The term British West Indies refers to the former English and British colonies and the present-day overseas territories of the United Kingdom in the Caribbean. In the history of the British West Indies there have been several attempts at political unions. These attempts have occurred over a period of more than 300 years, from 1627 to 1958, and were carried out, or sometimes imposed, first by the English and then the British government. During this time, some of the attempted unions were true federations of colonies and others involved attaching various colonies to a major nearby colony for the purposes of cheaper, efficient government or because the attached colonies were too small to justify a governor and administration of their own. The initial federal attempts never went so far as to try to encompass all of the British West Indies (BWI), but were more regional in scope. The historical regional groupings were the British Leeward Islands, the British Windward Islands, and Jamaica with other nearby English/British colonies such as the Cayman Islands, British Honduras and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Reasons for failure of regional groupings Many of the national government efforts to unify the region were met with opposition from influential groups within the various colonies, and by opposition from the wealthier colonies, Jamaica and Trinidad. In addition, the poor development of communication links and travel links among the separated island colonies contributed to the insularity and development of separate identities of each colony, even after emancipation of the slaves and more widespread participation in political life. The British had believed that a unified federation of all states would constitute better insurance for a positive result for all after decolonisation. They worked at the strategy for over ten years, and the West Indies Federation was finally established in 1958. Unfortunately, the Jamaicans had discovered substantial deposits of bauxite in the central mountains of the island, which would have made them very prosperous. They were not willing to share this wealth with the whole Federation, and so they withdrew from it in 1962. This prompted the next wealthiest state, Trinidad, to fear that it would be left to support the others, and so it also terminated membership. Slavery Marriage and separation "By the 1820s there were few public sales of slaves ... and families were rarely separated." "The British West Indies 1824 amelioration laws permitted marriage between slaves and forbade