Column: The UWI Bermuda Open House
[Opinion column written by MP Chris Famous]
For hundreds of years, Bermuda and the Caribbean region have been inextricably linked. The very first indentured servants arrived on our shores in 1616 from the West Indies and the vast majority of enslaved persons of African descent in Bermuda were brought from various Caribbean islands.
These slaves built up our island and contributed to the growth of Bermuda through their skilled labour. Post-1834, there was another mass migration of persons from the Eastern Caribbean islands like St Kitts and Nevis. They Initially came on as skilled labour for the expansion of the Royal Naval Dockyard and then for all forms of specialist labour such as house construction and agriculture work.