White Barbadians or European Barbadians are Barbadian citizens or residents of European descent. The majority of European Barbadians are descended from

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, and Scottish settlers and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

indentured servants and settlers, who arrived during the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

period. Other European groups consisted of the French,

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

Austrians , pop = 8–8.5 million , regions = 7,427,759 , region1 = , pop1 = 684,184 , ref1 = , region2 = , pop2 = 345,620 , ref2 = , region3 = , pop3 = 197,990 , ref3 ...

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both in ...

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

, and

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

. In addition, some of those considered to be European Barbadians are of partial European ancestry and vice versa. CIA World Factbook estimates that there are some 20,000 white Barbadians in the country. At first, Indigenous constituted the majority of the Barbadian population. Post-colonization Europeans constituted the majority, with the island being used as a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

much as Australia would be later, until the transition of the Barbadian economy to one based on sugarcane production; importation of African slaves to the island altered the demographics of the island, making European Barbadians a minority. During much of the colonial period, whites formed the island's

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

elite. Since

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

from Britain in 1966 when most European Barbadians left for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, most political power has shifted to the black majority. Among European Barbadians, there exists an

underclass The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. The general idea that a class system includes a population ''under'' the working class has ...

of predominantly Irish descent known as

redlegs Redleg is a term used to refer to poor whites that live or at one time lived on Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and a few other Caribbean islands. Their forebears were sent from Ireland, Scotland and Continental Europe as indentured servants, forc ...

; the descendants of

indentured servants Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...

, and prisoners imported to the island, redlegs have historically formed a disadvantaged group within Barbadian

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

History

were the first Europeans to discover and land in Barbados. The Spanish regularly seized large numbers of Amerindians from Barbados to be used as slave labour on other regional plantations. This prompted the Kalinago to flee Barbados for other Caribbean destinations such as Dominica and St. Vincent. Europeans have caused the disappearance of the indigenous people in Barbados. The first white European settlement on Barbados consisted of British colonists.

Notable European Barbadians

* Sir James Drax (d. 1662), a pioneer sugar grower and 'plantocrat' (born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

before settling in Barbados) *

Theodorious Paleologus Theodore Paleologus (; –1693), alternatively Theodorious or Theodorus and sometimes referred to as Theodore III by modern historians to distinguish him from his grandfather and his uncle, both by the same name, was the only known son of Fer ...

(c. 1660–1693), sailor and

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

, last surviving male descendant of the

Paleologus dynasty The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; grc-gre, Παλαιολόγος, pl. , female version Palaiologina; grc-gre, Παλαιολογίνα), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greeks, ...

Stede Bonnet Stede Bonnet (1688 – 10 December 1718) was an early 18th-century English/Barbadian pirate, also known as the Gentleman Pirate for the reason that he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born in ...

(1688–1718),

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

* Neville Goddard (1905-1972), author and mystic * Robert Lettis Hooper (d. 1738/9), politician and jurist in colonial

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Humphrey Fleming Senhouse Captain Sir Humphrey Fleming Senhouse (29 June 1781 – 13 June 1841) was a British Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars, War of 1812, and First Anglo-Chinese War. In China, he was the senior naval officer of the British fleet ...

(1781–1841), officer of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

Tony Cozier Winston Anthony Lloyd Cozier (10 July 1940 – 11 May 2016) was a Barbadian cricket journalist, writer, and radio commentator on West Indian cricket for over fifty years. Scyld Berry wrote that he was both the voice and the conscience of West ...

(10 July 1940 – 11 May 2016), journalist and West Indian Cricket Commentator *

Zane Maloney Zane Maloney (born 2 October 2003) is a Barbadian racing driver. He was the 2019 British F4 champion and finished as runner-up in the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship, racing for Trident. In December 2022, it was announced he was joining the Red ...

(b. 2003), racing driver * Ward Simpson, businessman

References

European diaspora in North America Scottish Caribbean Ethnic groups in Barbados White Caribbean {{Barbados-stub

History

Notable European Barbadians

See also

References