West Indian Americans

The First Generation

Although the number of West Indians historically has been quite small, their presence in the United States dates back several centuries. It is assumed that most of the enslaved Africans brought to South Carolina up to the 1700s came from the Caribbean, and from Barbados in particular. In the wake of the Haitian Revolution in 1791, refugees from the former French colony of Saint-Domingue settled in Louisiana and on the East Coast of the United States. The West Indian American population remained relatively small during the 19th century, but it grew significantly, especially after the Civil War. Between 1880 and 1930, approximately 100,000 persons socially defined as “Negro immigrants” legally entered the United States, and most of these came from the Caribbean region.

The forces that prompted and sustained this first wave of West Indian migrants were fundamentally political and economic. In the British West Indies, oppressive colonial policies, economic distress, and natural disasters together with opportunities abroad occasioned mass migration, first to the Panama Canal Zone and then to the industrializing United States.

The immigrants were mostly males in their wage-earning years; over 36% were between the ages of 16 and 37 years old; and the majority were not married. Many had been skilled artisans, bankers, merchants, colonial civil servants, and professional persons in their countries of origin. Since immigrant laws [Page 1391]selected for literacy, more than 98% were literate when they arrived, and, with the exception of less than 2%, they spoke English. Those trained in skilled trades were most likely to emigrate, for they found it especially difficult to realize their ambitions in colonial societies. Although the migrants represented a select segment of their home societies, in general they became male industrial workers and female domestic servants once they arrived.

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