FIRST WHITE CHILD

The birth of the 'first white child' was a celebrated occasion across many parts of the United States and Australia. Such births are a matter of pride for many townships, and they are commemorated with plaques and monuments at the location of the event. The birth was seen as an honor, though often somewhat controversially.^[1] As European settlers spread throughout North America and Australia, the birth of a white child symbolized the growth and increasing permanence of their expanding civilisations.

Contents

The Americas

Australia

References

Further reading

The Americas

The first white people native to the Americas were the children of settlers from Europe.

Martín de Argüelles, Jr. was the first child of European descent born in what is now the United States.^[2] Born in 1566, his father was a hidalgo and one of the expeditioners who went to New Spain with Captain General Pedro Menéndez in 1565. St. Augustine, Florida is also the oldest continuously occupied European-founded city anywhere in the country (excluding Puerto Rico).^[3]
Virginia Dare, born in 1587 at the Roanoke Colony, was the first white child born in America to English parents. Peregrine White, born aboard the ''Mayflower'' at Provincetown Harbor in 1620, was the first Pilgrim birth.³ Sarah Rapelje, born June 6 1625, was the first white child born in New Netherland in what is now New York state.^[4][5] Helena Dill Berryman, born September 8 1804 in what is now Nacogdoches County, was the first "white" (more properly Anglo-American) child born in Texas.¹
Hélène Desportes is often cited as the first white child born in New France in what would later be Canada. She was born in the early 17th century, but there is considerable disagreement about whether she was born in Quebec or before her family arrived on the continent.^[6]

Australia

In Australia the first white child was born on January 26 1788 to the wife of Thomas Whittle, a Sergeant in the marines.^[7]

References

1. Cox, Mike. July 2003. "First Whites". Accessed August 7 2007.
2. ''Time''. "First Native White". Accessed August 7 2007.
3. Word, Ron. July 30 2007. " St. Augustine celebrates 442nd birthday". Accessed August 7 2007.
4. Colonial Ancestors. " This Day in Colonial Times - June". Accessed August 9 2007.
5. Decoursey, William. "Bill Decoursey's notes on old Dutch families". Accessed August 9 2007.
6. Bennett, Ethel M. G. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. 2000. "Hélène Desportes". Accessed August 10 2007.
7. National Library of Australia. "The World Upside Down: Australia 1788-1830". Accessed August 9 2007.

Further reading

★ Molony, John. 2000. ''The Native-Born: The First White Australians''. ISBN 0522849032