Product Code Database
White Barbadians or European Barbadians are Barbadian people of European descent. The majority of European Barbadians are descended from English people, Portuguese, and Scottish people settlers and Irish people indentured servants and settlers, who arrived during the British colonialism period. Other European groups consisted of the French people, Germans, Austrians, Spaniards, Italians, and Russians. In addition, some of those considered to be European Barbadians are of partial European ancestry and vice versa. The 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. With colonization, Europeans came to constitute the majority, with the island being used as a penal colony 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 its demographics, making European Barbadians a minority. During much of the colonial period, whites formed the island's political and economic elite. Since independence from Britain in 1966 when most European Barbadians left for the United Kingdom, most political power has shifted to the black majority.
Among European Barbadians, there exists an underclass of predominantly Irish descent known as redlegs; the descendants of indentured servants, and Convict imported to the island, redlegs have historically formed a disadvantaged group within Barbadian society.
|
|
