfiction sources to find out more about
the biggest discoveries
of the golden age of
exploration (late
1400s and 1500s). Who
were the maritime
heroes of the time?
Who were the
monarchs? What did
explorers bring back
Christopher Columbus
from their travels?
Which regions remained unexplored? How
did discoveries benefit different nations?
Remind students to list information sources.
Age of Discovery
Enrichment
Take fieldtrips to:
l Portuguese Rock at Spittal Pond and visit
the site where Portuguese castaways
crawled to safety and inscribed the mark
of their king. Tour the park trails and get
students to list native vs. introduced flora
and fauna.
l Nonsuch Island, where a population of
Bermuda petrels, or cahows—whose
night-time calls were thought by mariners
to be the sound of attacking devils—has
been slowly restored.
Chapter 1
13
CHAPTER TWO
SECTION 1
18
The Sea Venture
CHAPTER TWO
The Sea Venture
DISASTER BROADCASTS BERMUDA’S RICHES
W
illiam Strachey and his fellow passengers believed they
were forging an illustrious future for themselves and
their nation as they set sail from Plymouth, England on
June 2, 1609. Their proud fleet of seven ships, plus two
smaller attending ships, or pinnaces, was on a mission of
mercy, to be sent almost 4,000 miles across the Atlantic to deliver supplies
and expertise to James Fort, Virginia, England’s struggling two-year-old
colony on the James River, off Chesapeake Bay. The settlement, which
became known as Jamestown, was facing starvation and the fleet carried
England’s hope for its survival.
For Strachey, the journey was also a personal quest: having recently
Pottery and a candlestick from
the Sea Venture wreck of 1609
Right: an early map of the wild
Atlantic, Bermuda and the North
American coast
Fast Facts
l Sea Venture was the flagship of a nine-vessel
Sir George Somers
14
Chapter 2
“relief fleet” taking colonists and supplies to
Jamestown from England.
l Key figures on board were: Admiral Sir George
Somers; Sir Thomas Gates, later governor of
Virginia; Captain Sir Christopher Newport,
who earlier had headed the voyage to establish
Jamestown; and writer William Strachey, who
became secretary of the Virginia colony.
l All crew and passengers on board Sea Venture
survived the wreck.
l After grounding on Bermuda’s reefs, survivors
salvaged what they could from the wreck,
including food, tools, rigging and timber.
l The story can be divided into three main parts:
the struggle to survive the storm in July 1609;
survivors’ squabbles and teamwork during their
10 months on Bermuda; and their journey to
Jamestown in 1610, where they reunited with
friends and family.
The Sea Venture
BRIMSTONE MEDIA
Summary
This chapter describes one of the most dramatic
events in Bermuda’s history—the wreck of the
Sea Venture. The episode is significant for many
reasons: because it led directly to official English
settlement of Bermuda; because it spawned written
accounts that provide us with vivid detail of
400-year-old events; because it inspired William
Shakespeare, the world’s greatest playwright, to
write The Tempest; because it led to Sea Venture’s
survivors helping to rescue America’s birthplace,
Jamestown, from starvation with fresh supplies from
Bermuda. The chapter details the background,
personalities, events and consequences of the Sea
Venture story, including the survivors’ months on
Bermuda, and their escape almost a year later to
Virginia aboard two ships, Deliverance and Patience,
they built with salvaged supplies and island cedar.
SECTION 1
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Ask students which human qualities helped
Sea Venture passengers and crew to survive
their ordeal and continue their journey to
Jamestown? Encourage discussion of both
practical skills and personality traits many
would have possessed which proved an asset
to the group. Specifically, get the class to rate
the leadership of Gates and Somers; what
did they do right—or wrong? Which qualities
did they display that would be valuable to
politicians or corporate chiefs today?
affluence
allocated
apparition
bedraggled
bucolic
burgeoning
ensconced
futile
ignominious
illustrious
imperial
Class activity
Unit project
Invite students to read aloud Strachey’s
description of the Sea Venture hurricane,
followed by sections of Shakespeare’s play,
The Tempest. Discuss similarities in the
details, themes and drama of both writings
and talk about how Shakespeare may have
been inspired by the real-life wreck. Discuss
which events have inspired movies, plays or
books (films: Titanic, Schindler’s List; TV:
Band of Brothers; books: Moby Dick). Ask
students to base their own poem, song or
short story on an actual event.
Ask students to draw their own maps of
Bermuda from memory, including details
such as parish boundaries, towns, islands,
channels and harbours. Now compare their
work with Somers’s hand-drawn map.
Discuss his details and drawings, what they
tell about the castaways’ time in Bermuda,
and similarities and differences with modern
maps of the island.
Research skills
Instruct students to carry out their own
research on the first English settlement in
America at Jamestown, Virginia. When was
it founded, for which reasons, and by whom?
Ask them to describe the hardships and
tragedies that affected the colony before
the Sea Venture passengers arrived aboard
Deliverance and Patience in 1610. What was
Jamestown’s “Starving Time”?
The Sea Venture
incredulously
insurrection
jingoistic
jury-rigged
malcontent
phalanx
phenomenon
portend
propound
smorgasbord
versatile
Enrichment
Take a class fieldtrip to the Town of St.
George and visit:
l The replica of Deliverance at Ordnance
Island, complete with an animatronic
figure of William Strachey onboard.
l The Hall of History at the National
Museum of Bermuda at Dockyard.
Examine Bermudian artist Graham
Foster’s extraordinary mural depicting the
history of Bermuda, including the Sea
Venture saga. View artifacts recovered
from the Sea Venture wreck site.
Chapter 2
15
CHAPTER THREE
SECTION 1
30
The First Settlers
CHAPTER THREE
The First Settlers
SPAIN’S LOSS IS ENGLAND’S GAIN AS COLONISTS TAKE ROOT
A good example As soon
as wee had landed all our company,
we went all to prayer, and gave
thankes unto the Lord for our safe
arrivall, and whilst we were at
prayer, wee saw our three men come
rowinge downe to us, the sight of
whom did much revive us. They
showed us a good example for they
had planted corne, great store of
wheate, beanes, peas, pompions,
mellons, and tobacco; besides they
had wrought upon timber in squaring
and sawing of cedar trees, for they
intended to build a small pinnace
to carry them into Virginia, being
almost out of hope and comfort of
our coming.
—A colonist aboard the Plough, 1612
A
n intriguing flurry of correspondence between Felipe III (King
Philip III), his Board of Trade in Seville, and the Council of
War in Madrid revealed just how poorly informed Spain was
about Bermuda early in the 17th Century. Word about the
island had begun to spread throughout Europe. Given
Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 Line of Demarcation decree that all unknown
territory from 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands belonged to
Spain, news that the English had claimed the mysterious Isle of Devils set
off alarm bells in the Iberian peninsula. Afraid that a lucrative source of
pearls and ambergris—not to mention a potential strategic naval base—
were about to be lost forever to their rival, Spanish officials finally turned
their focus to the island they had virtually ignored for a century. It would
Summary
This chapter details the first years of official
settlement in Bermuda—the arrival of English
colonists aboard the Plough in 1612 and the
development of the first town, St. George.
Fortification was a major theme of the colony’s
first years, due to the precarious nature of English
(vs. Spanish) occupation of Bermuda. Challenges
were tough: rats, crop failure, disease and the
lack of expected riches like pearls and ambergris
left investors bitter and the first Governor, Richard
Moore, was replaced four years later, in 1616, by
Daniel Tucker.
Fast Facts
l Sixty settlers sailed from England to start a
colony at Bermuda in 1612.
l The “Three Kings”—a trio of Sea Venture
survivors who chose to stay in Bermuda rather
than go to Virginia—greeted the new colonists.
l Bermuda first came under the Virginia Company
mandate, but in 1615 became the responsibility of
the “Bermuda Company” (both groups were run
by private London investors).
l Initially, Bermuda was considered only a place of
useful provisions for Jamestown, Virginia; when
the colony gradually became profitable, investors
saw it as valuable in its own right.
l The first forts were built during these years.
Many remain as important archaeological sites;
l St. George began as a cluster of wooden homes
and a church, but gradually a stone town evolved.
The town and its forts became a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 2000.
16
Chapter 3
The First Settlers
SECTION 1
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Start a group discussion about what basic
elements are needed to start a new colony
or settlement. Include both tangible things
(water, crops, huts, a school) to those lesstangible (a chain of command, a justice
system). Get students to list suggestions
in order of the most critical elements.
Talk about the biggest challenges facing
a fledgling society.
assumption
augment
correspondence
disgruntled
farcical
impinge
increments
instrumental
interloping
lackadaisical
Class activity
Create a newspaper chronicling daily life
and highlights of Bermuda’s early settlers.
Have students write stories about imagined
events or characters from the first town. Or
encourage students to choose a character of
their own and write diary entries detailing a
week in the first Bermuda settlement. Or
film a mock-TV broadcast in which students
are interviewed (in character) about their
colonial lives by a contemporary ‘presenter.’
leverage
lucrative
porous
quashed
ricocheting
rudimentary
serendipity
single-minded
whetted
vindicated
Unit project
Divide the class in half and ask one group to
gather resources about early Jamestown, and
the other on early St. George. Have them
research and describe modes of construction,
punishment, and currency, among other key
elements, as well as the toughest challenges
and biggest achievements in both colonies.
Enrichment
Research skills
Have students find more information
about why St. George was selected as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, and what
that honour means in practical terms to
the town. Which are the related fortifications
that belong to the designation? What are
Bermuda’s responsibilities to the site? How
many other such UNESCO-designated
sites are there in the world? Ask the class
to list and locate some of them on different
continents, and describe their history and
attributes.
The First Settlers
Take students on a fieldtrip to:
l The World Heritage Centre at Penno’s
Wharf, where audio-visual and interactive
exhibits tell the story of Sea Venture and
the East End, with a fascinating model of
the town of St. George, and interpretive
synopses of early life and traditions.
l Fort St. Catherine has interactive exhibits
on Bermuda’s fortifications and military
history. Students can explore the fort, see
military artifacts and get a sense of what
it was like to be a soldier working in a
Bermuda coastal fort.
Chapter 3
17
CHAPTER FOUR
SECTION 1
40
The Company Island
CHAPTER FOUR
The Company Island
LAND, LAWS AND THE BIRTH OF SLAVERY
T
he Bermuda that faced Governor Daniel Tucker on his arrival
in 1616 was an island rapidly degenerating into an idle, ratinfested place. Continual neglect by the six interim commissioners appointed by Governor Moore before his departure had left
a fractious community lacking authority, industry or healthy
crops. Work on the forts had fallen off since the first settlers’ industrious
efforts, and the island’s future was now threatened by a community complacent
amid debauchery and petty crime.
Drastic changes were called for if the colony was ever to sustain itself,
let alone turn a profit for the Adventurers. Captain Tucker, an energetic
authoritarian who had spent five years running a plantation in Virginia, was
known for his self-styled brand of dictatorial discipline—a quality the
Bermuda Company felt was sorely needed to shake the island out of its
Summary
Bermuda’s development as a 17th-century
English colony continues in this chapter.
The makeup and mandate of the Bermuda
Company—and this group of investors’ strict
control of the island—is key during this period.
Daily life, currency, crime and punishment, parish
divisions and the first legislative assembly are also
detailed. Notably, the emergence of slavery in
Bermuda is also dealt with here, including the
first legal restrictions used to discriminate against
black slaves and servants.
The Bermuda Company seal
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Shopping list 40 dozens of shoes; 40 hundred hard soap; 12 barrels of powder; one tun
of wine; 30 dozen of stockings; 5 dozen of hats
—From a 1630s magazine ship bill of lading
Fast Facts
l Daniel Tucker, Bermuda’s second Governor, was
responsible for galvanising settlers to plant crops,
kill vermin, and protect vanishing species such as
cedar trees and sea turtles.
l Land surveyor Richard Norwood divided
Bermuda up into “tribes” or parishes.
l Innocent women were frequently hanged,
tortured or imprisoned as “witches” in the
17th century.
l Bermuda’s oldest stone building is the State
House, just off Town Square in St. George.
l By the 1620s, servants were being replaced by
black slaves, brought to Bermuda from Africa
via from the West Indies.
l Native Americans were also brought to the island
and sold as slaves; descendants can still be found,
particularly in St. David’s.
18
Chapter 4
The Company Island
SECTION 1
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Why did Bermuda enforce tough laws to
control black people in the 17th century?
Stimulate discussion by students on how
these early restrictions on civil liberties came
to totally deprive slaves of basic freedoms
and dignity (lack of free speech, education,
freedom to travel) over the next 200 years.
How did society and slave-owners justify
slavery, and how did misplaced beliefs
and legal control make it easier for slavery
to take place?
audacity
commission
complacent
degenerating
dictatorial
ensuing
enticing
fractious
gubernatorial
influential
insolent
interim
meagre
paradigm
perpetual
petty
precursor
retribution
volatile
zeal
Unit project
Class activity
Assign each student one of the nine
parishes. Direct them to create a poster
or advertisement celebrating the highlights
of their parish, including places of interest,
national parks, beaches, folklore, schools, or
particular flora or natural landmarks. Create
a class collage on a large map of Bermuda,
with groups depicting their parish space
with found objects, photographs, and
newspaper or brochure clippings, etc.
Research skills
How can British influence still be seen in
modern Bermuda? Encourage students to
detail the language, culture, legal and
political systems of British territories. Have
students look up and name former British
colonies—and locate the other 13 British
Overseas Territories (like Bermuda) that
still exist.
The Company Island
Bermuda instituted some of the first
environmental protection laws. Split the
class into groups and make each responsible
for choosing and researching a protected
Bermuda plant or animal. Have each group
deliver its findings in oral presentations, and
discuss why conservation is important.
Enrichment
Take fieldtrips to St. George’s and:
l Have students photograph or sketch the
early town model at the World Heritage
Centre, then walk around the town, and
identify areas from the model. Compare
with a modern street map. Discuss how
the town developed.
l Have students gather and research the
history behind six unusual street names
in St. George (e.g. Redcoat Lane, Needle
and Thread Alley, Barber’s Alley, Shinbone Alley, Turkey Hill, Duke of Kent
Street, Blacksmith’s Hill). Note: Exhibits
upstairs in the WHC offer background
on these and other place names.
Chapter 4
19
SEA, SALT & SLAVERY 1684–1834
CHAPTER FIVE
SECTION 2
52
Call of the Sea
CHAPTER FIVE
Call of the Sea
A MIGHTY MARITIME TRADITION IS BORN
Superior
The superiority of
our ships and sailors has long been
universally known.
—Governor William Browne, 1782
I
n 1722, a dashing Scottish soldier in his late 30s arrived in Bermuda
to take up the post of Governor. Colonel John Bruce Hope was a
pragmatic and enthusiastic personality, who launched into his new
duties with vigour and humour, but he is perhaps best remembered
for his descriptive accounts to Whitehall about the habits and
hardships of island life of the period.
“Thirty to forty years ago,” he noted, “these islands abounded with
oranges, lemons, dates, mulberries, pawpaws, plantains and pineapples in
particular, in such quantities that they loaded
their sloops with them. But the trees and
plants which remain, after blasts and mildews,
seldom bear any fruit and the tobacco has
gone, having for successive years been eaten,
while still green, by a worm in spite of all efforts.
“The inhabitants live chiefly on fish which
they are very dextrous in catching,” he wrote,
adding of Bermuda’s population: “They
generally reckon three women for one man
on the islands, since vast numbers of men are
carried away by shipwreck. In fair weather, the
whole inhabitants are almost all out at fishing.”
Bermuda had entered a new era in the
wake of the Somers Island Company’s 1684
collapse, one focussed not on the land, but on
everything maritime. England, pre-occupied
with military concerns and the management
of its larger, more profitable sugar-producing colonies in the West Indies
and America, continued to send out governors but otherwise left Bermuda
to its own devices—a situation the locals preferred to the decades of longdistance, monopolistic meddling by Company Adventurers. With the longtime ban on colonial trade and shipbuilding lifted, Bermuda’s inhabitants
BRIMSTONE MEDIA
Summary
The first chapter of this section relates the start of a
new era in Bermuda, following the 1684 collapse of
the Somers Island Company (Bermuda Company).
Instead of strict trade regulations and monopolies,
Bermudians were now free to earn a living of their
choice. Bans on shipbuilding and colonial trade
were lifted, and both industries fuelled a maritimebased economy throughout the 1700s. Whaling,
piloting, salt-raking and privateering were also
common enterprises. The chapter includes
breakouts on Bermudian pirates, the cedar tree
(key to shipbuilding) and the Bermuda sloop.
The Bermuda sloop: fast,
rot-resistant and in great
demand by mariners
Fast Facts
l England continued to send governors to
Bermuda after 1684, but otherwise left
administration of the island to Bermudians.
l The island began to thrive economically, thanks
to successful maritime industries such as shipbuilding, Atlantic trade and privateering.
l Wars between European powers of the time
opened the door for merchants to prey on enemy
ships as privateers.
l Maritime industries such as trading, ship-building
and piloting brought together white Bermudians.
and black free men and slaves in a common mission
l The Bermuda sloop’s durability and design for
speed made it one of the most sought-after
sailing ships in the world.
l This 150-year period (1684–1830s) of enterprise,
innovation and stubborn independence shaped
the Bermudian character for future centuries.
20
Chapter 5
Call of the Sea
SECTION 2
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Historians consider the 1700s/early 1800s a
period critical in shaping our national identity.
Traits such as overcoming adversity, working
together, and seizing opportunities to make
wealth are some of the qualities that have
defined Bermudians over the centuries.
Engage the class in a discussion about what
makes Bermudian people unique, and how
some of the human qualities engendered
during this era have translated into innovation
and success as a country in later times
(the boom times of the US Civil War, early
tourism, negotiating the US baselands deal,
international business, etc).
autonomy
barbarity
bonafide
carte blanche
commodity
differentiate
dwindle
foray
hijinks
idiosyncratic
Class activity
Celebrate Bermuda cedar! Grow Bermuda
cedar saplings from cedarberries in the classroom, then plant them on school grounds
or let students take them home to plant.
Discuss ways in which cedar proved vital
in Bermuda history—from the making of
Deliverance and Patience to the construction
of homes and furniture. Encourage students
to bring in items of local cedar for display.
Talk about the cedar blight (see Chapter 14),
and how it changed Bermuda’s landscape.
Research skills
Invite students to select a key Atlantic port
of the 1700s to research its history, economy
and maritime connections with Bermuda
during that period. Which goods drove the
business of maritime trade? (Philadelphia,
Boston, the Carolinas, Newfoundland, Halifax
and West Indies ports can be explored.)
Call of the Sea
legitimate
mobilisation
monopolistic
nefarious
pragmatic
press-ganged
tenaciously
topography
viable
vigour
Unit project
Assign students to study piloting, pirating,
privateering, whaling, salt-raking, shipbuilding
or Atlantic trading. Divide the class into
groups and have students select different
maritime industries to research. Instruct
them to create a fictional character—a
captain, a slave, a crewman—and describe in
creative writing a day of his life during a
particular voyage or incident. Have each
student present their diary entry to the class.
Enrichment
l Sign up your class for a learning expedition
aboard Spirit of Bermuda through the
Bermuda Sloop Foundation (see
www.bermudasloop.org). Its live-aboard
coastal expeditions teach about Bermuda’s
maritime heritage through a curriculumbased instructional programme.
l Visit the National Museum of Bermuda,
incorporating the Bermuda Maritime
Museum (www.bmm.bm), where the
island’s seafaring past can be explored
through ship models and artifacts.
Chapter 5
21
CHAPTER SIX
SECTION 2
64
Scourge of Slavery
CHAPTER SIX
Scourge of Slavery
SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN BLACK CULTURE
A PEOPLE’S FREEDOM DENIED FOR 200 YEARS
Floggings and punishments on
a West Indian plantation
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Summary
This chapter examines slavery in Bermuda—how it
started, where slaves came from, how slaves lived,
industries they supported, how they rebelled, means
of suppressing their freedom, and the myriad ways
slavery forever changed Bermudian society. Included
are sidebars on Sally Bassett, the Middle Passage,
the daily life of slaves, education and punishment.
This chapter continues the discussion of slavery
begun in Chapter 4 and continued in Chapter 8’s
focus on 1834 Emancipation (Freedom and
Reform). Later chapters deal with the subsequent
fight for equal rights, universal suffrage and socioeconomic conditions (Chapter 18 Growing Pains,
and Chapter 19 Troubled Times).
O
n an otherwise uneventful day in 1800, a 12-year-old
Devonshire girl saw her world disintegrate. Mary Prince, a
slave, was sold. Her second owner—a woman who had kept
Prince’s family as domestic help and companionship for her
own daughter Betsey—died, and many of her belongings,
including her slaves, were auctioned off. For Prince, it marked the end of
childhood comforts and an abrupt farewell to the only home she had ever
known. Separated from her grief-stricken mother, three sisters and two
brothers at a public market, she was purchased for £57 by a cruel captain
and his wife to work at their Spanish Point property—an excruciating
experience that would torment her for the rest of her life.
“My mistress set about instructing me in my tasks. She taught me to do
all sorts of household work; to wash and bake, pick cotton and wool, and
wash floors, and cook,” Prince would later recount. “And she taught me
more things than these; she caused me to know the exact difference
between the smart of the rope, the cart-whip and the cow-skin when applied
to my naked body by her own cruel hand. There was scarcely any punishment
more dreadful than the blows I received on my face and head from her hard
heavy fist…To strip me naked, to hang me up by the wrists and lay my
flesh open with the cow-skin, was an ordinary punishment for even a slight
offence.”
Little did her new owners know that history would record their brutality,
and that Prince’s catalogue of harsh treatment—in Bermuda, Antigua, London
and, perhaps most notably, in the Turks Islands salt pans—would ultimately
aid her struggle to become a free woman. At 43, Prince gave a detailed
account of her experiences to Britain’s Anti-Slavery Society, which published
her life story in 1831. Along with many similar slave tales, Prince’s graphic
narrative was used as ammunition in the Society’s lobby which two years
later would win abolition of slavery in Britain, followed by Bermuda and
other English colonies.
In the 19th Century, Prince’s story, like others, created a whole new
Fast Facts
l By 1700, white English servants were mostly
replaced by slaves as a source of cheap labour.
l Strict laws enforced the life enslavement of black
slaves in Bermuda.
l The island’s slaves were largely natives of the
West Indies, Central America and Africa, but
generally were purchased in Caribbean markets.
l Slaves worked as house servants, gardeners, shoemakers, fishermen, pilots, mechanics, sailors,
whalers, farmers, field-hands and executioners.
l Bermuda did not have a plantation culture
because the island’s size did not allow for large
sugarcane, cotton or tobacco cultivation.
l Bermudian blacks, like slaves elsewhere, fought
back by running away, poisoning owners, theft,
sabotage, go-slows, uprisings and conspiracies.
l Slave artifacts such as shackles and cowrie shells
have been found on Bermuda’s reefs—remnants
of wrecked slave ships of the Middle Passage.
22
Chapter 6
Scourge of Slavery
SECTION 2
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Discuss the economic roots of the Slave
Trade with your class. Encourage debate
over ways human greed has been a catalyst
for gross misdeeds and inhumanity over the
ages. Point out the advantages New World
capitalists—including the island’s property
owners—enjoyed by using slaves as cheap
labour over indentured servants. How was
slavery in Bermuda similar to slavery in the
Americas, and how did it differ because of
the island’s size and type of industries?
abhorred
benign
camaraderie
commonplace
destitute
disintegrate
draconian
escapades
excruciating
figuratively
fraught
illicit
indictment
infringements
insidious
manumission
odious
patronising
permeated
wrenching
Unit project
Class activity
Create a display of a large map of the
Atlantic, with Africa, America and Europe
featured. Split students into three groups to
research and present their findings on the
“Trade Triangle”: 1) slave trading on Africa’s
Gold Coast and the Middle Passage; 2)
slavery on plantations of the Caribbean and
Americas; 3) products slave labour sent back
to Europe (American cotton and tobacco,
West Indian sugar, Peruvian silver, etc).
Encourage students to imagine they are a
slave enroute from Africa to the Americas
aboard a ship travelling the Middle Passage.
In descriptive essays, have them write about
the voyage from a slave’s point of view,
including living conditions, punishments on
board, sadness about leaving families behind,
and fears about the future in unknown
destinations.
Enrichment
l Tour the exhibit galleries—Trans-Atlantic
Research skills
Have students dig back in human history to
find out how long slavery has existed and in
which societies and cultures? Does human
bondage and trafficking still occur? If so,
how do economic motivations—of both the
victims and abusers—play a part and how
are responsible countries working to stamp
out the problem? Get students to write a
synopsis of their research, including a
discussion of the moral issues involved.
Scourge of Slavery
Slave Trade and Slavery in Bermuda—
inside Commissioner’s House, National
Museum of Bermuda, which are stops
along the African Diaspora Trail. Here
the story of the 200-year slave trade is
told through interpretive panels and
artifacts from the museum’s collection.
l Visit the statue depicting executed
Bermudian slave Sally Bassett in the
grounds of the Cabinet Building on Front
Street. Have students sketch the sculpture
or make their own art tribute to slaves.
Chapter 6
23
CHAPTER SEVEN
SECTION 2
74
Wars and Defence
CHAPTER SEVEN
Wars and Defence
BERMUDA BECOMES A BASTION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
I
n a letter to his mother from Bermuda in 1773, Philadelphia Quaker
Thomas Coates described an island on the brink of famine. The situation
had grown so dire, the government detained the ship on which Coates
had sailed and confiscated its cargo of flour and rice, although that
was a “mere mouthful” among so many people in need of food, he noted.
No other provisions would arrive for more than a month. On January 23, a
sloop made port with 200 barrels of
flour and 1,500 bushels of corn, rations
of less than a quart per family.
“The poor people really bear the
marks of hunger in their countenance
as many of them cannot muster up
more than will buy a peck or two, and
in two or three days perhaps could
buy more—but it’s all sold,” Coates
remarked. “This is a great disadvantage
they labour under. I suppose there’s
one third of the families here have
neither flour, corn or rice to make
bread with, obliged to live on fish
alone—when they can get it.”
When America’s 13 colonies
went to war with Britain, Bermudians
felt the fallout in very physical terms.
The American Revolutionary War
(1775–83) was essentially a constitutional conflict which forged a new
democratic philosophy and created the ‘United States.’ But the war also
proved a milestone in Bermuda’s history, not least because it brought home
to Bermudians in very serious terms the precarious nature of survival on an
island so far removed from mainland food supplies.
The geographical problem was exacerbated by the century’s evolving
BERMUDA ARCHIVES
Summary
This chapter’s focus is the American Revolutionary
War (1775–83), including the key role Bermudians
played in the American victory against Britain, and
Britain’s decision after losing its American ports to
make Bermuda a major military outpost for its
Atlantic operations. Themes deal with the divided
loyalties (America vs. Britain) among Bermudians,
the Gunpowder Theft, the island’s dependence on
American trade for vital foodstuffs, and Britain’s
decision to build the Royal Naval Dockyard in the
early 1800s. The Boston Tea Party, the War of 1812
between America and Britain, and the Napoleonic
wars between Britain and France are also discussed.
Fort St. Catherine, an important
fortification, was built over one
of Bermuda’s earliest defences
Fast Facts
l America was Bermuda’s lifeline for food and
supplies, due to thriving trade between them.
l America’s war with Britain put this relationship
in danger because Bermuda was a British colony.
l Bermuda’s trump card was its proximity to
America—and it had stores of gunpowder.
l Bermudian loyalties were split: officially, the
island was British, but privately, locals sympathised
with America, due to family and trade ties.
l The island’s Tucker family played key roles:
Colonel Henry Tucker went to America’s
Continental Congress to argue for supplies; his
son, St. George Tucker, lived in Virginia and
was an ardent supporter of America’s cause.
l George Washington led America to victory and
was elected the first US President in 1789.
l Britain signed the Treaty of Paris with the new
United States of America, ending war in 1783
but losing all its American east coast ports.
24
Chapter 7
Wars and Defence
SECTION 2
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Bermuda’s strategic geographical position
helped America in its War of Independence,
but also provided a solution to Britain’s
military needs in the war’s aftermath.
Get students to suggest other instances in
Bermuda’s past where we played a key role in
the history of larger nations mostly because
of our island’s convenient location (e.g. US
Civil War, Second World War, Cold War).
audacious
bastion
dire
exacerbated
imperialist
impregnable
irksome
loathe
opportunism
penal
Class activity
Bermuda’s ties to America began back in
Jamestown and continue to this day. Launch
a class project in which students select and
research different aspects of our island
lifestyle and culture that are fuelled by or
benefit from our close links to the United
States (cuisine, travel, access to world-class
health-care, universities, US tourists,
currency, etc).
perpetrators
personae non gratae
precarious
pre-empted
prescient
retaliatory
road-blocked
soporific
stifling
villany
Unit project
Split the class in half and have students
research either the structure of the US
government or Bermuda’s government.
Create detailed diagrams for class display
to illustrate both systems of government
(include executive, legislative and judicial
branches of each). Compare and contrast
the two diagrams as a class discussion.
Research skills
Enrichment
What were the causes of the American
Revolutionary War? Instruct students to
research the background of the conflict and
list the political and economic reasons
America wanted to break away from Britain
and create a separate nationhood of states.
What was the “Boston Tea Party”? What
was the Declaration of Independence and
which basic rights did it assert? Have
students name the 13 original US states
and the first three US presidents.
l Explore the Royal Naval Dockyard, its
Wars and Defence
historic buildings and outdoor spaces with
students. Have them draw a plan of the
area and find out what its buildings were
originally intended for and how these
facilities supported the Navy fleet for
close to 150 years.
l Tour the Royal Naval graveyards of
Ireland Island, and get students to choose
six tombstones each to record information
about soldiers and sailors who died in
Bermuda.
Chapter 7
25
CHAPTER EIGHT
SECTION 2
86
Freedom and Reform
CHAPTER EIGHT
Freedom and Reform
EMANCIPATION AND ITS AFTERMATH
B
anners, parades and church services throughout the island
marked August 1, 1834 as a “new day” for Bermuda’s black
population. It was Emancipation Day, bringing the long-awaited
abolition of slavery. Bermuda’s population of almost 10,000
people included 3,600 slaves, as well as 1,200 free blacks, and
both groups joined to celebrate the start of a new era. Joyful festivities,
mostly religious gatherings of family and friends, began at midnight on July
31—the official end of more than 200 years of human bondage and indignity.
After much bitter debate, the British Parliament had finally moved to
abolish the slave trade in 1807, followed by slavery itself in Britain on
August 29, 1833. The next year, a bill was passed to eradicate slavery in all
British colonies. In Bermuda, two abolition acts were passed: the first, the
Act to Abolish Slavery, made all slaves free; the other repealed 200 years of
discriminatory laws against blacks. America’s
Emancipation Proclamation was still 30
years away—Abraham Lincoln would not
issue that decree until January 1, 1863,
during the Civil War. An amendment to
the Constitution two years later would
finally end slavery in America. Elsewhere,
Britain’s Caribbean colonies followed the
mother country’s lead over the next few
years, though Bermuda and Antigua were
the only two territories which did away
with slavery immediately. Others required
black citizens to endure a six-year
probationary period of ‘apprenticeship’
before winning full freedom, though this
system ultimately collapsed.
Mercenary motives led Bermudian
slaveholders to support the immediate end
BERMUDA ARCHIVES
Summary
Emancipation and its aftermath are the focus of this
chapter. The legislative process of this event is
explained, in context with similar developments in
Britain and, later, America. Emancipation Day
itself is described from various points of view. The
subsequent challenges facing newly-freed blacks is
also outlined, including the role of Friendly Societies.
The state of education, for both white and black
Bermudians, is also described. The chapter ends the
book’s section on Bermuda’s maritime heyday,
explaining that increased competition from
Caribbean ports and the advent of steampower
coupled to end Bermuda’s carrying trade and shipbuilding industry—and led to a new era with an
economic focus on agriculture in the late 1800s.
Fast Facts
l The Slave Trade was abolished in 1807, but
slavery itself continued until 1833 in Britain.
l America did not abolish slavery until 1863,
under President Abraham Lincoln.
l Emancipation Day in Bermuda was August 1,
1834—now celebrated as the first day of the
annual two-day Cup Match holiday.
l Bermuda’s population of 10,000 in 1834 included
3,600 slaves and 1,200 free blacks.
l The 1835 arrival of US brig Enterprise, was a
demonstration of the different attitudes towards
slavery in Bermuda vs. America.
l Despite the abolition of slavery, Bermuda’s blacks
had a long way to go to win equal rights.
l Hamilton became Bermuda’s second capital in
1793, named for Governor Henry Hamilton.
l The first edition of Bermuda’s first newspaper,
the Bermuda Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, was
published on January 17, 1784.
26
Chapter 8
Freedom and Reform
SECTION 2
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Examine the moral issues of slavery with
your class, considering the perspectives of
both slaves and slave-owners. What did
Emancipation achieve, and what more
needed to happen to give blacks equal
rights? Open a discussion about the decades
that followed Emancipation, and the many
examples of discrimination and segregation
of Bermuda’s blacks into modern times.
How are we still affected by slavery as a
nation? How can such wounds be healed?
amassed
apprenticeship
artisans
assets
behemoth
conveyance
grossly
humanitarian
indignity
integrated
mercenary
mortifying
muster
pedagogy
pluck
probationary
quagmire
remuneration
stipulations
vindictive
Unit project
Class activity
Split the class into three groups and
re-enact a debate to bring alive the
Enterprise incident. Have students research
and argue the case of 1) the Enterprise’s
American captain; 2) his human cargo of
slave passengers, and 3) Bermudian
authorities and supporters of the slaves
who worked to free them through legislative
means in a Bermuda court.
Suggest that students play urban-planners
and design their own version of Hamilton as
a capital city. Instruct them to include all the
major necessities for modern living (courts,
police station, retail, offices, transport hubs,
parks, etc), but in a street grid/layout of their
own preference, each with a map key. Make
a class display of all the different designs.
Enrichment
l Visit the Enterprise sculpture at Barr’s Bay,
Research skills
Ask students to read a biography or research
the background of figures—black, white,
slave or free—who worked for abolition in
Europe or the Americas (Olaudah Equiano,
William Wilberforce, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Mary Prince).
On which grounds did they oppose and
argue against the institution of slavery?
Get students to present a report to the class
with their findings.
Freedom and Reform
Hamilton to see where the brigantine
made port with its controversial slave cargo.
l Go on a fieldtrip to the Bermuda Heritage
Museum in the Town of St. George. Not
only will students find the artifacts, folklore and history told there interesting,
but the building is also relevant, as it
belonged to the Grand United Order
of Good Samaritans, one of the largest
Friendly Societies that helped blacks
after Emancipation.
Chapter 8
27
BOOMTOWN TO BOERS 1834–1918
SECTION 3
CHAPTER NINE
100
From Sea to Soil
CHAPTER NINE
From Sea to Soil
CONVICT LABOUR AND THE SHIFT TO AGRICULTURE
A
s he craned his neck to get a better glimpse of Bermuda from
his crowded ship quarters, Irishman John Mitchel was feeling
decidedly homesick. It was June 20, 1848, and the 33-year-old
native of County Derry, with the rest of the vessel’s passengers,
had spent the past several weeks journeying across the
Atlantic. Even though he was immensely relieved to have finally reached
land, Mitchel’s first impressions of the island, recorded in a detailed diary,
were not exactly glowing.
“Their houses are uniformly white, both walls
and roof, but uncomfortable-looking for the want
of chimneys; the cooking-house being usually a
small detached building,” he remarked, painting a
drab image of what appeared to him “an unkindly
and foreign” land.
“The rocks, wherever laid bare (except those
long washed by the sea), are white or creamcoloured. The whole surface of all the islands is
made up of hundreds of low hillocks, many of
them covered with a pitiful scraggy brush of
cedars; and cedars are their only tree,” he wrote.
“The land not under wood is of a brownish green
colour, and of a most naked and arid, hungry and
thirsty visage. No wonder: for not one single
stream, not one spring, rill or well, gushes, trickles or bubbles in all the 300
isles, with their 3,000 hills. The hills are too low, and the land too narrow, and
all the rock is a porous calcerous concretion, which drinks up all the rain
that falls on it, and would drink ten times as much, and be thirsty afterwards.
Heavens! What a burned and blasted country.”
But Mitchel and the other new arrivals were no ordinary visitors. Exiled
to Bermuda from Britain, they were among the 9,000 convicts—from petty
thieves to brutal murderers and political prisoners like Mitchel—sentenced
THE BERMUDIAN
Summary
This chapter launches a new era in Bermuda history,
spanning the mid-1800s to the turn of the century.
It was a period of change, as Bermudians returned
to the soil to develop an agricultural economy, to
feed the island and create exports. Governor
William Reid’s tenure shook up the island with
fresh ideas and a push to bring in immigrant
farmers from the Azores and other parts of Europe.
Another major development was construction of the
Royal Naval Dockyard, first by slaves and then by
convict labourers sent from Britain.
Two convict hulks surrounded by
British warships at Dockyard
Fast Facts
l Bermuda became a quiet backwater in the mid-
1800s—food shortages and diseases like yellow
fever were common and the economy slumped.
l Britain, by contrast, was enjoying rapid progress
in medicine, sanitation and agriculture during
the Industrial Revolution.
l Most foreign visitors in the mid-19th century
were military officers posted to Bermuda.
l A total of 9,000 convicts were shipped to
Bermuda to work on the Dockyard between
1824–63.
l Governor William Reid encouraged new ideas
and technologies (Gibbs Hill Lighthouse,
deeper marine channels and farming expertise).
l The US was Bermuda’s main source of food at
the time—a dangerous dependency.
l Reid and his successor Charles Elliot convinced
Bermuda’s parliament to fund immigrants from
Europe who were skilled in farming methods.
28
Chapter 9
From Sea to Soil
SECTION 3
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Innovative approaches and fresh ideas
fuelled progress in the second half of the
1800s, including Bermuda, where Governor
Reid encouraged Bermudians to think
differently about the importance of farming.
Spark a class discussion on similarly original
and creative thinking of the past two or
three decades that has changed life as people
in Bermuda and elsewhere knew it. Point
out the vast pace of innovation—notably
in healthcare and technology—in just the
2000s. Ask them to imagine which
developing trends might take root to alter
the way we live in the next five years.
anomaly
backwater
condescendingly
consecutive
craned
deterrent
drab
dreary
embodied
empathy
erudite
instrumental
invigorated
lethargic
motley
monotony
ominous
perennial
shambles
tenure
Unit project
Encourage students to think up new
inventions of their own. Have them first
sketch their idea and describe it in a detailed
essay, including reasons why it is needed in
the world. Then ask them to collect materials
to try to construct their invention and put
together a classroom display of all ideas.
Discuss the history of penal colonies, such
as the one which existed for 40 years at
Bermuda’s Dockyard. Why were prisoners
exiled and how are they treated differently
today? Have the class construct a large map
of the world and pinpoint where different
penal colonies were located and which
countries used them. Split students into
small groups to research different penal
colonies and deliver written and oral
reports to the rest of the class.
Research skills
Enrichment
Invite students to find out more about
the Industrial Revolution and how it
transformed life in Britain, Europe, North
America and the world. Have them choose
a key invention and detail how it changed
manufacturing, transportation, technology,
or socio-economic conditions of the time.
Which of these would have had the most
impact on life in Bermuda in that era?
l Tour Tom Wadson’s farm in Southampton
Class activity
From Sea to Soil
Parish with students and learn how
modernday Bermudians are involved in
agriculture, including organic methods.
l Pay a class visit to the Prisoners in Paradise
exhibit at the National Museum of
Bermuda at Dockyard, where artifacts
made by convict labourers and Boer War
prisoners are on display inside a converted
munitions magazine.
Chapter 9
29
CHAPTER TEN
SECTION 3
110
The Portuguese
CHAPTER TEN
Summary
The focus of this chapter is the story of Bermuda’s
Portuguese immigrants—where they came from,
why they moved to Bermuda, and how their distinct
culture has impacted Bermuda through its people,
cuisine, religion, language and traditions. The text
describes the beneficial economic impact immigrants
had on Bermuda, thanks to their agricultural
expertise. It also deals with the challenges
Portuguese immigrants to Bermuda faced over the
decades and the prejudices they had to overcome.
The Portuguese
IMMIGRANTS FORGE A THRIVING NEW COMMUNITY
Naomi and Manuel DeCouto in
1924 with their children, a
Portuguese-Bermudian family
which emigrated to Fall River,
Massachusetts. At right, Naomi’s
parents, Bermuda immigrants
Frank Medeiros Simon and his
wife Antoinette
COURTESY OF ROBERT PIRES
COURTESY OF ROBERT PIRES
I
n the 1880s, a 30-year-old farmer named Frank
Medeiros Simon traded life on one remote
Atlantic island for another. Both islands were
important whaling hubs, military outposts and
ports of call for mariners. Yet in every other
way, they were worlds apart. In São Miguel, the
Azores, Simon bid farewell to his wife Antoinette
and their five children and sailed west to Bermuda a
thousand miles away. In a foreign culture where he neither
spoke the language nor understood British customs, he got
busy building a new life, one rooted in the harvests of
Bermuda onions, potatoes and arrowroot.
In 1890, a few years after his arrival, Simon sent for
his family to join him and over the next two decades,
they prospered and grew. Frank and Antoinette
would have seven more sons and daughters, whose
lives and those of their children and grandchildren
were infused with common threads of community
activism, intellectual thought and indefatigable industry.
Today, the names of their descendants—Marshall, Mello, Pires, Souza,
DeCouto, Barboza, Johnson, Correia, Martin—touch family roots throughout
Bermuda’s Portuguese community.
The names and circumstances may change, but Simon’s story is that of
many ancestors of Portuguese-Bermudians. His journey followed the 1849
path of Bermuda’s first Portuguese immigrants and would be repeated
thousands of times in the following century and a half as the story of
Portuguese emigration unfolded. Like communities in the United States,
Canada and elsewhere, Bermuda offered a better future for migrants fleeing
poverty and persecution, but the island also desperately needed their
agricultural and work skills and reaped the rewards.
“The benefit I look forward to from your introducing a few European
Fast Facts
l Portuguese make up roughly a fifth, or 20 percent,
of Bermuda’s population, but their influence on
Bermuda heritage has been far-reaching.
l The first 58 Portuguese immigrants arrived from
Madeira on November 4, 1849 aboard Captain
Benjamin Watlington’s brigantine Golden Rule.
l Failing economies in Madeira, the Azores and
Cape Verde prompted emigrants to start new
lives in America, Canada or Bermuda.
l Just two years after Portuguese immigrants
arrived, agricultural productivity was increasing.
l Attempts to bring in immigrant farmers from
Sweden, Germany and Britain were unsuccessful.
l Liberal immigration policies that allowed
Portuguese to become naturalised Bermudians
changed later in the 20th century when restrictive,
often discriminatory measures were imposed by
Bermuda’s Parliament.
30
Chapter 10
The Portuguese
SECTION 3
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Discuss with students the forms of bias and
prejudice that often greet new immigrants
to any nation. Why do they think
newcomers—to a country, to a classroom—
are treated in this way? Ask students for
examples they may have encountered or
witnessed personally? Explain how the
Portuguese Consul in Bermuda today acts
as an advocate for Portuguese nationals
and their families.
denominations
diaspora
impoverished
indefatigable
indentured
industrious
infused
integral
intrinsic
mainstay
Class activity
Unit project
What has Portuguese culture given to
Bermuda? Ask students to choose one
element of Portuguese heritage and research
how it has changed or added to Bermuda’s
multicultural society. Students should gather
photos/images and write a report on their
chosen subject—which can vary from a
food product to language, industry skills,
a tradition or religious ceremony.
Instruct students to interview and
photograph a Portuguese-Bermudian or
a Portuguese resident and write it up. Have
them find out the individual’s personal and
family history, their career details, and what
their Portuguese heritage means to them.
The subject can be a new or temporary
resident or a descendent of a multigenerational Portuguese family.
Research skills
Enrichment
Send students on a fact-finding mission,
using books, contemporary interviews, and
web resources to carry out a project on the
Azores. Get them to look at the Azorean
islands’ history, as well as their political and
socio-economic conditions, and to note their
similarities and differences to Bermuda. Plot
a classroom map of the islands, their major
towns and their distances to Europe,
Bermuda and the Portuguese diaspora
centres of North America, such as Toronto
and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
l Take students to visit the National
The Portuguese
manual
naturalised
patriarchal
poignant
progressive
tracts
underwrote
vocations
withering
zenith
Museum of Bermuda exhibit, The Azores
& Bermuda at the Commissioner’s House
in Dockyard.
l Have your class attend a Portuguese festa
such as the Holy Ghost Festival (Festa do
Divino Espiritu Santo) or the Festival of
the Christ of Miracles (Festa do Senhor
Santo Christo dos Milagres) and record
their impressions in artwork, photography
or a journal. Get them to research the
tradition’s origin and cultural meaning.
Chapter 10
31
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SECTION 3
120
American Civil War
CHAPTER ELEVEN
American Civil War
BLOCKADE-RUNNERS BRING FLEETING FORTUNE
I
BERMUDA NATIONAL TRUST
Summary
This chapter looks at one of the most thrilling
episodes in Bermuda’s history—the island’s major
role in the US Civil War (1861–65). It is important
because of the war’s impact on Bermuda’s economy
—turning the capital, St. George, into a boomtown
for several years—and also because many
Bermudians secretly aided the American rebels’
cause in the conflict. Britain was officially neutral,
but many of its citizens also supported the South
with shipments of weapons and war supplies
because Southern states were the major supplier
of cotton for British mills.
Georgiana Gholson Walker, who
braved the Union blockade to be
with her husband in Bermuda
n March 1863, a 29-year-old Southern belle set out on a brief journey
that could have been considered either an act of commendable
audacity or an incredibly foolish stunt. Six months pregnant and
with her three young children in tow, Georgiana Gholson Walker
boarded the blockade-runner Cornubia in Wilmington, North
Carolina and set off in a bid to successfully dodge a fleet of enemy vessels
and reach Bermuda. It was the middle of the American Civil War, and Walker’s
husband, Major Norman Stewart Walker, had spent the past four months on
the island in his new post as political agent for the besieged Confederacy.
Desperate to see him again, she ignored the advice of friends and convinced
the ship’s captain to take her on the daring escapade. “No one gave me one
word of encouragement or hope,” she later wrote, “except that brave and
blessed friend—my Father, who said, ‘My child, you are in the path of duty,
I doubt not all will be well.’”
No woman had ever run the Union blockade, but the plucky Petersburg,
Virginia native, daughter of lawyer and politician George Saunders Gholson,
was determined to try. The dangers were substantial. The captain “laid plainly
before me the perils of the trip, saying that the last vessel which had gone
out had just been captured, that the Northern Fleet was large and stationed
for many miles out. I said nevertheless I should go,” she recalled in her journal.
As the ship prepared to sail, the Confederate general in command in
Wilmington came on board to urge her to reconsider, as did her good
friend, the wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. She “besought me
to consider my children, if not myself, and to return to Richmond.” But
Walker was resolute, though privately she admitted “occasional misgivings
as I looked upon my innocents and thought of the dangers to which I was
going to expose them. But I had weighed the matter well and I believed it to
be my duty.”
Walker and her children—eight-year-old Carey, nicknamed “Lillie,”
Norman Stewart, Jr., seven, and Georgie Gholson, two—boarded the ship
on March 18 and with the captain and crew, waited for the safety of nightfall.
Fast Facts
l The US Civil War was also called the “American
A cotton bale fire captured by artist Edward James
32
Chapter 11
War of Secession.”
l At issue was the North’s push for abolition vs.
the South’s dependence on slavery to support its
agrarian economy (or, in broader terms, federal
power over state rights).
l History considers this the first modern war, with
2,400 battles more than 600,000 casualties.
l Bermuda’s geographic position—between
America’s South and Britain—was ideal as a
depot for blockade-runners. Fast vessels smuggled
war goods and luxury items past Yankee gunboats
to rebel states, in return for cotton bales that in
Bermuda were put on larger ships for Europe.
l Cotton became the currency of the war—it was
known as “White Gold.”
l The war transformed Bermuda, as spies, captains,
crews, merchants and political agents poured into
St. George.
American Civil War
SECTION 3
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Initiate a class discussion about the rights of
individuals vs. a group or central authority,
and states vs. a federal government. How is
individual autonomy achieved in a greater
whole? Can it be peaceful? What types of
laws or restrictions on individual rights are
necessary in a democratic society? How
have rebellions against authority or societal
norms (staged by industrial organisations
or environmental lobby groups, for example)
achieved a greater good? When would it be
acceptable to challenge convention?
circumvent
clandestine
consternation
cosmopolitan
crucible
dispirited
dissipation
duration
exorbitant
flagrant
foreshadow
innate
lifeblood
liquidate
misgivings
noncombatant
profiteering
proximity
resolute
strategists
Unit project
Divide the class in half, with one side tasked
to learn about the South and the other about
the North in the US Civil War. Have each
group work together to research and itemize
in detail the rationale for entering the
conflict, and explain why they feel justified
in waging a costly war. Stage a debate in
class, with students working in two teams
to use the researched information to make
their points.
Use Georgiana Walker’s diary as a starting
point to discuss the power of journals as
communication tools. Discuss as a class what
her descriptions of Bermuda life in the
1860s say about the way people lived then
and about her own character, traits and
qualities. Invite students to record their own
journal entries with descriptive writings
about a family gathering, a school event,
cherished or hurtful memories, etc.
Encourage candid writing that records
both emotional and scenic detail.
Research skills
Enrichment
Have students conduct online and/or library
research on US President Abraham Lincoln.
They should gather biographical details, as
well as information about Lincoln’s
philosophical beliefs, including his stance
against the institution of slavery. Instruct
them to write an essay about Lincoln,
highlighting his lifetime achievements
and lasting legacy.
l Go on a fieldtrip to the Bermuda National
Class activity
American Civil War
Trust Museum at the Globe Hotel in
St. George. Students will enjoy learning
about the US Civil War through artifacts,
film and interpretive panels in the
museum’s exhibit, Rogues & Runners.
The building itself was the Confederate
headquarters and home of Major Norman
Walker, who sent guns and supplies
through Bermuda to the blockaded South.
Chapter 11
33
CHAPTER TWELVE
SECTION 3
132
Tourism Takes Off
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tourism Takes Off
NATURE’S FAIRYLAND COURTS THE RICH AND FAMOUS
B
BERMUDA ARCHIVES
Summary
This is a multi-themed chapter that deals with
several large topics stretching from the late 1800s
to 1918: the birth of tourism as an industry in
Bermuda starting in the late Victorian era; the
British strengthening of island forts and military
facilities; Boer War prisoners in the first years of
the 1900s; and the impact of the First World War
(1914–18) and Bermudians who joined the Allied
effort in Europe. Sidebars detail turn-of-thecentury Bermuda life, the advent of tennis, and
the island’s attraction to celebrity writers.
The enticing cover of the first
official guidebook, 1914
ermuda is not the place for consumptives,” declared American
visitor Julia Dorr. “But for the overworked and weary, for
those who need rest and recreation and quiet amusement, for
those who love the beauty of sea and sky better than noisy
crowds and fashionable display, and can dispense with some
accustomed conveniences for the sake of what they may gain in other ways,
it is truly a paradise.”
Dorr spent two months in the spring of 1883 on the island she would
later describe as “Eden” in her book Bermuda: An Idyl of the Summer
Islands, published the following year. In the memoir, Dorr described how
she and her companion, “H.,” fled the late snows of New England for
Bermuda aboard the New York steamer Orinoco after ignoring the advice
of friends to tour Europe instead.
“What a contrast to icy mountains and valleys of drifted snow!” she
exclaimed on her first morning in Bermuda. “Before me were large prideof-India trees, laden with their long, pendulous racemes of pale lavender,
each separate blossom having a drop of maroon at its heart…Beneath me
were glowing beds of geraniums, callas, roses, Easter lilies, and the manyhued coleus…As far as the eye could reach was one stretch of unbroken
bloom and verdure.”
Dorr spent her bucolic holiday exploring the island on foot or by boat,
admiring quaint gardens and pondering traditions such as limestone-quarrying.
She attended events such as the Pembroke boys’ school sports day, and
rhapsodised over the colours and climate of a place where people enjoyed a
state of “perpetual summer.” She rode the ferry (a rowboat) across Hamilton
Harbour, climbed Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, took a horse and carriage to St.
George’s and visited Pembroke Church (St. John’s), home of the gravesite
of Governor R. M. Laffan, who had died the previous year.
“I found myself continually wondering how life looked, what the wide
world was like, to eyes that had seen nothing but blue seas, blue skies…and
the narrow spaces of this island group,” Dorr marvelled. “It would be
Fast Facts
l Media publicity over the 1883 visit of Princess
Louise (Queen Victoria’s daughter) spurred more
visitors to “winter” on the island.
l Until the 1880s, Bermuda visitors consisted
primarily of traders, military personnel and
health-seekers; the concept of holidays emerged
in the late 19th century.
l Scientists, artists and writers were among the
first true tourists.
l Hotels, swimming pools and golfcourses were
built, and the Bermuda government signed a
weekly-arrival contract with steamship companies.
l Tourism emerged as agricultural exports waned
due to less-costly US produce.
l A total of 4,000 South African Boer War prisoners
were kept in camps in Bermuda from 1901–02.
l Eighty Bermudians from the Bermuda
Volunteer Rifle Corps and Bermuda Militia
Artillery were among the First World War dead.
Bermudian First World War soldiers
34
Chapter 12
Tourism Takes Off
SECTION 3
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Read the book’s margin excerpts and text
descriptions of Bermuda in the 1880s and
the turn of the last century. Encourage
students to note how different Bermuda was
in that era, compared to today. Compare the
types of activities tourists could enjoy, modes
of transport, and what were considered
“luxuries” at hotels and guesthouses. What
types of services and experiences should a
tourist destination offer its visitors? Get
students to participate by giving examples
of different types of tourism and what they
prefer to do during their leisure time in
Bermuda or when they travel.
allegiance
attributes
consumptives
descendants
fortuitous
humourist
infrastructure
insular
internment
mementoes
Class activity
Encourage students to imagine they are tour
operators in Bermuda in contemporary
times. How would they entertain visitors
and what would they deem to be the island’s
highlights—from their own point of view.
Perhaps they would show visitors different
aspects of Bermuda than typical tourist
sites? Get students to write up their ideas
and suggestions in a first-person essay and
read it to the class.
nascent
paraphernalia
parlay
pestilence
prolific
recuperative
re-invention
rhapsodised
sporadically
vanguard
Unit project
Recreate the first decades of the 1900s in
your classroom. Break the class into groups
and have students find out about the
fashions, cuisine, transport, music, heroes,
celebrities, leisure activities, and cultural
highlights of the time. Have them make
drawings or posters and gather images or
primary-source documents, such as poems
or letters, and make a montage of life in
Bermuda and abroad during those years.
Enrichment
l Tour Bermuda’s Defence Heritage—a large
Research skills
Have students find out more about the First
World War, including its causes, the nations
involved in the conflict, types of warfare,
key battles—and how the war changed the
20th-century world.
Tourism Takes Off
audio-visual exhibit on island-based
military and Bermuda’s war veterans on
the lower floor of Commissioner’s House,
at the National Museum of Bermuda.
Students can watch video footage of vets
remembering their wartime experiences,
and see artifacts and weaponry used in
defence and conflicts over the centuries.
Chapter 12
35
VOTES, VISITORS & VICTORY 1918–1945
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SECTION 4
148
The Fight for Rights
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
WOMEN, BLACKS AND WORKERS DEMAND FAIR PLAY
T
Suffragettes protest outside
Somerset police station as they
auction an antique cedar table
he large crowd which gathered outside Mangrove Bay police
station on December 18, 1930 was abuzz with excitement. A
week before Christmas, the usually quiet streets of Somerset
rippled with high anticipation, as journalists, photographers
and Bermudian men, women and children made their way to
the West End, eager to see the outcome of a bizarre showdown—an ‘auction’
pitting a group of the island’s society women against Parliament itself.
They would, indeed, witness an historic spectacle that Thursday morning,
but one whose larger impact would not be felt for a further 14 years. While
the day marked the climax of a single courageous act of civil disobedience, it
would best be remembered in newspaper photos as symbolising the quartercentury-long crusade for women’s rights.
At 10 o’clock, the streets erupted into equal parts cheers and boos as a
horse-drawn bus arrived from Hamilton carrying a group of well-dressed
THE BERMUDIAN
Summary
This chapter launches a new section covering the
first half of the 20th century. It deals with the first
of many social battles of the 1900s—the struggle for
women’s rights. The cause of Bermuda’s suffragettes
is explained in the context of similar lobby efforts by
women in Britain. The setbacks suffered by Gladys
Morrell and her supporters, and the legislative
hurdles they eventually overcame, are detailed.
Female suffrage in the context of its impact on black
civil rights is also told, with universal adult suffrage
dealt with in Chapter 18 (Growing Pains). The
chapter also details West Indian immigration to
Bermuda and the first newspapers.
Fast Facts
l Women were barred from voting in Bermuda by
Bermudian suffragette leader Gladys Morrell
36
Chapter 13
archaic restrictions requiring property ownership
(the laws were made to restrict blacks from voting).
l British women won the vote in 1919, and their
US counterparts in 1920.
l As in many countries, women’s suffrage paved the
way for universal suffrage, which in Bermuda did
not occur until 1963.
l Bermudian women began their lobby for voting
rights in 1919 and succeeded when they finally
won legislative approval in 1944.
l Some blacks felt the women’s victory might
actually hurt the black fight for suffrage by
increasing white power in Parliament.
l West Indians began emigrating to Bermuda in
the 1890s and continued into the 20th century.
l Two activists for black rights early in the century
were Charles Monk and Marcus Garvey.
SECTION 4
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Using the story of the suffragettes’ struggle,
ask students how attitudes towards women
have changed since the days of Gladys
Morrell. What freedoms do women enjoy
today—thanks to the fight for female rights?
Have women achieved total equality with
male peers—in Bermuda and the US?
In Third World nations? If not, how can
societies improve life for women?
archaic
assessment
consolidated
desegregation
embattled
floodgates
imminent
impetus
intransigent
jubilant
Class activity
Hold a West Indian celebration in your
class. Encourage students to bring in
Caribbean dishes for a potluck lunch, West
Indian CDs, and regional poems, short
stories or narratives to read aloud. Split the
class into small groups and have each gather
information about specific West Indian
nations, their people, culture and traditions.
Depict countries on a large map, showing
their relative distance from Bermuda.
militant
non-commital
oligarchy
paltry
paramount
parochial
permeated
prejudice
resurrected
suffrage
Unit project
Create a class newspaper. Students should
first form an editorial board, determining
the paper’s various departments, and the
stories they should carry. Have student
writers and photographers gather content
and editors review materials and design
pages. Discuss factual reportage vs. opinion
pieces and include both.
Enrichment
Research skills
l Visit Bermuda & the West Indies, an
Have students examine international figures
who were catalysts for major social change.
Have them delve into online and published
sources, including primary-source materials,
to contrast those who insisted on peaceful
means to achieve reform (India’s father of
nationhood Mahatma Gandhi, civil-rights
leader Rev. Martin Luther King) and those
who preferred more militant efforts for
social protest (suffragette Emmeline
Pankhurst, animal-rights activist Paul
Watson). Which worked best in different
nations and circumstances, and why?
exhibit about Caribbean immigration to
the island, at the Commissioner’s House,
National Museum of Bermuda. Your class
can check the display of surnames and
trace them back to specific islands.
l Visit the House of Assembly in Hamilton
where, from November to June, students
can watch Parliament in session as MPs
debate national issues. Historic portraits,
cedar furnishings and artifacts—including
the Speaker’s silver-gilt mace atop the
Clerk’s table—are on display.
Chapter 13
37
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SECTION 4
156
A Perfect Paradise
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A Perfect Paradise
PROTECTING OUR UNIQUE BUT FRAGILE ENVIRONMENT
T
BERMUDA BIOLOGICAL STATION FOR RESEARCH
Summary
Bermuda’s environmental history is an important
part of our country’s heritage. This chapter focusses
on key events in the natural history of the island,
including the individual stories of rare and
threatened species, along with the scientists and
naturalists who played major roles. The evolution
of the worldwide conservation movement and its
impact on Bermuda is also treated, as well as
international interest over the years in Bermuda’s
unique biodiversity.
Dr. William Beebe, left, and Otis
Barton with the bathysphere
he morning of June 6, 1930 dawned perfectly calm, the late
spring gales of the previous days giving way to a silky stillness
along Bermuda’s South Shore. Brooklyn-born biologist,
explorer and author Dr. Charles William Beebe decided to
take advantage of the good weather and, with his colleagues,
struck out to sea early in an entourage that included the tugboat Gladisfen
and a converted Royal Navy gunboat, the Ready. Leaving their East-End
headquarters at Nonsuch Island, they chugged through the island-sprinkled
Castle Roads channel, where the clifftop ruins of Richard Moore’s forts
looked down on the flotilla. The timewarp wasn’t lost on Beebe, 52, who
wondered what Moore might have said 300 years earlier, “if he could have
watched our strange procession steaming past. In all likelihood, the steaming
part would have mystified and interested him far more than our chief object.”
The “chief object” of the day was to be a test run of the bathysphere, an
odd-looking contraption that would make history in Bermuda’s waters by
carrying Beebe and its inventor Otis Barton to record-breaking ocean
depths which until then, had been strictly the realm of science fiction.
Brought to Bermuda that year, the bathysphere was a steel pod attached to
3,500 feet of 7/8-inch steel cable that would be lowered and raised by a seventon steam winch that had been installed, along with boilers, on the barge.
With three window ports made of three-inch-thick fused quartz, a circular
bolted door, and a diameter of four feet, nine inches, the bathysphere was
designed to carry to record depths a maximum of two people—even a couple
of six-footers, as Beebe and Barton happened to be.
An hour later, 10 miles offshore amid mildly heaving swells, Beebe
stopped the group. Here, where Bermuda’s sea floor fell away to more than
a mile and a half, they would attempt their first manned descent. The half-
Bermuda:
a perfect paradise in which an earnest Naturalist may luxuriate.
—The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist on Bermuda, 1857
Fast Facts
l American scientists William Beebe and Otis
Early Aquarium curator Louis L. A. Mowbray
38
Chapter 14
Barton reached a record depth of 3,028 feet
(half a nautical mile) on August 15, 1934.
l Bermuda’s location makes it an ideal laboratory
because of its mild climate, unique marine
habitat, 12,000-foot seas and coral reefs.
l Louis L. A. Mowbray and his son, Louise S.
Mowbray, were both keen environmentalists
and curators of the Bermuda Aquarium.
l Nineteenth-century Governor Sir J. H. Lefroy
published the first scientific paper on Bermuda.
l The Bermuda petrel or cahow was rediscovered
on the Castle Harbour islands in January 1951.
l The introduction of foreign species (casuarinas,
Jamaican anole, kiskadee) upset the ecosystem.
l Non-profit agencies BIOS, Bermuda Zoological
Society, Bermuda Audubon Society, Bermuda
National Trust work to preserve the environment
and educate people about its importance.
A Perfect Paradise
SECTION 4
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Divide the class in half and stage a debate
over the question: should the natural
environment be protected by conservation
legislation? Have students research facts to
support either side of the issue and argue
their separate points of view, with a focus on
fact-filled reasoning and clear, persuasive
communication.
amorphous
buzzwords
conscientiously
docile
empirical
endowment
environmentalism
fantastical
grassroots
infinitesimal
iridescent
microcosm
munitions
ornithology
periodically
repossessed
sensitivity
specimens
treatise
voracious
Class activity
On a fieldtrip, or even a tour of the school
property, have students record numbers and
types of different species they encounter,
including both plants and animals. In the
classroom, have them use a graphing device
to illustrate the total number of every species
seen, and compare and contrast the data.
Hypothesise why some species are more
common than others. Choose two separate
habitats and note the differences.
Unit project
Research skills
Enrichment
Instruct students to consult local resources
such as environmental group websites, the
Natural History Museum, field guides or
other published materials to learn about
an endangered native or endemic plant or
animal currently listed as a Bermuda
Protected Species (see www.conservation.bm).
The Bermuda skink, cedar, marine turtles,
the cahow, eagle ray, longtail, seahorse,
corals, palmetto, Bermuda scallop and
bluebird are examples. What is the history of
this piece of legislation and what penalties
for abuse can it enforce?
l Screen the documentary Rare Bird, by
A Perfect Paradise
Have your class create two large diagrams
connecting flora and fauna elements to
depict the food webs in Bermuda’s delicate
ecosystem—one marine, the other terrestrial.
Instruct students to select and research one
species, then post their photos and a fact
box on the diagram and deliver a report on
each plant or creature to the class.
Bermudian Lucinda Spurling about the
cahow’s return from the edge of extinction.
l Tour the Natural History Museum at
Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo
and learn about our geology and habitats.
l Arrange a terrestrial or marine fieldtrip
through Bermuda Zoological Society’s
Education Department (www.bamz.org).
l Visit the Bermuda Institute of Ocean
Sciences (BIOS) to learn about research
on climate change, pharmaceuticals and
coral reefs (www.bios.edu).
Chapter 14
39
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SECTION 4
164
The New Tourism
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The New Tourism
ADVENT OF AIR TRAVEL AND LUXURY CRUISES
A
Summary
The development of the tourism industry between
the First and Second World Wars is the focus of
this chapter. It describes Bermuda’s gradual
transformation through investment and development into a “mid-ocean playground” for the rich
and famous. The advent of air travel is chronicled,
as floatplane flights arrived in Bermuda from the
US. Other modes of new transport included beloved
steamships like the Queen of Bermuda and the
Bermudian, and the ill-fated Bermuda Railway.
A Furness Bermuda Line cruise
brochure promises fun in the sun
for shivering North Americans
s the First World War neared its end, Bermuda’s tourism industry
hit a major snag. Visitor numbers had been declining drastically,
and in 1917, Canadian Steamship Lines decided not to renew
the island’s regular service, citing high costs and the not
insignificant dangers of sailing in war-troubled waters.
Moreover, Bermudian, which had been kept on the New York-to-Bermuda
route, was requisitioned in March that year as a British troop carrier.
Suddenly, Bermuda had no way to export its agricultural goods or to bring
in visitors. The island needed to attract another large shipping company.
In the summer of 1919, the New York arm of British steamship company
Furness Withy came to the rescue, promising to refit Bermudian in return
for a five-year, $15,000 annual subsidy from the island government. The
deal, signed in June, marked the beginning of a long and mutually fruitful
relationship between the island and Furness that would continue until 1966.
During that time, the shipping company acted as a partner in the business
of Bermuda tourism, providing not only luxury liners such as Bermuda,
Monarch of Bermuda and Queen of Bermuda to bring in thousands of visitors,
but also investing in capital projects such as new hotels to modernise the
island’s infrastructure. Above all, Furness helped generally to hone Bermuda’s
image as an upscale resort—a “Mid-Ocean Playground”—that would
attract the type of American visitor who would fuel the island’s economy
throughout the 20th Century.
By 1920, it was decided by government and subsidiary Furness Bermuda
Line officials that the answer to Bermuda’s tourism question lay in giving
America’s ruling classes what they wanted—an exclusive enclave where the
mega-rich could rub shoulders while they wintered in Bermuda. All eyes
eventually fell on Tucker’s Town, the quiet peninsula community overlooking
Castle Harbour which had been named for Governor Daniel Tucker (whose
early 17th-Century aim to relocate Bermuda’s capital there never went
ahead). The plan envisioned a self-contained neighbourhood of more than
500 acres for America’s aristocracy, complete with golf-courses, tennis
Fast Facts
l Shipping company Furness Withy partnered with
Bermuda to bring cruise passengers and invest in
hotels and resort areas, including Tucker’s Town.
l Black homeowners were forced to sell and move
out of Tucker’s Town when it was developed in
the 1920s for a golfcourse and country club.
l Pioneering floatplane Pilot Radio arrived at
Bermuda from New York on April 2, 1930.
l A seaplane base was built at Darrell’s Island and
Pan American Airways and Imperial Airways
began flying passengers and mail from New York.
l In 1920, Bermuda had 13,000 visitors; by 1937,
that number had jumped to 82,000.
l Celebrity visitors in the 1920s and ’30s included
baseball hero Babe Ruth, scientist Albert Einstein
and child actress Shirley Temple.
l A total of 33 bridges linked Bermuda’s islands to
build a railway in the 1920s. The railway ran for
just 17 years before being dismantled in 1948.
40
Chapter 15
The New Tourism
SECTION 4
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Open a discussion on the injustice of forcing
black Bermudians to relinquish their homes
and land so a resort could be built for rich
tourists in Tucker’s Town. Compare their
treatment to the way Native Americans
and other indigenous peoples have been
relocated from tribal lands in the name of
progress. Encourage students to talk about
why societies have made such decisions
against minorities and less powerful citizens.
Can such issues be resolved by money?
aesthetic
affable
alleviate
aristocracy
bedlam
dirigible
emanate
enclave
epochal
equable
exclusive
fervour
firmament
hone
inaugural
maverick
subsidiary
subsidy
upscale
whorls
Unit project
Class activity
Split the class into small groups and have
each conceive of a new branding for
Bermuda as a tourism destination. Let
students in each group design and create
their own posters and advertisements
“selling” the modern island to would-be
visitors from overseas—using the marketing
strategy they devised in a carefully planned
campaign. Ask each group to explain their
approach as if the rest of the class were their
client (i.e. the Bermuda government).
Have students trace a large map of Bermuda
for display. Assign sections of the Railway
Trail to small groups and have them plot the
historic route of Bermuda’s train, including
the stops and stations. Instruct the class to
write descriptive essays about their section of
the route, describing an imaginary journey
they might take aboard the train in that area
of Bermuda if it were still in service.
Enrichment
l Take the class on a fieldtrip to the
Research skills
Aviator Charles Lindbergh made history in
May 1927 with his non-stop monoplane
flight from New York to Paris—the first
trans-Atlantic crossing at 3,600 miles. Ask
students to find out more about the US Air
Mail pilot who shot to fame and later
became an author, explorer and inventor.
What tragedy led the Lindbergh family
to later leave America?
The New Tourism
Railway Museum, near Shelly Bay, and
encourage students to interpret the train’s
story through historic artifacts. Then walk
along a nearby stretch of the tracks.
l Pay a visit to the Commissioner’s House,
National Museum of Bermuda, where the
exhibit Destination Bermuda on the first
floor tells the story of local tourism with
artifacts such as cruise ship china and
vintage advertisements and posters.
Chapter 15
41
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SECTION 4
178
Second World War
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Second World War
CONFLICT MAKES HEROES AT HOME AND ABROAD
I
t may sound ridiculous,” Bermudian Anthony “Toby” Smith wrote
to his wife Faith from war-ravaged England in the 1940s, “but my
work and efforts are helping—if ever so little. Some critics might
say that I was wrong to leave you and the babies. My answer is they
wouldn’t say it if they had heard the terrifying, anticipatory drone
of enemy planes, the roar of anti-aircraft guns, the fluttering scream of
bombs, the crash of bombs and the almost dead silence which follows.
“And I would tell them that this isn’t that rather indefinite
place, ‘the battlefield.’ These are the towns, villages, valleys, hills
and roads of England, of people like you, women, children and
old fellows. God be willing, I hope you and the children will never
hear them like so many people of this country have.”
Thanks to heroic islanders like Smith, and his counterparts
from all over the world who joined the Allied forces of the
Second World War, they never had to. Smith was among the first
contingent of 21 Bermudians who volunteered for overseas
service; the group of 17 Bermuda Volunteer Rifles Corps
(BVRC) and four Bermuda Volunteer Engineers (BVE) boarded
the troop ship Mataroa on June 24, 1940 and sailed out of St.
George’s Harbour for England. Like many to follow, these
soldiers would join the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment which saw
action throughout Europe. Driven by duty and patriotism,
Bermuda’s soldiers, sailors, pilots, engineers, doctors and nurses
shared both the horror and exhilaration of a dark global conflict
that split the world in a showdown viewed in the most basic of
terms, between ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ It was a war waged for the first
time with modern mechanised weaponry against ordinary citizens. And
ordinary citizens like Smith realised the unprecedented bloodshed and
barbarity could be stopped only by their own determination.
“Do you suppose that German planes will stop murdering our people
by our wishing it?” wrote Smith to his family. “No. I know you realise as well
Summary
The Second World War (1939–45) and the
dramatic changes it brought to Bermuda are
the focus of this chapter. Bermuda’s strategic
importance to world powers and the changing
role of women are once again key themes. Included
in the content are first-person accounts—by a
Bermudian soldier and a pilot—details of the US
baselands deal, the story of military missions against
German U-boats off Bermuda, and descriptions of
how local people lived with rations and restrictions
during the war years.
Major “Toby” Smith (standing,
second right) and others from the
first contingent of Bermudians,
sail to war aboard the troop ship
Mataroa in 1940
Fast Facts
l The Second World War began when Hitler’s
Bermudian RAF gunner Randolph Richardson
42
Chapter 16
troops invaded Poland in September 1939 and
ended with Japan’s surrender in August 1945.
l Some 500 local men joined British, American
and Canadian forces to fight overseas and
Bermudian women also joined wartime services.
l A total of 36 Bermudians died in the war.
l Britain agreed to lease Bermudian land to the US
for naval and air bases.
l Britain sent 1,200 censorettes to Bermuda to
check mail and telecommunications for secrets
being passed to Germany.
l German and Austrian nationals were interned
at Huntley Towers, Paget during the war years.
l Local forces were split along racial lines—as
desegregation of whites and blacks was yet to
occur in Bermuda and America.
l Tourism disappeared during the war, but
Bermuda was busy with military activity.
Second World War
SECTION 4
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Discuss the advantages different parties
gained in the US-British deal to lease land
for naval and air stations in Bermuda. Why
was the arrangement useful to America—
what did they fear if Bermuda fell into Nazi
hands? Why did Britain need US help?
What were the immediate and long-term
benefits for Bermuda? (Students should
include key points such as protection by
US bases; the economic boost from military
personnel; a civilian airport post-war.) Were
there disadvantages to the deal for Bermuda?
annexed
anticipatory
artillery
catapult
civilian
contraband
convoys
curtailed
deciphering
exhilaration
fervent
hunkered
intercepted
marauding
placid
proficient
prospective
reconnaissance
tyranny
vile
Unit project
Class activity
As a class, read Bermudian pilot James
Hartley Watlington’s account of being shot
down over France in 1943. Discuss the
descriptive detail he includes to bring a story
from the past alive, even for modern readers.
Ask students to create a fictional character
from the Second World War—a censorette,
the mother of a local family living on
rations, a militiaman on duty at a battery—
and write an account of a particular incident
or day spent in Bermuda during the war
from their point of view.
Research skills
Ask students to research the Battle of the
Atlantic using online, film and/or library
sources. They should find out about key
battles, figures, vessels, combatants and the
role of convoys in the struggle for supremacy
in waters around Bermuda. Have students
write up their findings in a 600-word essay.
Second World War
Have students track down stories of people
in their communities—perhaps friends or
relatives—who played a part in the war.
Encourage them to find photos, medals,
letters, diaries or other artifacts, then write
that person’s wartime story. Have students
describe their chosen individual to the class.
Enrichment
l Tour Bermuda’s Defence Heritage exhibit at
the National Museum of Bermuda and
listen to war veterans’ video testimonials,
and see weaponry and artifacts.
l Take students to the war memorial
outside the Cabinet Office, Hamilton, and
record names of Second World War dead.
Do they have relatives among them or
know families who do?
l Visit St. David’s Battery and see the guns
where Bermuda soldiers kept a lookout
during the war years. Tour Southside,
former home to US military forces before
the US bases closed in 1995.
Chapter 16
43
COMING OF AGE 1945–2011
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SECTION 5
192
Progress in Peace
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Progress in Peace
THE COMING OF CARS AND COLD WARRIORS
C
BERMUDA ARCHIVES
Summary
This chapter covers the post-war period of prosperity
and progress in Bermuda following the Second
World War. It traces developments such as the
advent of commercial aviation, television, cars and
household appliances on the island, plus the impact
of American troops who had come to live and
work on the US bases. Dockyard’s British Navy
apprenticeship scheme, the height of the Cold War
in the 1950s and ’60s, Bermuda’s part in the Space
Race, and the arrival of international business are
also detailed.
Ambulances stand ready
in post-war Bermuda
ompany manager John Plowman was 34 years old when a
revolution of sorts rolled through Bermuda in 1946. Automobiles,
long forbidden on the island, were finally legal and available
—and Bermudians raced to get their driving permits and buy
one of the shiny first models to make their way out of Hamilton’s
showrooms and on to the parishes’ newly-paved roads, attracting rubberneckers everywhere they went. Plowman, himself, was in a perfect position
to witness the phenomenon; not only did he run Holmes Williams & Purvey,
the island’s first car importer, but he was one of the first Bermudians to
actually get behind the wheel of a car.
“I bought a Hillman convertible in January 1947,” he later told The
Bermudian. “Licence plate 5281. The numbers were supposed to finish at
5,501, because people thought there would be only 300 or so cars on the road.”
Legislators assumed the cost of buying and licensing a car would
restrict ownership, but such conservative predictions soon proved shortsighted. Bermudians fast developed an appetite for American-style
consumerism that began to permeate island life in the post-war years. The
Motor Car Act, passed by the Legislature in early 1946, allowed private cars
and taxis, while limiting vehicle size and cars per household, and curbing
their speed to 20 miles per hour.
More than merely a status symbol, the car was a greater visible token of
the victory of capitalism and democracy generally, as well as a catalyst for
sweeping social, economic and political changes as the island emerged from
its quiet, isolated past. Bermuda no longer could be considered an insignificant
outpost or a colonial backwater. The war had changed the island and its
people, and the world’s perception of them. Now Bermuda could enjoy the
shared victory by Allied countries, its soldiers home from years of fighting,
its national sentiment one of hope, energy and far-reaching ambition.
The world at large was never to be the same again, and nor was Bermuda.
Aside from the positive mood of its people, the island had transformed
dramatically in physical ways, thanks to the advent of cars, commercial aviation
Fast Facts
l The sale of cars began in Bermuda after the
Legislature passed the Motor Car Act in 1946.
l The East End’s Kindley Air Force Base became
a civilian airport—launching mass tourism.
l In 1938, Bermuda’s population was 32,000;
in 1970 it had jumped to 53,000.
l Tourism recovered by the 1960s, with new hotels
to accommodate air passengers, then hit high gear
in the 1970s and ’80s.
l The Royal Navy shut down its Dockyard
operations in 1951.
l Bermuda’s US bases acted as refuelling stations
for American nuclear bombers in the Cold War;
the US tracked Soviet submarines from the island.
l The NASA station at Cooper’s Island played a
key role in the Space Race, including the Apollo
programme moon landings.
l The first multi-national companies moved to
Bermuda in the 1950s, paving the way for others.
44
Chapter 17
Progress in Peace
SECTION 5
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Discuss the different political ideologies of
democracy and communism, their similarities
(goal of equality) vs. differences (the contrast
in economic systems: group control vs. free
enterprise). Encourage students to think
about why communist economies have
failed. Why has capitalism shown better
results for its societies? Debate whether
equality and incentive are compatible—
or not. Is this why egalitarian societies have
not succeeded?
adjacent
advent
assassinated
bloc
classified
conglomerate
despondent
eavesdrop
emblematic
esoteric
genesis
illegitimacy
newfangled
re-armament
reinvigorated
reverberate
surveillance
unprecedented
vengeance
vernacular
Unit project
Class activity
Wil Onions was an architect of the 1940s
and ’50s who celebrated the Bermuda
vernacular. Assign students the task of
choosing a traditional Bermudian building,
photographing it, then deconstructing and
describing its elements and their purpose in
oral presentations to the rest of the class.
Research skills
Have students conduct research into the key
events, political figures, idealogical differences
and outcome of the Cold War, and the
eventual breakup of the Soviet Union.
Who joined the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO), the Warsaw Pact
or neither organisation? What was the
“Iron Curtain” and what role did spies play
in this era? Find out about the creation of
the United Nations. Instruct students to
map out today’s independent nations that
once were Soviet states—and those that
remain communist (Cuba, North Korea).
Progress in Peace
Have students go to the library or online to
gather advertisements from the 1950s, ’60s
and ’70s. Have them also collect current
consumer ads for cars, jewellery, appliances
and fashion. Discuss as a class, then have
students write reports on how the ads
demonstrate the evolution of marketing
techniques—as well as the products
themselves—over the decades. Students
should consider how ads reflect different
values and target certain audiences, and how
today’s marketing appeals to more sophisticated
buyers. How did sexism play a part in ads of
the 1950s and ’60s? Has the role of women
changed in modern advertising?
Enrichment
l To give a sense of the international
emotion and events of the Space Race,
in which Bermuda played a role, have
the class watch Apollo 13, the 1995
movie based on the true story of the
moon-bound mission that suffered
near-tragic pitfalls.
Chapter 17
45
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SECTION 5
204
Growing Pains
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Growing Pains
HURDLES ON THE PATH TOWARDS EQUALITY
O
THE BERMUDIAN
Summary
This chapter details the turbulent civil-rights
struggles of the late 1950s and ’60s as black
Bermudians sought socioeconomic equality. The
text describes milestones such as the Floral Pageant
Day Riot of 1968, the Theatre Boycott of 1959, and
the 1965 Belco Riot, set within the context of
upheaval in western democracies and events such
as Vietnam War protests, student uprisings and
political assassinations. The work of civil-rights
activist Dr. E. F. Gordon is detailed, along with that
of UBP leader Sir Henry Tucker and the boycott’s
Progressive Group. The chapter also deals with the
growth of unions and labour strife in the 1960s.
The Floral Pageant parade was
an unlikely prelude to a riot
Unsustainable In Bermuda
—even though everyone is politically
equal—it has too often been
supposed that, to preserve an oldworld atmosphere for American
visitors, the coloured people must
appear mainly as servants or hewers
of wood. Socially and politically,
this has proved unsustainable.
—From a front-page story headlined
“Riots in the Sun” in The Times of
London, April 1968
n April 25, 1968, thousands of Bermudians and tourists
packed into Hamilton to watch what had become a highly
popular rite of spring—the Floral Pageant parade. Vying
for choice vantage spots, many arrived as early as noon,
three hours before the event was to start, and took their
seats on the Front Street stands or sidewalks, some bringing picnic lunches
to eat as they waited for the colourful spectacle. As the parade, in its 18th
year and boasting 52 flower-bedecked floats, prepared to wind its way
around the city, youngsters clambered up the branches of harbourfront
trees for a better view and spectators lined balconies and windows.
But what happened later that balmy Thursday was as far from the innocent
gaiety of blossoms, pageant queens and community bonhomie as anyone
could imagine. As darkness fell, gangs of rioters suddenly erupted within the
crowded streets, hurling bottles and firebombs at helmeted police officers
armed with truncheons and shields. Hundreds of youths charged through
the city, overturning cars, shattering windows and setting storefronts ablaze.
When it was all over, five officers had been beaten, 17 people arrested and a
state of emergency, with dusk-to-dawn curfew, had been declared. Petals
and glass intermingled on Hamilton’s tear-gassed avenues, an incongruous
testimony to the fact that beneath Bermuda’s pretty façade, ugly truths
could no longer be ignored.
In hindsight, the so-called “Floral Pageant Day Riot” was dramatically
symbolic, a clash of the island’s quaint past and rebellious present, of its
economically and socially segregated black and white societies, of their
respective fears and concerns—a flashpoint which would have far-reaching
consequences for Bermudian culture. Its direct cause may have been linked
to the barring of a black youth from a party held in a Front Street building
that evening, but its true roots were far more widespread. The night represented
a snapshot of racial tensions affecting not only the island, but the whole
western world, particularly America. The 1960s and ’70s, for the most part,
would prove a jarring passage into the latter decades of the century, and
Fast Facts
l The 1950s and ’60s brought racial desegregation,
Picketing outside the Bermudiana Theatre as early as 1951
46
Chapter 18
universal suffrage, the political party system, the
first elections, labour standards and workers’ rights.
l Dr. E. F. Gordon headed the Bermuda Workers
Association (BWA) which became the Bermuda
Industrial Union (BIU).
l Bermuda’s schools, churches and theatres divided
blacks from whites; hotels and restaurants
routinely turned away blacks and Jews.
l Sir Edward T. Richards, a black teacher, became
Bermuda’s first Premier under the new constitution
of 1973.
l The Theatre Boycott started on June 15, 1959
and overturned segregation within two weeks.
l The Progressive Group’s 18 members concealed
their identity for 30 years.
l Universal adult suffrage followed in 1963.
l The first general election was held on May 22,
1968; the UBP defeated the PLP 30–10.
Growing Pains
SECTION 5
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Open a discussion on race with your students.
Does racism still exist in Bermuda? What
are the roots of racism here and whom does
it affect most? What steps do students think
are needed to eradicate racism? Can they
give examples of subtle or overt racism
they’re encountered personally or through
anecdotal evidence? What do they envision
as a more equal society?
blatant
bonhomie
civic
faux pas
firebrand
jarring
jockeyed
libertarians
metamorphosis
posthumous
Class activity
Explore the labour movement. Have students
conduct research to find out about key
changes in labour law over the 20th century.
What did labour unions in Bermuda and
overseas achieve for workers? Have unions
undergone demographic changes? Once
students have finished gathering key
information, stage a class debate, with two
sides arguing for or against the statement:
societies need unions to protect workers.
Research skills
Encourage students to carry out primary
research. Have them identify a local person,
either black or white, who lived through
the social upheavals of the 1950s and ’60s.
Students should interview their individual
about biographical details, and what it was
like to live in those years under raciallysegregated conditions. Ask them to write
up what they learn in the interviewee’s voice
as a first-person account based around the
facts they gathered.
Growing Pains
provocative
relegating
resonance
rhetoric
rite
solidarity
throes
unsustainable
vehement
vying
Unit project
Celebrate the heroes of the civil-rights
movement both in Bermuda and overseas.
Split the class into small groups and assign
each a key figure (Rosa Parks, Martin
Luther King, Malcolm X, Dr. E. F. Gordon,
Kingsley Tweed, Henry Tucker) who stood
against racial inequality in their communities.
Have students work in teams to put together
written biographies of their individual and
deliver presentations to the class.
Enrichment
l Screen for your class When Voices Rise,
the award-winning documentary film by
Bermudian Errol Williams about the
1959 Theatre Boycott and the individuals
who drove the lobby effort.
l Visit the Chesley Trott sculpture erected
at Wesley Park, Hamilton that pays
tribute to the successful civil-rights
campaign by the Progressive Group. Point
out where the Island Theatre once stood
at Wesley and Church Streets.
Chapter 18
47
CHAPTER NINETEEN
SECTION 5
214
Troubled Times
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Summary
This chapter examines the turbulent 1970s and
early ’80s, when social and racial unrest boiled
over in the form of high-profile murders, capital
punishment, riots and labour strikes. It was an
era of national crisis that led to introspection and
efforts to heal deep social wounds. Among the
events covered are the 1973 assassinations of Sir
Richard Sharples and his aide Hugh Sayers, the
murders of Police Commissioner George Duckett
and shopkeepers Victor Rego and Mark Doe, the
hangings of convicted killers Erskine “Buck”
Burrows and Larry Tacklyn, the subsequent 1977
riots, and the resulting royal commission of inquiry.
Labour strife of the period is also detailed.
Troubled Times
TURBULENCE ROCKS A FRAUGHT ISLAND
B
The Royal Gazette, March 13, 1973
Rule of the gun
In a
small tight-knit community there is
a natural tendency to avoid getting
involved or implicating others. But
I must ask anyone who knows
anything about this crime to think
most seriously about the implications
for themselves and the community as
a whole if the rule of the gun becomes
the way of life on this island.
—Acting Governor Ian Kinnear,
The New York Times, March 11, 1973
ermudians awoke on the morning of Sunday, March 11, 1973
to shocking news. Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his
aide-de-camp, Captain Hugh Sayers, had been assassinated
the previous night in the grounds of Government House—
shot dead while taking a late stroll through the gardens with
the Governor’s great dane dog, Horsa, which was also killed. For all
Bermuda’s simmering social and racial turmoil, such cold-blooded murders
in their own community stunned islanders so unused to violent crime.
“If we were uncertain about our diagnosis before, we are not now. A
virulent cancer is threatening the life of Bermuda, and, without further delay
or procrastination, it has got to be located and cut right out,” said an editorial
in The Royal Gazette. “The assassination clearly indicates there is a direct
move by power-seeking bandits to disrupt the life of this peaceful nation.”
Less than six months into his Bermuda posting, the governor had been
verbally attacked in budget debates only the previous day when PLP
Parliamentarians labelled him “a symbol of Colonialism” and criticised
government spending on his salary and staff. But generally, Sharples was an
affable administrator who had been well-liked by Bermudians. On the night
of his murder, when many police officers had been attending a police choir
performance at the Southampton Princess Hotel, the governor hosted a
small informal dinner party at Government House before taking his regular
walk around the 15-acre property. He was gunned down shortly before
midnight, within sight of the main door to the House; he and Sayers died
within minutes of the attack.
The double-slayings prompted the government to invoke a state of
emergency—only the second in the island’s history, and just five years after
the first, imposed after the 1968 Floral Pageant Day Riot. The crackdown
also slapped an unprecedented 48-hour ban on people leaving Bermuda, as
a full-scale hunt for the killers was launched by Scotland Yard, local police
and the Bermuda Regiment. Headlines around the world—“Murder in
Paradise,” “Guns in the Sun”—recorded the event with the kind of crude
Fast Facts
l Police Commissioner George Duckett, Governor
Murdered: Governor Sir Richard Sharples and aide Hugh Sayers
48
Chapter 19
Sir Richard Sharples and shopkeepers Victor Rego
and Mark Doe, were shot dead in 1972 and 1973.
l Buck Burrows was convicted of murdering the
Governor and Police Commissioner. Burrows
and Larry Tacklyn were found guilty of killing
Rego and Doe and were hanged in 1977.
l Riots swept Hamilton the night of December 1;
British soldiers restored order.
l Many Bermudians felt blacks were not being
treated equally by the island’s justice or education
systems, in politics, or in social reform.
l A royal inquiry, the Pitt Commission, identified
unequal economic opportunities as a key cause
of the ’77 riots.
l The government and private sector promised to
help heal social ills; aid was pledged to small
businesses, more scholarships were created, and
a hotel-training college was opened.
Troubled Times
SECTION 5
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Ask students to examine the chapter’s firstperson accounts—one by Governor Sir
Richard Sharples, the other by accused
murderer Buck Burrows. Have the class read
the final paragraphs of Burrows’s letter and
compare his viewpoint with the Governor’s
observations about Bermuda, its people and
the state of social peace or unrest. Ask
students to postulate reasons for different
views of the same society—and comment on
what we can ascertain about each of the
individuals through the tone and content
of both passages.
acquitted
bicentennial
capitulated
crossfire
citizenry
curfew
electoral
fiscally
flashpoint
fraught
Class activity
Hold a class debate on the death penalty.
Divide the class into three groups and stage
a debate with two groups arguing either the
pros or cons of capital punishment. Have the
students all do research on both sides of the
issue first. For the debate, have a third group
act as judging panel. Later, get students to
write an essay outlining their own personal
point of view on the issue, using facts they
researched as a basis for their arguments.
haemorrhaging
magnitude
malign
petition
proverbial
reminiscent
sensationalism
symptomatic
traumatised
virulent
Unit project
Explore the topic of racism, including
systemic racism within public bodies, private
companies, the media, or education, when
standard policies or operating methods put
certain ethnic groups at a disadvantage.
Discuss how ignorance about race comes
from knowing little about people who are
different from us. Ask students to select a
real person in Bermuda—of a race different
to their own—and write their history.
Enrichment
l Take your class to the Magistrates and
Research skills
Encourage students to find out more about
Bermuda’s stamps. Ask them to choose a
topic (local heroes, pioneers, flora and fauna,
architecture, commemorative anniversaries)
and then gather actual examples or images
of local stamps that reflect those themes.
Have students explain stamp image details
in an historical context.
Troubled Times
Supreme Courts and later have them
draw a detailed structural diagram of the
island’s judicial branches.
l Visit the House of Assembly—when
Parliament is in session if possible—
showing students where MPs sit and
how procedure is followed.
l Our money went decimal in the 1970s.
Visit the Bermuda Monetary Authority
Museum in Victoria Street.
Chapter 19
49
CHAPTER TWENTY
SECTION 5
224
Into the Future
CHAPTER TWENTY
Into the Future
TERRORISM, TRAFFIC AND THE DOWNTURN OF TOURISM
Oh my God! The second
half of the building just
fell. I’ve got to go.
—Yvonne Morgan, at the
Bermuda Department of
Tourism office in midtown
Manhattan, during a phone
interview with The Royal
Gazette, September 11, 2001
Ruins surrounding the
World Trade Center after
the twin towers fell
s Bermuda residents sipped their morning coffee, delivered
children to school or checked email in Hamilton offices on
September 11, 2001, anyone near a television screen or
computer terminal suddenly was riveted. Like citizens
around the world with access to live news coverage,
islanders watched in disbelief as a tragedy of enormous proportions gripped
America. At 8:45 a.m. (Eastern Time), on what began as a balmy, late-summer
Tuesday in Manhattan, an American Airlines flight hijacked by Islamic
terrorists crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. A quarter
of an hour later, at 9:03 a.m., a second 767 passenger
jet was slammed into the New York landmark’s south
skyscraper. Witnessed from neighbouring downtown
streets and captured on global TV, the disaster unfolded
like a grotesque replay of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Giant fireballs engulfed the twin 110-storey towers,
trapping thousands in a deadly inferno before both
buildings imploded over the next 90 minutes, and
crumbled to the ground.
The attacks—“acts of war,” in the words of US
President George W. Bush—were part of a devastating
onslaught that morning. In Washington DC, another
airliner was plunged into the Pentagon, while in a
failed fourth attack, a passenger jet crashed into a
field outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Within a few
hours, nearly 3,000 people would be listed as dead or
missing—including two Bermudians, Rhondelle
Bermudians
Tankard and Boyd Gatton, who worked at the World
Trade Center. The seemingly impenetrable Pentagon,
Rhondelle Tankard
the concrete embodiment of American military might, and Boyd Gatton
lay torn open and on fire, while lower Manhattan’s
died in the 9/11
skyline was irrevocably altered. For islanders, like
terrorist attack
THE ROYAL GAZETTE
A
I’ve got to go
COURTESY OF TOM MARADAY
Summary
This final chapter wraps up the book in the modern
era, with a focus mainly on the 1990s and 2000s and
Bermuda’s evolution into a stable, prosperous global
participant. The fallout from the 9/11 terror attacks,
the challenge of sustainable development, the
closure of US bases, the Digital Revolution,
“Bermuda Inc.’s” reinsurance boom—set against the
economic fragility of the island—are all covered.
Text also details the political victories of the PLP
and Bermuda’s ambivalence towards independence.
Fast Facts
l Two Bermudians were killed in the 9/11 attacks;
Traffic: a by-product of economic boomtimes
50
Chapter 20
the tragedy changed the way we travel.
l Examples of Bermudians becoming global citizens
include studying overseas, fighting in conflicts
like the Gulf War, joining Barack Obama’s
campaign for the US Presidency, or winning
success on the world stage—in entertainment,
sports and many other fields.
l Tourism peaked in the mid-1980s with 650,000
visitors per year; soaring costs on-island and
competing destinations caused a subsequent slide.
l The “New Economy” coincided with a boom in
the island’s financial and insurance sectors.
l Bermuda’s GDP—the average income per
capita—is one of the highest in the world.
l Bermuda’s first capital, the Town of St. George,
became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
l The PLP formed the government for the first
time with its 1998 election win over the UBP.
Into the Future
SECTION 5
TEACHERS GUIDE
Critical thinking
Vocabulary
Economists continue to call for diversification
in Bermuda, because the island historically
has depended heavily on only one industry
at a time. Review the industries that have
kept Bermuda afloat and successful over
the centuries—then brainstorm possible
new industries with your class. Encourage
entrepreneurial thinking. How can Bermuda
stay competitive, create jobs and hold down
the deficit and cost of living?
affliction
blockbuster
celluloid
diminutive
eclipsed
embodiment
expertise
fundamental
grotesque
imploded
Class activity
Unit project
Bermudians struggle with the question of
nationhood and whether to become an
independent country. Get students first to
research the various viewpoints on Bermuda’s
independence, then to choose a viewpoint
and argue their reasons for it, using both
factual evidence (estimated costs) and
emotional reasoning (national pride, etc).
Have students orally present their arguments
to the rest of the class for discussion.
Have students embark on a creative writing
project linking different eras of Bermuda
history. Instruct them to imagine they are
a real character from our past—Juan de
Bermúdez, E. F. Gordon, Sir George Somers,
Mary Prince—who visits contemporary
Bermuda. Have them write essays describing
the individual’s observations and feelings
about modern life on the island, and how it
differs from their own period.
Research skills
Enrichment
Compare Bermuda’s economy to other
countries of the world. Have students carry
out research to collect the island’s financial
statistics—including industry percentage
breakdowns, population and GDP in per
capita terms. They should choose three other
nations, compare their data with Bermuda’s,
and come to conclusions in a written report
about the reasons for Bermuda’s relative
success—and whether current trends look
to change or continue the status quo.
l Take your class to the Bermuda Historical
Into the Future
inconsequential
insularity
irrevocably
jurisdiction
largesse
luminaries
offshore
pandemic
riveted
saturation
Society Museum at Par-la-Ville Park,
Hamilton, Verdmont Museum, Smith’s
Parish, or Tucker House, St. George’s.
Encourage students to list artifacts that
indicate how people lived in past eras. In
class, get them to compare how different
daily lives are today, thanks to new
technologies. What has stayed the same?
Question how artifacts are the legacy of
personal history and get students to create
their own time-capsule of relevant objects.
Chapter 20
51
“In Their Own Words” sidebars (first-person
accounts) are included in every chapter of Bermuda:
Five Centuries. In total, there are 48 passages—their
synopses are here on Pages 53–58. These reflect
the voices of people who helped shape Bermuda
history—or who witnessed or lived through an
historic event. Some are foreigners’ observations of
the island; others are Bermudians’ own reflections.
meant/what was the most memorable part of what
I saw or felt.
l Fact vs. opinion: explore the issues of bias,
contrasting points of view, hidden motivations
and subjectivity with students.
Educators can focus on and use these sections of
the book in many different ways:
l Exploring different types of writing: persuasive,
descriptive, factual/informative, emotive, subjective
vs. objective—have students find examples of each
throughout the first-person texts.
l Discussion theme: Is history different when
l Compare and contrast varying viewpoints on the
we actually live through an historic event and
remember it during our lifetime? Have students
think about personal reactions to memorable or
significant events and the impact felt by themselves
or other individuals who witnessed or lived through
a particular moment in history.
same event or point of history: Encourage critical
thinking by students as they examine a writer’s
motivations, background and purpose while
analysing the information provided.
l Reportage or observational writing: how to
structure a first-hand account. Get students to
describe an event using these key elements: what
happened/how it made me feel/what I think it
52
l Conducting interviews: use first-person accounts
to demonstrate how to structure an interview,
encourage detailed responses and fact-check a
subject’s memories. Have students conduct their
own interviews modelling a theme reflected in
first-person texts in the book.
TEACHERS GUIDE
Chapter 1
Gonzalo Fernandez
de Oviedo y Valdes
Diary, 1515
Antonio de Herrera
y Tordesillas
Writings, 1527
The Spanish author
of La Historia
General y Natural
de las Indias, writes
about passing by
Bermuda, then
known as “Garza”
aboard the ship of
his countryman,
Juan de Bermúdez.
Textbook Page 13
The Spanish
historian describes
a contract between
the King of Spain
and Azorean
Hernando Camelo
to colonise
Bermuda before
it was claimed by
the English in the
17th century.
Textbook Page 14
Chapter 2
Diego Ramirez
Diary, 1603
Henry May
Diary, 1594
The Spanish sea
captain describes
exploring Bermuda
and drawing a map
of the island after
his vessel was
thrown off course
by a storm in 1603.
Textbook Page 16
The English
mariner writes
about building a
small escape
barque of native
cedar after the
ship he is sailing
on wrecks off
Bermuda in 1593.
Textbook Page 17
Chapter 3
William Strachey
Published account,
1610
Silvanus Jordan
Published account,
1610
The Royal Society
Published records,
1660
Richard Norwood
Published account,
1616
In a detailed
account believed
to have inspired
Shakespeare to
write The Tempest,
the Sea Venture
passenger tells of
the hurricane that
hits the flagship,
and its wrecking
at Bermuda.
Textbook Pages
20–21
The Sea Venture
crewman describes
Bermuda as a
bountiful paradise
greeting the
survivors of the
shipwreck in 1609.
Textbook Page 24
A vivid account
of whaling in
Bermuda quoting
an unnamed
“seaman” who
describes a whale
hunt and the
products derived
from it.
Textbook Page 36
The English
surveyor details an
infestation of rats
on early Bermuda.
Textbook Page 39
53
Chapter 4
Joan de Rivera
y Saabedra
Letter, 1639
The scrivener to
Spanish King
Felipe IV describes
the early colonists’
settlement in
Bermuda, after
La Viga, the ship
he travelled on,
wrecks off its
shores.
Textbook Page 48
Chapter 5
Philip Freneau
Diary, 1778
The New Yorkborn poet
describes Bermuda
as a paradise, but
its people as
argumentative
and uneducated,
after he spent
five weeks on
the island.
Textbook Page 56
Chapter 5 Continued
Mary Prince
Autobiography,
1831
The slave girl
describes living
and working
conditions after
being sent to
labour in the salt
works of the
Turks Islands.
Textbook Page 62
54
Edmund Ward
Published account,
1840s
James E. Forbes
Newspaper account,
January 8, 1825
The Canadian
editor and printer
highlights the
agility of
Bermudian vessels
and the expertise
of local pilots.
Textbook Pages
58–59
A King’s pilot, he
describes a 21-day
ordeal at sea that
begins with his
trying to help
guide a sailing
vessel into port.
Textbook Page 61
Chapter 6
Hezekiah Frith
Letter, 1797
The Bermudian
privateer tells how
his ship, Hezekiah,
is captured by the
Spanish and held
in Havana, Cuba.
Textbook Page 63
Mary Prince
Autobiography,
1831
Olaudah Equiano,
Autobiography,
1789
In an emotive
passage, the
Bermudian details
how she was
separated from
her mother and
siblings and sold
at auction in
Hamilton.
Textbook Page 66
The slave, author
and abolitionist
describes an
incident involving
cruel treatment of
a man aboard the
Bermuda sloop on
which Equiano
spent four years as
a crew member.
Textbook Page 68
TEACHERS GUIDE
Chapter 7
George Washington
Letter, 1775
George Bruere
Letter, 1775
The General
writes this
provisory letter
appealing to
Bermudians for
aid—in the form
of smuggled
gunpowder—to
help America win
its independence
from Britain.
Textbook Page 76
The embattled
Governor writes
this letter to
Lord Dartmouth
describing the
events of the
“Gunpowder
Theft.”
Textbook Page 78
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
J. Holt
Letter, 1834
Anonymous
Letter, 1843
An American
visitor chronicles
his impressions of
Emancipation Day
and its aftermath
of celebration in
Bermuda in a
letter to the New
York Observer.
Textbook Page 88
An unknown
writer to the
Inverness Courier
details the islandwide despair of
a yellow fever
epidemic.
Textbook Page 104
Edmund Ward
Published accounts,
1775
In his chronicles of
life in Bermuda,
Ward describes
subterfuge and
divided loyalties as
rival ships navigate
restrictions
imposed by the
American War of
Independence.
Textbook Page 80
Tom Moore
Letters, 1804
The Irish poet tells
his mother he
adores Bermuda’s
natural beauty but
thinks the people
are homely to look
at and provincial in
their ways.
Textbook Page 84
Chapter 10
John Harvey Darrell
Published account,
1819
A Bermudian
describes how joy
at returning home
after years away
quickly turns to
horror as he
discovers Bermuda
in the grip of
yellow fever, and
tries to find if his
family has survived.
Textbook Page 105
Sandra Rouja
Interview, 2003
A modernday
PortugueseBermudian
recalls family
folklore, and
tells how her
immigrant farmer
grandfather
proudly learned
to write his
own name.
Textbook Page 118
55
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Charles Maxwell
Allen
Letters, 1861
T. L. Outerbridge
Published account,
1864
Georgiana Gholson
Walker
Journal, 1863
Helen Fessenden
Published account,
1870s
The American
Consul writes to
his wife about antiYankee sentiment
in Bermuda during
the US Civil War;
he says he has
been accosted
by Southern
sympathisers.
Textbook Page 124
The Bermudian
captain describes
his capture aboard
blockade-runner
Siren off North
Carolina by Union
warships in the
US Civil War.
Textbook Page 127
The wife of
Confederate agent
Norman Walker
details lavish
dinner parties, the
back-and-forth of
blockade runners
to the South, and
the fashions and
chatter at a soirée
with the Governor.
Textbook Page 130
The wife of
inventor Reginald
Fessenden—father
of transmission
radio—remembers
the way lime was
manufactured in
Bermuda using a
traditional kiln.
Textbook Page 137
Chapter 12 Continued
August Carl
Schulenburg
Diary, 1901–02
A Boer War
prisoner held in a
Bermuda camp
writes about being
shipped to the
island, and the
daily routines of
POW existence
on Burt’s Island in
the Great Sound.
Textbook Pages
142–143
56
Chapter 13
Cassie White
Diary, 1918
The Bermudian
nurse recalls the
horrors of the First
World War battlefield in her work to
help the wounded
at a US Army Base
Hospital in France.
Textbook Page 145
Chapter 14
Charles Monk
Published article,
1900
William Beebe
Half Mile Down,
1934
The American
pastor laments the
plight of Jamaican
workers at Dockyard in a frontpage Royal Gazette
article that resulted
in a libel conviction
and a four-month
jail term.
Textbook Page 153
The New York
scientist describes
in his 1934 book
the otherwordly
creatures he sees
from a bathysphere
on his historic
half-mile descent
of the Bermuda
seamount.
Textbook Page 158
TEACHERS GUIDE
John Matthew
Jones
Published account,
1859
The British
naturalist describes
seeing the aurora
borealis during a
research visit to
Bermuda.
Textbook Page 161
Chapter 15
David Wingate
Interview, 2003
The Bermudian
conservationist
recalls how in 1951,
as a schoolboy, he
joined scientists
Robert Cushman
Murphy and Louis
S. Mowbray at
Nonsuch Island,
where they
rediscovered the
Bermuda cahow.
Textbook Page 162
Chapter 16
Anthony “Toby”
Smith
Letters, 1944
The Bermudian
army major
poignantly
reminisces from
war-torn Europe
about meeting his
wife and why he
decided to leave
his family to fight
in the Second
World War.
Textbook Page 180
Bill Motts
Published account,
circa 1935
Jane Dublon
Published account,
1931
The Queen of
Bermuda’s
navigation officer
describes with
humour and
anecdote the
popular annual
Christmas cruise
from New York to
the island.
Textbook Pages
170–171
An American
visitor describes
taking an inaugural
ride aboard a
Bermuda Railway
train from Elbow
Beach to Somerset
on May 15, 1931.
Textbook Page 176
Chapter 17
James Hartley
Watlington
Published account,
1943
The Bermudian
pilot with the
Royal Canadian
Air Force describes
being shot down
over France. He
remained on the
run in France for
more than a year.
Textbook Pages
184–185
William Way
Interview, 2003
Winston Churchill
Letter, 1954
Way describes how
NASA’s Bermuda
station played a
key part in space
exploration. He
tells of tense days
of communications
between astronauts
and Florida’s Cape
Canaveral during
the 1970 Apollo
13 crisis.
Textbook Page 200
Writing to US
President Dwight
Eisenhower after
the Big Three
conference in
Bermuda, the
British Prime
Minister sums up
their agreements
on world issues,
particularly taming
the new “nuclear
monster.”
Textbook Page 203
57
President Dwight
Eisenhower
Letter, 1954
Andrew
Bermingham
Interview, 2003
In a letter replying
to Churchill,
Eisenhower argues
that worldwide
discussion and
promotion of
peaceful uses of
nuclear power
are necessary
deterrents to an
atomic war.
Textbook Page 203
The British-born
police constable
injured in the
February 2, 1965
BELCo riot
describes the day’s
chaos and violence,
when he was a
23-year-old member
of the force.
Textbook Pages
212–213
58
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Sir Richard Sharples
Interview, 1973
The Governor
commends
Bermudians for
breaking down
racial barriers,
weeks before being
assassinated during
an evening walk at
Government
House, Bermuda
Textbook Page 215
Erskine “Buck”
Burrows
Letter, 1976
Burrows confesses
to killing Sir
Richard Sharples
and aide Hugh
Sayers, Police
Commissioner
George Duckett,
and two Hamilton
shopkeepers. He
was hanged the
following year.
Textbook Page 217
Chapter 20
Rick Richardson
Interview, 2003
Nichole Tatem
Interview, 2003
Noel Chiappa
Interview, 2003
Shaun Goater
Interview, 2003
The former
ZBM reporter
and ABC News
correspondent
describes covering
the December
1977 riots.
Textbook Pages
220–221
The 29-year-old
Bermudian
describes her
escape from the
World Trade
Center in New
York City after a
terrorist attack
on Tuesday,
September 11, 2001.
Textbook Page 225
The Bermudian
MIT scientist
speaks about his
pioneering work
during the birth
of the Internet in
the 1970s.
Textbook Page 227
The Bermudian
soccer star
describes his
impact on UK
fans during his
fifth season as
a Manchester
City striker.
Textbook Page 228
TEACHERS GUIDE
History-makers
Thumbnail biographies of personalities featured in Bermuda: Five Centuries who helped shape the island’s history
CHAPTER 1
Age of Discovery
Juan de Bermúdez The
Spaniard who first spotted
Bermuda from his ship La
Garza on a trans-Atlantic
return voyage from the
Americas to Europe in 1505.
Diego Ramirez A Spanish sea
captain who spent 22 days
on Bermuda in 1603 after
his ship was caught in a
storm and lost its provisions.
Christopher Columbus
(1451–1506) The Italian
explorer who sailed the
Atlantic and found the
Americas in 1492. This
eventually led to Bermuda’s
discovery and settlement.
CHAPTER 2
The Sea Venture
Sir George Somers (1554–
1610) The English admiral
who led the Sea Venture
expedition and successful
escape to Jamestown who
returned to Bermuda for
supplies and died in 1610.
William Shakespeare
(1564–1616) English playwright and one of literature’s
greatest influences; his final
play, The Tempest, was
inspired by the real-life
story of Sea Venture.
Sir Thomas Gates(1585–
1621) English nobleman
aboard the Sea Venture who
later became Governor of
Virginia; the house he later
had built in Jamestown
used limestone brought
from Bermuda.
Elizabeth I (1533–1603) The
last monarch of the Tudor
dynasty gave her name to an
era (Elizabethan) remembered
for flourishing drama and
maritime exploration.
James I (1603–1625)
The monarch supported
exploratory expeditions
and relief voyages such as
the Sea Venture journey,
and controlled Crown
affairs during the birth
of Bermuda’s colony.
John Rolfe and Pocahontas
Sea Venture survivor John
Rolfe sailed on to Virginia,
where he married the Native
American princess Pocahontas.
The couple had a son,
Thomas. Pocahontas died
of smallpox during a visit
to England. Rolfe helped
develop the tobacco crop
at Jamestown.
CHAPTER 4
The Company Island
Daniel Tucker The island’s
second Governor, a tough
Virginia planter who took
charge of creating a
functioning government,
killing rats, dividing land
and ordering crop-planting.
Captain Nathaniel Butler
A progressive Governor who
organised bridge-building to
link Bermuda’s islands and
pushed for environmental
conservation.
CHAPTER 5
Call of the Sea
CHAPTER 3
The First Settlers
William Strachey Writer and
Sea Venture passenger who
later became Secretary of
Virginia; his descriptions of
the adventure are believed to
have inspired Shakespeare’s
play, The Tempest.
Richard Moore Bermuda’s
first Governor, a carpenter
who arrived in 1612 and
spent the next two years
spearheading construction of
bridges, towers and forts.
John Bowen and Nathaniel
North Bermudians who
became known in the late
17th century as pirates in
the Far East. Bowen was
Richard Norwood’s son-inlaw; North succeeded him as
captain of the Speedy Return.
Silvanus Jordan Sea Venture
crewman who, like William
Strachey, recorded details
of the storm and arrival
at Bermuda.
Richard Norwood Scholar,
teacher and surveyor who
mapped out Bermuda’s first
land (tribes) division on his
famous 1618 map.
Jemmy Darrell Bermudian
slave who won his freedom
after impressing Vice Admiral
Sir George Murray with his
ship-piloting skills in 1796.
Key Figures
Jacob Minors
St. David’s-born descendant
of Native American slaves,
known as one of Bermuda’s
best boat pilots; he died at
age 84 in 1875.
CHAPTER 6
Scourge of Slavery
Mary Prince Bermudian slave
who chronicled her life in
an 1831 biography printed
in Britain and used by the
abolitionist movement to
win support for abolishing
slavery.
Olaudah Equiano Prominent
African author, merchant
and explorer who purchased
his freedom from slavery,
then helped influence British
lawmakers to abolish the
Slave Trade in 1807.
Sally Bassett Bermudian
domestic slave known for
rebelling against her owners
through a poison plot in
1729 for which she was later
burned at the stake at Crow
Lane, Paget.
Joshua Marsden Methodist
clergyman who came from
Newfoundland to Bermuda
in 1808 to preach to blacks;
he also opened a Sunday
school for black children.
CHAPTER 7
Wars and Defence
George Washington (1732–
99) Military leader who
appealed for Bermudian
59
support before leading
America to victory in its
Revolutionary War over
Britain; he was elected the
first US President.
Colonel Henry Tucker
Prominent St. George’s
businessman who led a local
delegation to appeal to the
Continental Congress for an
end to US food embargoes
during the Revolutionary
War; he was later implicated
as a key figure in the 1775
Gunpowder Theft.
St. George Tucker
Son of Colonel Henry
Tucker who lived in Virginia
and was a vocal supporter of
the American cause in its
War of Independence.
Governor George James
Bruere
Staunch British Governor
during the Revolutionary
War, when he was publicly
embarrassed by Bermuda’s
Gunpowder Theft to aid
America’s war efforts.
Lieutenant Thomas Hurd
Royal Navy hydrographer
who in 1792 surveyed
Bermuda’s reefs, identified
two anchorages suitable for
Navy warships and proposed
a dockyard at Sandys.
Andrew Durnford
British Army engineer sent
to Bermuda to survey and
upgrade Bermuda’s fortifications; he repaired defences
and built four new forts in
the East End.
Thomas Moore
Irish poet and bon vivant
who wrote ballads and
romantic poems to lady
loves during his few months
on the island working as
Registrar of the Court of
Vice-Admiralty.
60
CHAPTER 8
Freedom and Reform
Governor Henry Hamilton
(1788–94) Bermuda Governor
who in 1790 gave his
support and name to the
new capital of Bermuda,
which had previously been
called “Pembroke Town.”
CHAPTER 9
From Sea to Soil
John Mitchel
Irish political prisoner exiled
as a convict to Bermuda in
1848; his book, Jail Journal,
recorded his prison custody,
including the 10 months he
spent on he island.
Governor William Reid
The “Good Governor”
known for his energy and
push for new technology
and foreign labour to revive
agriculture; Reid Street was
named for him.
CHAPTER 10
The Portuguese
Captain Benjamin Watlington
Bermudian captain whose
brigantine, Golden Rule,
brought the first Portuguese
immigrants to the island
from Madeira in 1849.
Monsignor Felipe Macedo
Catholic priest who spoke
out for the rights of
Portuguese immigrants to
Bermuda and their families,
who were often victims of
discrimination.
CHAPTER 11
American Civil War
Georgiana Walker
Mother of four and wife of
the South’s political agent in
Bermuda; her diaries of
island life during the US
Civil War years provide
captivating social and
political details.
Major Norman Stewart Walker
Political agent for the
Confederacy in Bermuda
during the US Civil War;
he and his family lived at
the Globe Hotel on King’s
Square, now a museum.
Charles Maxwell Allen
Embattled US Consul
during the American Civil
War, when Bermudian
sympathies lay with the
South rather than with
Allen’s Northern unionists.
President Abraham Lincoln
(1809–65) US President
who successfully led
America through its bloody
civil war and ended slavery
in the US. He was shot dead
by an assassin.
John Tory Bourne
St. George’s shipping agent
who made a fortune during
the boom times of the US
Civil War, as the town
became a transshipment
hub for Southern cotton
and military supplies.
Joseph Hayne Rainey
Former American slave
who opened a barber shop
in St. George’s during the
US Civil War; he later
became one of the first
black members of the
House of Representatives.
Edward James
Crown surveyor and prolific
English water-colourist who
spent 16 years in Bermuda;
his works are best known for
chronicling events and daily
life during the US Civil War.
Key Figures
CHAPTER 12
Tourism Takes Off
Princess Louise
Queen Victoria’s fourth
daughter, whose 1883 visit
to Bermuda from Ottawa,
Canada spurred new interest
in tourism to the island,
especially from the US.
Mark Twain
(1835–1910) American
author and humourist whose
real name was Samuel
Langhorne Clemens; he
made frequent visits to
Bermuda and lobbied
against motor cars here.
Mary Outerbridge
Bermudian who introduced
tennis to the US in 1874,
when she took racquets, a
net, balls and a rule book to
New York and designed the
first court, on Staten Island.
CHAPTER 13
Gladys Morrell
(1888–1969) Bermudian
champion of local suffragettes, who led the decadeslong fight for local women’s
right to vote—achieving
that goal in 1944.
Charles Vinton Monk
Delaware-born pastor and
journalist who fought for the
rights of Jamaican workers
at Dockyard and was briefly
jailed for libel; he married
Bermudian Fanny Parker.
CHAPTER 14
A Perfect Paradise
William Beebe
Brooklyn-born biologist,
explorer and author who
made a record-making dive
of a half nautical mile in a
TEACHERS GUIDE
bathysphere off Bermuda in
1934.
Louis L. Mowbray
(1877–1952) Pioneering
Bermudian environmentalist
who designed the Bermuda
Aquarium in 1926 and
became the facility’s first
curator.
Dr. David Wingate
Bermudian conservationist
renowned for his work to
bring back Bermuda’s cahow
population and restore
Nonsuch Island as a “living
museum” of endemic flora
and fauna.
Sir J. H. Lefroy
Nineteenth-century Governor
whose deep interest in
science and nature saw him
publish the first scientific
treatise on the island and
compile records that revealed
the cahow’s existence.
CHAPTER 15
The New Tourism
Captain Lewis Yancey, William
Alexander and Zeh Bouck
Trio which in April, 1930
flew the first airplane, a
Stinson cabin monoplane
called Pilot Radio, between
America and Bermuda.
CHAPTER 16
Second World War
Major Anthony “Toby” Smith
Member of the Bermuda
Volunteer Rifles Corps
(BVRC) who joined the
Royal Lincolnshire
Regiment as an army
instructor during the
Second World War; he was
killed in 1944 in Holland.
Sir Winston Churchill
(1874–1965) British Prime
Minister revered for his
oratory and leadership in
the Second World War; he
visited Bermuda in 1942 to
thank the island for the US
baselands deal.
CHAPTER 17
Progress in Peace
The Talbot Brothers
Beloved Bermudian musical
group and calypso performers
of the 1950s made up of
brothers Archie, Austin,
Bryan, Ross and Roy, with
their cousin Cromwell.
Wilfred (Wil) Onions
Architect who reinvigorated
the traditions of Bermuda’s
vernacular architecture; his
best-known design was for
Hamilton’s City Hall.
CHAPTER 18
Growing Pains
Martin Luther King Jr.
(1929–68) American
clergyman and black
civil-rights hero known for
his inspiring speeches and
belief in peaceful protest;
he was assassinated in
Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. E. F. Gordon
Trinidad-born physician,
member of the Colonial
Parliament and firebrand
union leader who launched
the fight for black civil
rights in Bermuda in the
1940s and ’50s.
The Progressive Group
Secret society behind the
successful, non-violent
Theatre Boycott of 1959
that toppled racial barriers
in Bermuda’s public
institutions; they kept
anonymous until 1989.
Key Figures
Sir Henry Tucker
Prominent businessman and
UBP founder who became
the first Premier after 1968’s
election under a new constitution and two-party system.
W. L. Tucker
First black Bermudian
appointed to Parliament’s
Executive Council before
political parties; he helped
push the campaign for
universal adult suffrage to
victory in 1963.
Sir Edward Richards
(1908–91) First black
government leader, replacing
Sir Henry Tucker as Premier
and UBP head in the House
of Assembly from 1971–73.
Kingsley Tweed
Street activist who helped
turn the 1959 Theatre
Boycott from a simple
protest to a mass movement
that helped overturn racial
segregation in Bermuda’s
public institutions.
CHAPTER 19
Troubled Times
Sir Richard Sharples
British Governor assassin ated with his aide Captain
Hugh Sayers while walking
his Great Dane in the
grounds of Government
House the night of March
10, 1973.
Erskine (Buck) Burrows
and Larry Tacklyn
Convicted murderers of a
Hamilton shopkeeper and a
bookkeeper; Burrows was
also convicted of killing
Police Commissioner George
Duckett and Governor Sir
Richard Sharples. Both
Burrows and Tacklyn were
hanged in December 1977.
George Duckett
Police Commissioner
gunned down at his home,
Bleak House, Devonshire,
in September 1972.
Gina Swainson
Bermudian winner of the
Miss World crown in 1979;
a postage stamp and public
holiday, “Gina Day,” were
created in her honour.
Ottiwell Simmons
Labour union leader of the
1970s and ’80s who oversaw
the Bermuda Industrial
Union (BIU) during its
biggest faceoff, a 21-day
general strike in 1981.
CHAPTER 20
Into the Future
Rhondelle Tankard
and Boyd Gatton
Bermudians killed in the
terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center, New
York City, on September
11, 2001.
Pamela Gordon
Daughter of civil-rights
activist Dr. E. F. Gordon,
she became Bermuda’s first
female and its youngest
Premier when she replaced
Dr. David Saul as UBP
leader in 1997 and served
for a year until the party was
defeated for the first time in
a general election.
Dame Jennifer Smith
Premier of Bermuda from
1998–2003 after leading the
Progressive Labour Party to
an unprecedented election
victory of 26 seats to 14.
61
Image Study
The hundreds of images from archives and private collections in Bermuda: Five Centuries
provide myriad teaching opportunities for educators.
l Critical analysis
Visual materials are often rich
in information and can be used by
instructors to teach students to
develop a keener sense of historical
comprehension and critical thinking.
Using photos, students can be
encouraged to reflect, speculate,
make fact-based assumptions, draw
inferences, make generalisations,
and reach conclusions based on
evidence and details they see in
images. What hunches do they
have? What did they miss at first
glance? Did they have to change
their hypothesis after studying the
image further? Inspire solid reasoning
through careful data-gathering. Students should
also be encouraged to empathise—to think about
what the photographer or artist is trying to depict;
Textbook Page 60
what emotions or actions the photographer has
captured through his/her lens, what the mood of
a particular picture or photo may be.
Textbook Page 64
62
Textbook Page 136
Image Study
TEACHERS GUIDE
Textbook Page 16
Textbook Page 27
l Reach all learners
As a core for certain lesson plans, the book’s blackand-white and colour photographs and illustrations
provide visual historical source materials that can
help visual learners and less-able readers better
explore history, social studies and language arts.
l Compare and contrast
Certain images can be usefully compared to others
in class discussion. Good examples shown above
are the (Chapter 1 and 2) hand-drawn maps of
Bermuda by Diego Ramirez (1603) and later Sir
George Somers (1609–10), or Bermuda’s changing
landscape of past eras compared with areas from the
same vantage points today.
Textbook Page 194
Textbook Page 151
Image Study
63
l Photojournalism
Textbook Page 218
Many unstaged images can be used to explore the
skills and effects of the craft of photojournalism, as
well as to interpret the actual subject/event of their
often-dramatic photos (Belco Riot, 1977 riots, PLP
victory, 9/11).
Textbook Page 212
Textbook Page 234
Textbook Page 224
Textbook Page 206
64
Image Study
TEACHERS GUIDE
Textbook Page 65
Textbook Page 37
Textbook Page 167
l Historical investigation skills
Textbook Page 173
Students can learn to use such visual clues as
fashions, car styles, modes of transport, or
boat designs to accurately guess the dates of
particular historical eras. Throughout the
book, numerous images reflect evolving dress
codes and transport methods in particular.
l Timeline art
Create an illustrated timeline to develop
students’ chronological thinking skills.
l Research skills
The book’s Index can be used to identify
images by keyword or theme; images are
then trackable through italicised page
numbers in the Index. All images carry
a credit, indicating the source museum,
photographer or owner.
Image Study
65
Connecting to the Curriculum
While Bermuda: Five Centuries is a textbook geared primarily towards the teaching of Social Studies and
History, its content can be integrated into lesson plans across the curriculum. Elements of the book’s
chapters can be usefully applied in a wide arrange of study areas, bringing a Bermuda focus—and local
relevance—to many different subjects.
l Social Studies
Textbook Page 139
Among the key topics dealt with in the book are:
the island’s changing economy over the centuries;
slavery and its ramifications; immigration; civilrights battles; women through the ages; Bermuda’s
geopolitical role at different times; transportation;
the structure of Bermuda’s government and judicial
systems; Bermuda’s part in major wars; how
Bermuda’s geography shaped its people, politics
and history; roots of social conflict, etc.
Textbook Page 109
Textbook Page 50
l Language Arts
The book provides a wealth of concrete examples of
different modes of writing, and its thematic content
can be an easy springboard for numerous language
arts projects and activities (many are suggested in
the earlier chapter breakdowns). Examples of the
range of writing modes depicted include: firstperson accounts, diaries, letters, speeches, and
66
narrative text. Teachers can use any part of the book
to encourage creative writing, speech-writing, journal
practice, plus persuasive, emotive or informative
writing styles. Lessons can also examine objective
vs. subjective tone, formal vs. colloquial style, storytelling, and language style and syntax through the
ages. Vocabulary lists for each chapter are provided
in the various sections of this guide.
Curriculum
TEACHERS GUIDE
Textbook Page 164
Textbook Page 195
Textbook Page 132
l Media Studies
The book takes a narrative, journalistic approach
to Bermuda’s history and key elements can be
incorporated into Media Studies classes. Throughout the book, teachers can use excerpts, quotes
and first-person accounts to encourage students
to examine the issue of bias and point of view,
and objective reportage. Interviewing skills can be
honed through the study of the book’s first-person
accounts in the latter chapters. Classes can study
examples of print advertisements and posters for
comparison with contemporary media, as well
as portraiture through the ages. The story of
Bermuda’s first newspapers is told, as well as
how media covered certain events. Numerous
international publications, such as foreign
newspaper articles, books and journals, TV and
radio broadcasts are excerpted for study in large
sidebars or margin breakouts in every chapter.
Textbook Page 133
Curriculum
67
Textbook Page 13
l Maths
Textbook Page 18
Textbook Page 158
Mathematics instructors may find it useful to apply
certain content in the book to their lesson plans,
including: mapping; graphing of statistics such as
population or immigration growth; percentage data
such as population increases, tourism or industry
growth, GDP growth, etc. Information on
money/Bermuda currency (pounds vs. dollars),
and decimal applications can also be incorporated.
Demography, gender percentages, voting statistics,
racial demographics, ranking events or their
consequences in order, may also be useful tools
for mathematical applications.
l Science/Health
Subjects of scientific interest in the book include:
biodiversity and habitats, Bermuda’s seamount,
temperature and climate, disease, navigation,
inventions and new technologies. From observations
of Bermuda wildlife by the first castaways to early
conservation laws, Science students can explore the
evolution of the conservation movement in
Bermuda. The topic of the development of new
technologies for survival and progress (Bermuda
sloop, electricity, the Digital Age) can also be
adapted to bring a local element to Science classes.
68
Textbook Page 161
Curriculum
TEACHERS GUIDE
Textbook Page 35
Textbook Page 106
l Drama
The fascinating stories, characters and themes
found in Bermuda’s history can be employed in
many different ways in Drama classes. Teachers can
use the book to stage fictional conversations or skits,
role-playing, the study of history as an oral tradition,
debating, speech-giving, oral performances of essays,
journal accounts, or fictionalised creative writing.
l Art/Photography
The book’s hundreds of photos and illustrations
can be a rich source of specific material and creative
ideas for Art/Photography classes. Teachers can
use visual sources to plan lessons on map-making,
drawing to scale, use of perspective, portraiture, stilllife drawing, multi-ethnic art (African, West Indian,
Portuguese influences), military artists, slave artifacts
(beads, Chapters 6, 8), convict and POW artworks
(figurines, tools, Chapters 9, 12), art as a form of
reportage before the era of photography (Edward
James, Chapter 11), posters, advertisements, etc.
Certain chapters lend themselves as a springboard
to lesson plans incorporating dioramas, murals,
models or collages to learn or reinforce key
Curriculum
Textbook Page 69
historical points. The book also contains images in
a variety of media for teaching students about the
varied use of engraving, black-and-white and colour
photography, and oil and watercolour painting.
69
REAL-WORLD RESOURCES
FIELDTRIPS
Plan fieldtrips to these historic Bermuda sites
Bermuda is full of museums and heritage sites that
can enhance students’ understanding of the island’s
history. You can help them explore our history
throughout the parishes. At many of these places,
statues, tributes, artifacts and information give
pupils a real sense of how past Bermudians lived,
the objects they used at home and work, exact sites
where historic events occurred, plus more details
about all the milestones, characters and topics you
read about in these pages. Plan a fieldtrip and go
and see for yourself ! Heritage groups’ websites often
contain useful additional information which teachers
can use. Here are a few of Bermuda’s best historical
sites, along with contact and website information to
help instructors organize group visits:
ST. GEORGE’S
World Heritage Centre
Penno’s Wharf, St. George
The St. George’s Foundation, 297-8043, www.tsgf.bm
This interactive museum offers a walk-through tour
of Bermuda’s history on its ground floor, with
historic dioramas (the Sea Venture wreck, whalers,
sea turtles and cahows), plus the voices of people
from our past. See a superbly created town model
depicting St. George when it was just a basic
settlement. The gallery also contains areas for
younger students—lift-the-flap facts and historic
dress-ups (pirate, soldier, old-time Bermudian
maid). A “Time Tree” with milestones leads upstairs,
where students can spend time exploring the history
of the East End in greater detail in a large hall of
interactive and video installations. Included are
spotlights on historic St. Georgians, archaeology,
the US military bases, the origin of street names,
and the rich maritime culture of St. David’s.
Educational films about Bermuda and St. George’s
are also screened in the centre; ask for details on
70
various available titles and schedules. The building
itself is an historic warehouse, and interpretive
panels explain its colourful past.
Ducking Stool & Stocks
King’s Square, St. George
Corporation of St. George, 297-1532
Visit a weekly re-enactment of a “ducking,” in
which actors play men and women of the past
getting punished for misdeeds like gossiping or
stealing. Students can also play the culprit by
putting their arms, legs and heads through cedar
stocks and pillories at the town square.
Deliverance replica
Ordnance Island, St. George
The St. George’s Foundation, 297-8043, www.tsgf.bm
This replica of “The ship that saved Jamestown” has
been restored as a walk-aboard museum. It brings
to life the story of the first shipwrecked English
colonists in 1609 and their escape to Virginia
aboard Deliverance, one of two vessels they built of
Bermuda cedar. Walk on its decks and go below to
see living conditions and details of their remarkable
story of survival—and how their Bermuda supplies
helped rescue starving relatives and colleagues in
America’s birthplace. The focus of entertainment for
students will be the animatronic figure of passenger
and writer William Strachey, who “speaks” about the
wreck and fateful voyage. Strachey’s accounts later
inspired William Shakespeare to write his last play,
The Tempest. Students will also get a very tangible
sense of how cramped, fragile and devoid of modern
comforts vessels of the time were.
St. George’s Historical Society & Museum
Featherbed Alley, St. George, 297-0423
Take students up the “welcoming arms” of this tiny
FIELDTRIPS
museum to see rooms full of old-time possessions
showing how people lived before TV, cell phones or
email. Downstairs is the historic printery, where
Bermuda’s first newspaper was made.
Bermuda Heritage Museum
Samaritans Lodge, corner of Duke of York and Water
Streets, St. George, 297-4126
One of the stops on the African Diaspora Trail, this
museum is a tribute to black history. Inside, you’ll
see artifacts and information telling the story of
slavery, the gombey tradition, the origins of Cup
Match, and the civil-rights struggles of the 1950s
and ’60s, including the groundbreaking Theatre
Boycott. Even the museum building is historically
important: it is a 19th-century lodge that once
belonged to one of the Friendly Societies.
Rogues & Runners, Bermuda National Trust
Museum
Globe Hotel, King’s Square, St. George, 297-1423
Bermuda National Trust, 236-6483, www.bnt.bm
Revisit the drama and intrigue of the US Civil
War—and Bermuda’s role in the conflict—at this
small but fascinating museum. Students can learn
about spies, smugglers and blockade-runners, and
see artifacts from the 1861–65 war that brought
wealth and people to sleepy St. George.
St. Peter’s Church
Duke of York Street, St. George, 297-0216
This is one of Bermuda’s most famous buildings,
mostly because it is the oldest continually-used
Anglican Church site in the New World. Have
students examine its cedarwork, silver artifacts and
interesting plaques commemorating town citizens
of the past. The graveyards are also worth exploring.
Murdered Governor Sir Richard Sharples lies here,
along with notable townfolk. The slave graveyard
on the west side of the church holds the bodies of
local slaves and freed blacks, buried there at a time
of segregation.
TEACHERS GUIDE
State House
King Street & Princess Street, St. George
Dating to 1622, the rebuilt State House is
Bermuda’s oldest stone building. It’s believed some
of the island’s first West Indian slaves may have
helped build it. Over the years, it had many roles,
including a meeting place for government, a courthouse for witch trials, and a store for gunpowder.
Every year, a token rent of one peppercorn is paid
for the building by Bermuda’s oldest Masonic lodge.
Take students to witness the colourful Peppercorn
Ceremony, held every April, attended by the
Governor and Bermuda Regiment in King’s Square.
Tucker House Museum
Water Street at Barber’s Alley, St. George
Students can step back in time at this former
Bermuda house that once belonged to Henry
Tucker, president of the Governor’s Council. The
18th-century merchant’s home takes visitors back
to the time of candlelit rooms, brick ovens and
four-poster beds. There are quilts, cradles and
kitchen utensils. Don’t miss the lower floor, where
archaeologists discovered artifacts below the cellar
floor: these are on display. The building’s kitchen is
where freed slave Joseph Rainey operated a barbershop—giving the nearby alleyway its name.
Somers Garden
York Street, St. George
This pretty park is where Sir George Somers’s heart
was buried after he returned to Bermuda for supplies
in 1610 and died on the island. Although his body
was returned to England, tradition ensured his heart
remained in Bermuda. A stone monument in the
park’s centre commemorates the town’s namesake.
(Sculptor Desmond Fountain’s bronze of Sir George
stands a short walk away, on Ordnance Island.) A
good place to soak up history while stopping for a
lunch break while on a fieldtrip to the town.
71
Fort St. Catherine
Coot Pond Road, St. Catherine’s Point, 297-1920
Parks Department, 236-5902
Peek over the ramparts of Fort St. Catherine,
and you’ll see the same stretch of ocean the first
castaways saw when they escaped the shipwrecked
Sea Venture. The vessel’s wreck lies just offshore
from this fort, which is one of the island’s best-kept.
Inside you can learn about early Bermuda and how
soldiers lived and worked in the fort. You will also
see swords, cannon and other weapons—and audiovisual and interactive exhibits on Bermuda’s forts.
Martello Tower
Ferry Reach National Park
This egg-shaped structure is part of the chain of
forts belonging to the UNESCO World Heritage
Site. A drawbridge leads over a ditch into the tower,
where two floors of exhibits tell the story of its
importance as a first line of defence against attack
on the first capital. Two levels include an ammunition
magazine and quarters for soldiers from the British
garrison. Mounted on top is an authentic gun on a
reproduction revolving carriage. The Tower is kept
closed in some seasons, but special visits can be
arranged through the Parks Department.
Carter House
Southside Avenue, St. David’s
St. David’s Historical Society, 293-5960
The oldest dwelling on St. David’s Island, believed
to date from 1640, is today a quaint museum that
tells the story of area characters, traditions, heroes
and history. Artifacts linked to whaling, piloting,
fishing, boatbuilding and farming are on display.
The cottage itself is a perfect example for students
of Bermudian vernacular architecture—with
welcoming arms, buttresses, sloping roofline and
cedar beams. It was built by Christopher Carter, one
of three Sea Venture survivors who stayed in Bermuda
when the other colonists continued to Virginia.
72
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St. David’s Battery
Great Head National Park, St. David’s
Local soldiers manned this battery during the Second
World War, when Bermuda was an important base
for the Allies. Large gun emplacements, with huge
guns, sit above magazines and storerooms. A bronze
memorial to Bermudians lost at sea, created by
sculptor Bill “Mussey” Ming, can also be seen here.
Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS)
Biological Lane, Ferry Reach, 297-1880,
www.bios.edu
You can see global research right here in Bermuda.
At BIOS, local and international scientists
investigate everything from ocean health, coral reefs,
genomes, global warming and ways the sea may one
day provide materials for vital medicines. Tours for
school groups can be organised.
HAMILTON PARISH
Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo (BAMZ)
Flatts Bridge
Bermuda Zoological Society, www.bamz.org
BZS Education Officer Joseph Furbert,
[email protected], 293-2727, ext. 2142
Students can learn about endangered species of
Bermuda and the world—and find out what they
can do to help the environment. Scientists, teachers
and other staff at Bermuda Zoological Society offer
marine and terrestrial fieldtrips, along with science
classes that link to the national curriculum. Fieldtrips can be organised to give students a closeup
look at coral reefs, caves, habitats, invasive species,
frogs and toads, seabirds and other endangered
species. At the Zoo, students can tour the islands
of the world through exhibits spotlighting the
Caribbean, Australasia and Madagascar. At Local
Tails, students can walk through Bermuda’s habitats,
from seashore to forest, and learn about skinks,
butterflies and other species. In the Aquarium, they
will see real coral reefs and all the marine life these
FIELDTRIPS
support, from seahorses to sharks. The Natural
History Museum explains how Bermuda was
formed and what makes our fragile island unique.
Crystal Cave & Fantasy Cave
Wilkinson Avenue, 293-0640
These eye-popping caverns were discovered by
two boys who lost a cricket ball in the early 1900s.
No-one ever found the ball—but the caves offer
their own natural treasures. Descend scores of
limestone steps cut 80 feet down into the earth,
where you will see stalagmites, stalactites and other
wonderfully-shaped crystalline formations, and an
underground lagoon which you can cross by a
floating trail of pontoon bridges.
SMITH’S PARISH
Spittal Pond Nature Reserve
South Shore Road
Parks Department, 236-5902; Bermuda National
Trust, 236-6483, www.bnt.bm
Trails make this scenic 64-acre site accessible to
students and all visitors. Climb up to Portuguese
Rock and see where castaways carved markings after
their shipwreck in the Age of Discovery—years
before English colonists arrived at Bermuda. Follow
the trail to the rocky shoreline, and you’ll come to
Jeffrey’s Cave, where legend says a slave hid after
escaping in the early 1800s. Science students can
spot numerous local and migratory birds that use
this park as a nesting or resting spot, including
herons, egrets, grebes and various species of duck.
Verdmont
Collector’s Hill
Inside this historic house high on a hill, students
can see how people lived in the 18th and 19th
centuries. There’s a formal “parlour” and a nursery
contains a rocking horse and a Victorian dollhouse.
Slaves helped build the house in the early 1700s and
many lived and worked there until Emancipation.
TEACHERS GUIDE
DEVONSHIRE PARISH
Old Devonshire Church
Middle Road, 236-4906
This whitewashed limestone landmark remains a
parish church. It was built in 1716 on the site of a
17th-century wooden structure that was destroyed
in a hurricane. Inside the current church, you will
see a cedar pulpit and pews; outside are the historic
tombs of parish residents.
PAGET PARISH
Paget Marsh
Lovers Lane, off South Road
Bermuda Audubon Society, 292-1920,
www.audubon.bm; Bermuda National Trust,
236-6483, www.bnt.bm
Follow the pontoon bridge into the heart of this
25-acre wetland. Signs describe the flora and fauna
you may see along the way. Wax myrtles, red
mangroves and Bermuda sedge are anchored in the
peat marsh, home also to night herons, great egrets,
kingfishers, moorhens and yellow-throat warblers.
At trail’s end stand centuries-old cedars and
palmetto palms—just as the first settlers might
have seen them.
Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art
Botanical Gardens, South Road
236-2950, www.bermudamasterworks.com
Set in a beautiful park, this modern museum has
regularly changing exhibitions that explore
Bermuda’s history and culture. Works by local and
foreign artists are housed here, including a stunning
collection of works by celebrities such as Winslow
Homer, Georgia O’Keeffe and Albert Gleizes. The
Masterworks Foundation’s education department
does a good job of interpreting the collection for
student groups. Masterworks has worked for a
quarter-century to bring home Bermuda paintings
by famous artists who visited the island and were
inspired by its beauty.
73
PEMBROKE PARISH
Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute
(BUEI)
40 Crow Lane, East Broadway, Pembroke
292-7219, www.buei.org
School groups can explore the world’s last frontier—
the ocean—at this museum. Its structure allows
students to pretend to voyage to the seafloor in a
simulated submersible ride. On the main floor,
visitors can see old-fashioned diving gear, climb into
a model of William Beebe’s bathesphere, view an
incredible shell collection and experiment with
interactive exhibits that show how Bermuda was
formed by a volcano. Downstairs are shipwreck
artifacts, including beautiful bottles, gold and a
replica of the Spanish emerald cross found by
Bermudian diver Teddy Tucker. Fun exhibitry
includes a shark cage that lets students feel what
it’s like to be pushed around by great whites!
FIELDTRIPS
furniture, hurricane lamps, palmetto seats, chandeliers,
even Hog Money. There are also displays on
Bermuda police, war veterans and beautiful cedar
artifacts carved by Boer War prisoners. In the main
entrance hall is the only known portrait of Sir
George Somers and models of Sea Venture,
Deliverance and Patience.
Bermuda Monetary Authority Museum
43 Victoria Street, City of Hamilton
295-5278, www.bma.bm
See Bermuda’s first money and learn how notes and
coins are made. On display are beautiful examples of
shillings and pence, dollars and cents—see how
Bermuda currency has changed and how national
symbols like flowers and animals are incorporated
by note artists. Commemorative coins pay tribute to
endangered species like sea turtles. Learn how secret
thread, holograms and other built-in security devices
on our banknotes help fight counterfeiters.
Historic Statues in the City of Hamilton
l Sally Bassett (Cabinet Office grounds, Front
Street): A 2009 bronze memorial made by Carlos
W. Dowling to the Bermudian slave remembered
for rebelling against white slave-owners with a
poison plot for which she was burned at the stake
at Crow Lane in 1729.
l Theatre Boycott (Wesley Street Park, southwest
corner of City Hall carpark): Created by Bermudian
sculptor Chesley Trott, this bronze installation was
created in 2009 as a tribute to the Progressive
Group and its supporters, who helped tear down
Bermuda race barriers with their widespread lobby
effort in 1959.
l Enterprise (Barr’s Bay Park, Pitts Bay Road):
Located at the site where slave passengers aboard
the ship Enterprise landed on Bermuda, this
sculpture honours the Enterprise passengers for
whom Bermudians fought—and won—a legal
case for their freedom in 1835.
l Mark Twain (XL Capital, Bermudiana Road, and
Butterfield Bank, Reid Street): two statues remember
the American humourist and author who spent much
time in Bermuda in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Bermuda Historical Society Museum
Queen Street at Par-la-Ville Park, City of Hamilton
295-2487
If students wonder what a living room from the
1800s looked like, or how bygone Bermudians set
their dining tables, here’s a place full of tangible
answers. This little museum, divided into household
rooms, is full of artifacts that show how people used
to live—items such as silver spoons, teacups, cedar
Bermuda Sloop Foundation
Victoria Place lower ground/courtyard
31 Victoria Street, City of Hamilton
737-5667, [email protected]
www.bermudasloop.org
Students and teachers get hands-on learning—
about Bermuda, the sea and our maritime
heritage—through the foundation’s popular
education programme. Among courses offered are:
74
FIELDTRIPS
five-day coastal cruising Middle School Learning
Expeditions (ages 12 to 14), which teach basic
sail-training, along with skills such as publicspeaking, written expression, problem-solving, and
deductive reasoning; Coastal Skiller Expeditions for
students 13-plus during mid-term vacations and
summer months; and Overseas Skiller Expeditions
for ages 14 to 25 years.
WARWICK PARISH
Cobb’s Hill Methodist Church
Moonlight Lane, Cobb’s Hill Road
236-8586
This little church was “built by slaves in moonlight”
at a time when black Bermudians were banned from
worshipping in white churches. Its steeple and tiny
sanctuary date back to 1827. The church’s quaint
cedar beams and limestone also make it a testament
to Bermuda’s architectural heritage.
SOUTHAMPTON PARISH
Gibbs Hill Lighthouse
Lighthouse Hill, 238-8069
Visit Governor Reid’s legacy, and climb the 185
steps to the top of this cast-iron structure—built as
a navigational marker for approaching ships. The
landmark’s lamp, first lit in 1846, can be seen 26
miles away. Lighthouse-keepers used to run the
lighthouse, but now the lamp works electronically.
Even though ships now rely on GPS systems,
modern mariners still appreciate the lighthouse
for shoreline navigation.
SANDYS PARISH
National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the
Bermuda Maritime Museum
Royal Naval Dockyard
234-1333, www.bmm.bm
Bermuda’s biggest fort is today its largest museum,
containing thousands of artifacts—from Spanish
galleon treasure to slave shackles found on shipwrecks. Boat models, priceless Bermuda maps, and
TEACHERS GUIDE
nautical gear from every age are displayed. Exhibits
in the buildings, including Commissioner’s House
(with perhaps the island’s best views from its
verandahs), tell the stories of convicts who built
Dockyard, Boer War prisoners, the Royal Navy and
US military, Portuguese and West Indies connections,
slavery—and lots more. A stunning mural by
Bermudian artist Graham Foster traces 500 years
of Bermuda history—a student guide to the mural
is given out free to all visiting groups. And an
impressive exhibit about Bermuda’s defence heritage
tells of the island’s defences and of local men and
women who gave their lives in the two World Wars.
Recently expanded to include the nearby Casemates
property, the museum will in time offer many more
buildings of exhibits; for now, have students walk
along the re-opened northern ramparts, the original
military access to the Keep that now links the two
areas again.
Royal Naval Cemetery
Ireland Island, Bermuda National Trust, 236-6483,
www.bnt.bm
Graveyard dating to the early 19th century contains
intriguing headstones honouring the lives of naval
officers, crewmen, civilians and their families with
touching inscriptions.
Fort Scaur
Scaur Hill, Parks Department, 236-5902
Look through a telescope from this hilltop to see
as far as Fort St. Catherine and St. David’s
Lighthouse. The fort, erected in the 1870s, is a
good example of local defences. It was built to guard
the crossing at Somerset Bridge to prevent enemy
armies from reaching Dockyard (which never
happened). Look at the ramparts, cannon and gun
placements, surrounded by a defensive ditch.
75
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76
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www.bermudabiographies.bm
77
WORLD
BERMUDA
TIMELINE 1505–1684
1505 Spaniard
Juan de Bermúdez
discovers island on
a homeward journey
from New World
1511 Bermuda
makes its world
debut on woodcut
map in Peter Martyr’s
Legatio Babylonica
1525 Spain sends
Estevão Gomez to
survey island; no
map survives
1603 Spaniard Diego
Ramirez lands on
Bermuda, detailing a
land of plenty
1609 England claims
Bermuda after Sea
Venture wrecks en
route to Jamestown
1612 The first
English settlers, with
Governor Richard
Moore, arrive aboard
the Plough
1505 Spanish
carrying slaves
from Africa to
the West Indies
1515 Ottoman
Turks build Empire,
to include Egypt,
North Africa and
most of Middle East
1520 Coffee and
chocolate become key
New-World exports to
Europe
1607 Captain John
Smith founds the first
colony at James Fort,
Virginia
1610 Astronomer
Galileo publishes his
telescope discoveries
about Venus
1611 King James
Bible is published
in England
WORLD
BERMUDA
1690 The island’s
population numbers
5,889, of whom
4,152 are white
and 1,737 black
1700 The Bermuda
‘fleet’ counts 60
sloops, six brigantines
and at least 400
two-masted boats
1712 Bermudians
use more limestone
to build houses after
heavy hurricanes
strike island
1755 Bermuda sells
130,000 bushels of
salt a year to North
America at height of
salt trade
1761 The island is
struck by serious
slave revolt and
smallpox epidemic
1775 Thieves steal
gunpowder from St.
George’s for George
Washington’s armies
1692 Witch trials
captivate the
community of Salem,
Massachusetts
1695 The Ashanti
kingdom expands and
prospers on West
Africa’s Gold Coast
1700 Bach, Händel
and Vivaldi bring
Baroque music to its
height in Europe
1759 Britain defeats
French forces in
Quebec, Canada
1770 Captain
James Cook gets
to Australia after
exploring the
South Pacific
1783 Britain and
America sign peace
accord, making official
the United States of
America
BERMUDA
1849 Fifty-eight men,
women and children
from Madeira are
first Portuguese
immigrants
1851 Record crop
shipment to New
York includes
onions, tomatoes
and arrowroot
1871 Causeway
links St. George’s
to the main island,
replacing ferry
1879 First police
force is created: nine
full-time officers and
21 part-time parish
constables
1883 The visit of
Princess Louise
marks celebrity launch
of Bermuda tourism
1887 Telephone
service is installed
between Hamilton
and St. George’s
WORLD
1840 Britain issues
first postage stamp,
the Penny Black,
a prelude to postal
service
1860 David
Livingstone
explores Africa’s
Zambezi River
1861 Breakaway
of southern states
launches four-year
American Civil War
1865 North wins US
Civil War; slavery is
abolished; Abraham
Lincoln assassinated
1877 European
powers race to
colonise inner Africa,
seeking new markets
and resources
1878 British scientist
Joseph Swan invents
the lightbulb
WORLD
BERMUDA
1919 Island’s first
union, Bermuda Union
of Teachers,
established
1923 Last objector
evicted from Tucker’s
Town as construction
of mega-homes and
golf-course begins
1930 Bermuda’s first
radio station opens,
broadcast from Front
Street store
1931 Inaugural
Hamilton-to-Somerset
journey of the
Bermuda Railway
1934 Severn Bridge
finally links St. David’s
to St. George’s parish
1937 Imperial
Airways offers first
commercial flights,
to Port Washington,
New York
1918 British women
over the age of 30
win right to vote; world
flu epidemic kills 20
million
1920 Manufacture
and sale of alcohol
banned in US under
Prohibition
1927 US releases
first “talkie” (movie
with soundtrack),
The Jazz Singer
1929 Mahatma
Gandhi leads
campaign of nonviolent resistance for
Indian independence
1930 USSR dictator
Josef Stalin crushes
peasant farmers
under harsh regime
1934 Chinese
Communists led by
Mao Zedong plot to
take over their country
WORLD
BERMUDA
1946 Law is changed
to allow motor cars for
public use in Bermuda
1951 The Royal
Naval Dockyard
closes
1955 Islanders tune
in to first TV station
broadcasting from
US base
1959 Cinema boycott
spurs desegregation
in churches, hotels,
restaurants
1968 UBP wins
first general election
contested by
political parties
1970 Currency goes
decimal, replacing
pounds and shillings
with dollars and cents
1946 Nazi leaders on
trial for war crimes in
Nuremburg, Germany
1947 UN agrees to
split Palestine into
Arab and Jewish
states, a move
fought by Arabs
1953 Edmund Hillary
and Sherpa Tensing
conquer the top of the
world, Mount Everest
1955 Europe’s
Communist states
sign military treaty,
the Warsaw Pact
1962 Jamaica,
Trinidad and Tobago
become independent;
Barbados follows four
years later
1969 US astronaut
Neil Armstrong takes
first steps on moon;
600 million watch
via live TV
1620 House of
Assembly holds
first session, a
step towards
self-government
1650 Scores of
English immigrants
cross the Atlantic
to Bermuda and
America
1668 Bermuda
captain discovers
Turks Islands;
colonists to make
fortunes from salt
1684 Rigid trading
laws end as Bermuda
becomes an English
Crown Colony
1616 European
powers open trading
posts along West
Africa’s Gold Coast
1618 The Thirty
Years’ War, between
Catholics and
Protestants,
embroils Europe
1620 Pilgrims set
sail from Plymouth,
England for
Massachusetts on
the Mayflower
1625 The Dutch
establish New
Amsterdam (site of
New York today)
1654 First sugarcane
plantations develop
in the Caribbean,
to be worked by
slave labour
1690 The Mogul
Empire reaches its
zenith, controlling
Afghanistan and
parts of India
1784 The premier
issue of The Bermuda
Gazette, the island’s
first newspaper, is
published
1809 Navy begins
work to construct
‘Fortress Bermuda’
at the Royal Naval
Dockyard
1815 General
Assembly meets in
new capital, Hamilton,
for the first time
1823 English and
Irish convicts are
shipped as cheap
labour to Dockyard
1825 Church of
England establishes
school system for
black Bermudians
1834 Two abolition
acts take effect on
August 1, ending 200
years of slavery
1796 Smallpox
vaccine is introduced
to England
1805 Britain regains
supremacy at sea,
defeating Napoleon in
the Battle of Trafalgar
1807 British abolish
the slave trade, but
slavery stays legal for
nearly 30 years
1825 England’s first
passenger railroad
opens; steam-driven
locomotives become
common
1832 American
Samuel Morse
invents the electric
telegraph, used to
send Morse code
1837 Queen V
ictoria’s reign
begins, launching
an era of progress
and innovation
1894 West Indians
begin migrating to
Bermuda, after sugar
economy collapses
1897 Berkeley
Institute opens on
Court Street as first
multi-racial school
1901 Island’s
population now
numbers 17,535;
of whom 3,000
are West Indians
1902 Two-day
Somerset vs.
St. George’s cricket
matches starts
Cup Match tradition
1904 Bermuda Electric Light Power Company supplies first
street lamps
1915 BVRC soldiers
leave for war-torn
France, followed by
BMA troops
1890 Battle of
Wounded Knee
marks the final
massacre of Native
Americans in US
1899 The Boer War
(to 1902); prisoners
sent for internment
in Bermuda the
following year
1906 Coca-Cola
goes international;
within 20 years
Coke is world’s
best-known brand
1909 Plastic is
invented in the US;
first used for billiard
balls and buttons
1917 Czar Nicholas
overthrown by
Lenin-led Communists
in Russian Revolution
1918 Allied forces
win First World War
after bloody fouryear conflict
1939 Bermuda
troops prepare to
join Allies in war
against Germany
1940 Britain
announces deal
to lease Bermuda
land to America for
military bases
1941 Bermuda
Workers Association,
later Bermuda
Industrial Union,
is founded
1942 US pilots and
Royal Navy fleets
make Bermuda HQ
for attacking German
U-boats
1944 Bermuda’s
land-owning women
win 20-year campaign
for right to vote
1945 Islanders
celebrate Victory in
Europe (VE) Day
on May 8 with
public holiday
1939 Hitler’s troops
invade Poland on
September 1,
triggering Second
World War
1940 Penicillin is
discovered and the
Xerox photocopier
invented
1941 Japan captures
Singapore, Malaya,
the Philippines, Hong
Kong, Burma and
Indonesia
1941 US enters war
after Japanese attack
on fleet at Pearl
Harbour, Hawaii
1945 US drops
atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, killing
80,000; war ends
1945 United Nations
founded to avoid
future wars through
mediation
1973 Governor Sir
Richard Sharples and
aide Hugh Sayers are
assassinated at
Government House
1977 Street riots
protest the hangings
of killers Larry Tacklyn
and Erskine Burrows
1987 Tourism reaches
an all-time record
of almost 630,000
visitors a year
1998 First PLP
government wins
landslide election
victory
2001 Bermudians
killed in New York’s
9/11 attack; security
tightened around
island
2011 Gang shootings,
overdevelopment,
costly healthcare and
education standards
top island concerns
BERMUDA
1970 First “jumbo”
jet flies from New York
to London
1982 Scientists
identify the AIDS
virus, and discover
a hole in the ozone
layer over Antarctica
1990 Apartheid ends
in South Africa and
jailed black leader
Nelson Mandela
goes free
1991 The World
Wide Web, created by
British scientist Tim
Berners-Lee, makes
its public debut
2003 US captures
Iraq dictator Saddam
Hussein, who denies
building ‘weapons of
mass destruction’
2008 AfricanAmerican Barack
Obama becomes
the 44th President
of the United States
WORLD
BERMUDA
1617 Mathematician
Richard Norwood
surveys the island
for shareholders
WORLD
BERMUDA
WORLD
BERMUDA
WORLD
BERMUDA
WORLD
1616 Bermudian
expedition to West
Indies collects slaves
to replace English
labourers
Bermuda
FIVE CENTURIES
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