They are descended from the 240,000 laborers brought to Guyana from India between 1838 and 1917 as sugarcane estate workers. They are also the most numerous among the sugarcane estate workers. Semi-refined sugar is the principal agricultural export of Guyana. The Georgetown area is dominated by black Afro-Guyanese, whose ancestors were African slaves brought by the Dutch and the British. After gaining their freedom in 1838, black freedmen established independent farming villages on the coastal plain, but there has been a steady drift of Guyanese blacks from the countryside to Georgetown ever since.
Guyanese blacks comprise somewhat more than one third of the population.
They are mainly laborers, government workers, policemen, and teachers. Georgetown also has small Chinese and Portuguese communities. These groups, along with small numbers of others, are involved in shopkeeping and in businesses such as banking and insurance. With several motion picture theaters, Georgetown is Guyana's entertainment and communications center. The country's two newspapers and two radio stations are located in Georgetown and are controlled by the government.