Unlike other countries where slavery dominated, Bermuda's black population increased during its early history, a soon to be published book claims.

American historian Virginia Bernhard's new book on Bermuda slavery, "Slaves and Slave Holders in Bermuda: 1616-1782'' is due to be published in late July or early August.

Dr. Bernhard spoke to the Royal Gazette from her Texas home last week about her findings after researching documents in the Island's history.

She is a Professor of colonial American history at the University of St.

Thomas in Houston and first started writing about Bermuda and slavery after a visit here 14 years ago.

"Slaves and Slave Holders'' is still in pre-press production by the University of Missouri, and is heavily anticipated among Bermuda specialists and historians of slavery and colonial history.

Dr. Bernhard's work builds on discoveries that previous authors, particularly James Smith and Cyril Packwood found, but delves into new territory.

She has scoured the records of the Court of Assize, Bermuda orders and constitutions, and Acts of the House of Assembly and other official documents.

"In many ways Bermuda is a great place to study,'' she said. "It's like a controlled setting. The numbers are so small you can examine it more closely than other places.'' She added: "You can trace people and families in Bermuda. It is a unique place and it can bear a lot more study.'' Dr. Bernhard explained that Bermuda's relative isolation, small population and climate all combined to make slavery different from what was found in the rest of the Americas.

"That's what makes Bermuda different,'' she said. "Only Bermuda had a black slave population that grew from natural increase.'' "Men and women would have families. Bermuda had creoles at a time when the other colonies were using up their slave population,'' she said.

When asked the controversial question whether slavery in Bermuda was "benign'', Dr. Bernhard said: "I agree that it is a delicate area. It is now the trend in the history field to work more in how the slaves felt; to see things from the slaves point of view.

"No slavery anywhere was benign,'' she said. "The very fact of "un-freedom'' means that it was not. For it to have been benign you would not have had rebellions and plots, runaways and such.'' She said laws had to be passed not only to govern the major acts of resistance but also the more numerous minor acts, such as stealing by blacks which are far more telling about the early days of the Island's history.

"Stealing and that kind of thing by slaves is a way of resistance,'' she explained. "It shows that you are not happy with your lot. There was no lack of resistance in Bermuda.'' But because of the kind of work carried out here, blacks had a measure of autonomy they did not possess elsewhere.

In addition, how whites saw blacks was not based on race but on behaviour, particularly in the early years.

"Unlike in other places, the English in Bermuda were eager to use blacks as servants and skilled people,'' she explained. "They did not use the term slavery in law for many years.

"They did not condemn the blacks in racial terms as in Barbados or the Carolinas,'' Dr. Bernhard said.

White Bermudians did not use "barbaric'' or "brutish'' or other derogatory terms when referring to black Bermudians she said, adding: "The worst thing that they could say was that you were "not free'' or insolent. None of the other words were used.'' And indentured servitude -- a defined period of working for someone -- was the main reason black people were brought to the island in the first half of the 17th Century.

Once the terms of indenture had subtly changed from short periods to longer periods of up to 99 years, it was a short step to enslavement.

This jump from indentured servitude to slavery occurred in just two generations, but forever changed the Island.

Before then, the prized skills that blacks had, like sailing and shipbuilding, made for a special partnership among the races.

"White Bermudians seem to be almost lackadaisical in their relationship to blacks in the 1600s,'' Dr. Bernhard said. "They would often pass the same laws over and over again.'' She added: "In fact the first law written about blacks in English was in 1623 in Bermuda and it was to regulate their behaviour. They didn't even call them slaves.'' She said black people during that time often arrived speaking more than one European language because they were generally born and raised in one of the Caribbean islands -- few came directly from Africa.

"They were not your ordinary African or a creole who worked on a plantation and therefore had a life expectancy of a few years into adulthood,'' she said.

"These people were sailors and traders. They were an essential and valuable part of the Bermudian economy. That difference made them have a closer relationship with whites.'' Slavery came about because white Bermudians in their travels saw the practice and adopted it.