Why most people settled in Demerara and Berbice and not Essequibo?
During slavery there were lots of sugar and coffee estates on the Essequibo Coast but after Emancipation in 1834 the estates were closed down one by one.
In his book "The Negro Family in British Guiana", Raymond Smith writes: "... there have been no sugar estates on the Essequibo Coast since 1925 and therefore men have to travel to Demerara to find work. The whole of the Essequibo Coast is regarded as a depressed area, and there is certainly very little scope for finding employment there, with the result that there is both a marked seasonal migration and a certain amount of permanent migration to other parts of the colony, and particularly to Georgetown."
That was the situation in 1956 when Raymond Smith's book was published.
Here is an 1880 map showing estates on the Essequibo Coast:
