Bermuda - The Digital Philatelist

Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Though typically referred to in the singular, Bermuda has 181 islands; the largest of these being Main Island. Bermuda was discovered in the early 1500s by Spanish explorer Juan de Bermúdez. Bermuda had no indigenous population when it was discovered, nor during initial British settlement a century later. With its frequent storm-wracked conditions and dangerous reefs, the archipelago became known as the ‘Isle of Devils’. Neither Spain nor Portugal attempted to settle it.

For the next century, the island was frequently visited but not settled. The English began to focus on the New World, initially settling in Virginia, starting the Thirteen Colonies. After the failure of its first two colonies there, a more determined effort was initiated by King James I of England, who let the Virginia Company establish a colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Two years later, a flotilla of seven ships left England with several hundred settlers, food, and supplies to relieve the colony of Jamestown.However the flotilla was broken up by a storm. One ship, Sea Venture, landed on Bermuda’s reef and reached the shores safely, with all 151 of its passengers surviving. While there, they started a new settlement and built two small ships, Deliverance and Patience, to sail on to Jamestown. Bermuda was now claimed for the English Crown.

In 1615, the colony, which had been renamed the Somers Isles in commemoration of Sir George Somers, was passed on to a new company, the Somers Isles Company. As Bermudians settled the Carolina Colony and contributed to establishing other English colonies in the Americas, several other locations were named after the archipelago. During this period the first enslaved people were held and trafficked to the islands. These were a mixture of enslaved native Africans who were trafficked to the Americas via the African slave trade and Native Americans who were enslaved from the Thirteen Colonies. The British abolished the slave trade in 1807, but not the institution itself.

Due to its proximity to the southeastern US coast, Bermuda was frequently used during the American Civil War as a stopping point base for the Confederate States’ blockade runners on their runs to and from the Southern states, and England, to evade Union naval vessels on blockade patrol; the blockade runners were then able to transport essential war goods from England and deliver valuable cotton back to England.

Bermuda is internally self-governing, with its constitution and cabinet of ministers selected from the elected Members of the lower house of a Parliament that enacts local laws. As the national government, the Government of the United Kingdom is ultimately responsible for ensuring good governance within British Overseas Territories, and retains responsibility for defence and foreign relations.