First white child
The birth of the first white child was a celebrated occasion across many parts of the New World. Such births are a matter of pride for many townships, and they are commemorated with plaques and monuments at the location of the event.[citation needed] The birth was seen as such an honor that it was at times controversial as to who could claim the title.[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.[citation needed]
Americas
The first white people native to the Americas were the children of settlers from Europe.
Snorri Þorfinnsson (likely born between 1005 and 1013) was the son of Þorfinnur Karlsefni and Guðríður Eiríksdóttir. Generally known to his contemporaries as Snorri Guðríðsson, as his mother outlived his father, he was purported to be born in Vinland, possibly making him the first European to be born in North America.
Martín de Argüelles, Jr., born in the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida, was the first white child born in what is now the continental 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 United States excluding Puerto Rico.[3]
Virginia Dare, born in 1587 at the Roanoke Colony, was the first child born in the Americas to English parents, and her memory was celebrated in the British colonies. 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 Anglo 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 26 January 1788 to the wife of Thomas Whittle, a Sergeant in the marines.[7]
New Zealand
In New Zealand, the first white child was Thomas Holloway King, born in February 1815, at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, a mission station founded by Samuel Marsden of the (Anglican) Church Missionary Society.
Antarctica
Emilio Palma (born January 7, 1978) was the first person of any race to be born on the continent of Antarctica.
References
- ^ a b Cox, Mike. July 2003. "First Whites". Accessed August 7 2007.
- ^ Time. "First Native White". Accessed August 7 2007.
- ^ a b Word, Ron. July 30 2007. "St. Augustine celebrates 442nd birthday". Accessed August 7 2007.
- ^ Colonial Ancestors. "This Day in Colonial Times - June". Accessed August 9 2007.
- ^ Decoursey, William. "Bill Decoursey's notes on old Dutch families". Accessed August 9 2007.
- ^ Bennett, Ethel M. G. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. 2000. "Hélène Desportes". Accessed August 10 2007.
- ^ 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