A young Judson Eneas, jailed in Nashville along with civil rights great John Robert Lewis for protesting against racial segregation in restaurants April 1964
In April 2020, the life of Dr. Judson Frazier Eneas, (April 18, 1947 – April 5, 2020) eminent Bahamian physician …
A Nation Is Born – The Definitive Bahamian Independence Album 1973
In early 1973, as the Bahamas was fast approaching that very first Independence Day, scheduled for 10th July 1973, the …
From the hands of poor negro children picking cotton to Bay Street high fashion store Mademoiselle 1958
Few images have pricked the moral consciousness of 20th century America, more than photos of poor negroes – men, women …
National anthem had to be approved by England and that awkward aquamarine we still can’t get right some fifty years later 1973
In the decades following that very first national independence, a debate arose, over the meaning of the black triangle in …
Music as Identity: Should Bahamian Music Officially Be Called Goombay?
One can argue that independence, in 1973, had many goals to accomplish. Within that political exercise, negotiating sovereignty away from …
Sidney Poitier sadly loses father and brother then gets letter over unpaid funeral expenses 1961
December 1961 became a particularly difficult period for Bahamian actor Sir Sidney Poitier. Indeed, this was so for the entire …
Largest Land Transfer Since Columbus Come Tief Up All We Land – H. G. Christie Transfers 2,800 Acres To E. P. Taylor of Lyford Cay 1956
‘They tief every gaddamn bit… all of it was once we Crown Land,’ my Grammy used to say. ‘And there …
Clement T. Maynard, successful contractor, dies at home on Kemp Road in 1946
Clement Travelyan Maynard became a successful builder and large scale contractor, in New Providence, in the early 1900s. His company, …
1962 – Demand for Crown Land, Renaming Hog Island, Smuggling, Help For Family of Murdered Police Officer, Baptisms and Elections
1962 was a long awaited election year. Hostile political lines had been drawn between the governing United Bahamian Party and …
Soldier Road was Whitfield’s Road and Bernard Road was Bannard’s Road and Wulff Road was Wolf’s Road 1853
In 1853, James Malcolm claimed ownership of lands which contained: Whitfield’s Road, now called Soldier Road; and Bannard’s Road, now …
“The Crazy Hill” Was Once A Real Place 1897
“The Crazy Hill” for any Bahamian kid growing up, in the hundred years or so since it was occupied in …
Freedom Park, Fox Hill Dedicated in 1967 Sits On Historical Cemetery
Where Freedom Park in Fox Hill, Nassau, sits today, there once was a historically significant burial place. In 1967, new …
“After long time I will go and rake up the Bones” Bodies of hurricane drowned wash ashore on Berry Islands -August 1899
In the first half year of 1899, fate had already racked up its share of tragic drownings. A handful of …
Stephen Dillet’s Outside Children – Myth or Reality? Whatever happened to his Slaves? Was Stephen the first ‘Dillet’ in The Bahamas?
Stephen Dillet had an interesting personal life, if anecdotal evidence is to be believed. To fully understand what is proving …
First Bahamian Knighted in 1873 Dies From Mystery Mental Illness 1879
Sir William Henry Doyle was 50 years old, a proper age, all things considered, when, in 1873, he became the …
The Many Hats of Stephen Dillet,… but was he also an angry Arsonist in 1825?
Bahamians have, not too surprisingly, put a lot of stock into the historical personality that was Stephen Dillet. The reasons …
McCabe’s Curse on Nassau 1814
According to historical lore, McCabe’s Curse on Nassau, was penned in the year 1814. The Tribune 24th NOVEMBER 1924 “And …
First Cohort of Girls Welcomed At St. Augustine’s College 1967
In 1967, St. Augustine’s College, introduced co-instructional education, into its all-boys day and boarding school. By that year, the school …
Cyril Poitier (1911-1991) Brother Who Help To Raise Sir Sidney Poitier in Miami Died in 1991 at 80 years old
Cyril Poitier, was the eldest of eight brothers and sisters, born to Reginald and Evelyn Poitier of Cat Island. Cyril …
Foreign Hookers On Wulff Road Selling Wares for $7 – Case Dismissed Even Though Police Catch Them in the act 1967
Across the ocean prostitutes, have been plying the world’s oldest trade, in The Bahamas, for a very long time. The …
Premier Lynden Pindling and Speaker of the House, A. R. Braynen Needed Bodyguards After 1967 Elections
Despite all outward appearances, there was a storm brewing over New Providence in 1967. The January general election ushered in …
60 Government Schools, 27 Private Schools, 4 High Schools, 280 Churches in population of just 55,190 – Bahamas 1902
In 1902, the Bahama Islands, per capita, was probably the most educated and most churched country/colony in the world. Population …
First Woman In Bahamian History to Apply for Jury Service – Mrs. Zoe Maynard 1968
Jury service, was once the sole domain of men of property, in The Bahamas. Despite women finally getting the right …
William Campbell Adderley 1889 and Cleophas Adderley (UBP) 1967 – Black Representatives For City District, Nassau
William Campbell Adderley (1846-1892) MHA for City District (1889 until sudden death 1892) and Cleophas Adderley (elected 1967 by-election and …
‘The New Year’ 30th December 1899 Poem by Arthur E. Leslie
In 1899, Arthur E. Leslie, a coloured man, was a music and mathematics teacher in Savannah Sound, Eleuthera. Leslie was …
Liberated Africans – America Perpall, Chance Harvey and Alliday Adderley, Guilleam Rahming – Rest With The Ancestors
Precious little is known about the intimate lives of Nassau’s Liberated Africans. They were settled from captured slave ships – …
Liberated Africans – Peter Pinder and Hercules Charles Pinder – Land Owners and Monied Contemporaries of Alliday Adderley
Liberated Africans changed the ethnic, social and economic landscape of New Providence. As they were settled, by the British, in …
Bahamas Population 27,519 with 13,071 Vaccinated in 1851
The 1851 census was particularly detailed. Of note, was the need for the government to assess the number of able …
Three Generations of Sands – Sir James, Mr. Stafford and Sir Stafford
Sir James Patrick Sands was born 1859 in Nassau. He spent the better part, of his first twenty years, in …
FOR SALE – Entire FOX HILL 1,200 acres renamed Sandilands by Order of the Bank 1850
In 1850, Robert Sandilands had been forced to sell all 1,200 acres of Fox Hill, renamed Sandilands. Robert Sandilands in …
Bahamian, Haitian, Barbadian and Guyanese form “Ballot Box Party” in Grant’s Town – Political Party with Chairman Capt. Stephen A. Dillet 1924
Captain Stephen Albert Dillet was Bahamian. Lewis W. Duvalier news editor of the Tribune was Haitian. Robert M. Bailey was …
‘No To Carnival’ Says Businesses – Carnival Pays No Taxes and Hogs All The Christmas Money 1924
In 1924, unbeknownst to the local business community on Bay Street and Grant’s Town, Governor Cordeaux gave permission for the …
Sidney Poitier’s Daddy ‘Reginald James Poitier’ was the largest tomato grower on Cat Island 1924
World famous, Bahamian born actor, Sir Sidney Poitier, was the youngest of seven children born to Mr. Reginald J. Poitier …
Young, Gifted and Black – Alfred Francis Adderley MHA 1924
In 1924, “Millionaire’s Row” on Augusta Street Hill was awaiting A. F. Adderley’s house to be completed. Lineage, is what …
Young, Gifted and Black – Thaddeus Toote, MHA 1924
Thaddeus Augustus Toote, the younger, was a man born before his time. Toote displayed an attitude and confidence that belied …
Merceline Dahl Was Always Smart Even In 1965 At Just 16 Years Old
One of the most accomplished women, in the modern Bahamas, is Dr. Merceline Dahl-Regis. Few people, outside of the medical …
Poem about Nassau broke and bored after helping southern slaveowners during American Civil War 1866
Boom and Bust is a big part of The Bahamas story. When the American Civil War ended, the good times …
“Song of the John Canoes” by Dorothy Kernochan 1950
John Canoe’s origins remains a mystery, however one thing is certain, Bahamians perfected it. These Islands turned John Canoe into …
“Adieu, Dear Father” by P. Anthony White 1957
Journalist Paul Anthony White penned a most beautiful, heart wrenching poem “Adieu, Dear Father” in 1957. Evoking a strong emotional …
Some in House of Assembly were “men born in the bush and grew up eating conch and sapodillas” says T. A. Toote 1921
In November 1921, Assembly Members were debating whether or not, an electricity building contract, had been drafted by the Attorney …
St. Augustine’s College, Fox Hill named after St. Augustine of Canterbury 1947 – By 1950 Leviticus Adderley was its top Student
St. Augustine’s was founded in 1946 by Father Frederic Frey. By 1947, it was a busy, working monastery and Boys’ …
‘Charter a plane, send 300 SANDWICHES’ as Whole Families and Dynasties Win Seats In 1949 House of Assembly
Sandwiches meant money in 1949. Crisp pound notes, legal currency, to be exact! 1949 was also the year of bribery, …
Are you being ‘Salty’? Then thank writer Langston Hughes 1953
When a Bahamian calls you salty, it means you’re being utterly disagreeable, just for the sake of being utterly disagreeable …
Only the PLP Could Have Started Rumour That Caused 700 Squatters To Try Claim Pop Symonette Land – 1967
Juicy government leaks only truly began with the PLP government in 1967. Don’t believe me? Well, consider that, for the …
On the shoulders of Giants: Leon E. H. Dupuch, father of Sir Etienne and Founder of The Tribune newspaper dies 1914
When the roll of heroes, legends, creators and change makers, is called, Leon Edward Hartman Dupuch, Founder and Editor of …
Historical Lie of the Selfless Politician in 1967 Produced Problem of Political Demigods in the Modern Day
How do you get people, generations in fact, to believe something that is patently untrue. A lie. A bold faced, …
Sidney Poitier Stands Godfather For Premier Lynden Pindling’s Youngest – 10th December 1967
In The Bahamas, by 10th December 1967, other than Premier Lynden Pindling, the most famous Bahamian was Hollywood actor Sidney …
Milo Butler’s “seclusively segregated” draws guffaws from Opposition UBP, then Cecil, Foulkes, Hanna and Clarence Bain jumped in 1967
The Bahamas doesn’t need lectures in political democracy – it can give lectures. For three hundred years now, and counting, …
Savaletta Hanna – forged will of black, illiterate, poor farmer and LAND – You know how it ends – Freeport 1967
Savaletta Lewis Hanna died of a stroke on 30th December 1953. She was 80 years old. Savaletta would have been …
Stafford Sands was so mad after UBP lost in 1967, he sold the lucrative monopoly City Markets
Politics in The Bahamas isn’t for the thin-skinned or the faint of heart. When your political party loses, there is …
Dichotomies During Slavery: Sold, Runaway, Revered – Mackay, Maria and Flora 1808
In 1808, three women, Flora, Maria and Mackay, all slaves, offer an altogether common picture surrounding the institution of slavery …
Barak Morton, William Whylly and other Planters who owed Government for granted land as Slavery ended 1834
“The land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it’s …
Silver Cup Made In London Given To James Carmichael Smyth by Free Coloured Inhabitants of Bahamas 1834
By March 1833, the Bahamas Assembly, who unequivocally loathed Governor, Sir James Carmichael Smyth, had succeeded in having his governorship …
Friday 22nd. June, 1832, Columbus Statue Erected Amid Battle Over Slavery Between Assembly and Governor Carmichael Smyth
On 22nd June, 1832, a statue of Christopher Columbus, was unveiled, at Government House for the very first time. While …
Photos of The General Strike of 1958
The General Strike of 1958, initially began as a taxicab strike. The government created and politically appointed, Airports Board, gave …
Elections 1832 – Fights, Cheating, Negroes and Coloureds Vote and Riot, Candidates Beaten Up, Winners Woke Up As Losers
Freeholder blacks and coloureds, in the Bahama Islands, voted in 1832 – a full two years – before the end …
Crimes of Slaves, Free Blacks and Whites in Mid-Colonial 1800s Bahamas
During the 1800s, the mid-colonial era of the Bahamas, theft of property, was a very serious a crime. Serious theft, …
Bahamian Millionaires Run For Parliament 1982, 1987, 2007, 2012 and 2021
In 1982, the number of self-declared millionaires to the total number of candidates, vying for the 43 available parliamentary seats …
Tartan To Commemorate Bahamian-Scottish Heritage Officially Recognised 1966
Scottish-Bahamian heritage, survives in The Bahamas today, through many historical surnames, as well as, a tartan print, officially recognised by …
For 2019, Real Estate Employed 3% But Contributed 16.4% To GDP And Other Employment Stats From UNDP Report 2020
In 2019, the labour force in The Bahamas totalled 215,000 employed. For 2019, Bahamas has a population of 377,000, most …
Government Tries But Fails To Recover Money Embezzled by Jailed Member of Assembly Thomas N. G. Clare 1891
Thomas Narcisse George Clare was one of the youngest men ever to be elected to the House of Assembly. Born …
When Sir Roland Rejected Harry Oakes’s Daughter’s Deal For Her Own Casino Licence In Exchange For Education Money 1965
If truth be told, Harry Oakes’s money and influence, resided in The Bahamas longer than the man himself. More than …
“Spottie” Most Famous Potcake Adopted From Nassau By Movie Actor Peter Lawford 1938
In The Bahamas, street dogs, once called simply wild dogs, then Nassau dogs or Bahama dogs are now commonly referred …
Black Bahamian Bootleggers’ Money Did Not Turn Into Generation Wealth – Why?
Black Bahamian rum-runners or bootleggers, made a lot of money – it just didn’t last. There are quite straightforward explanations …
Year The Bahamas Entered Billion Dollar GDP Club and Largest Single Jump In GDP Brought Unwanted Attention To Offshore Banking Sector
Is the naked Bahamas, still a wealthy country? That is, without its golden, dream coat of foreign money and foreign …
“Represents the enterprise and determination of the Bahamian people to develop and process the rich resources of land and sea…” 1973
One of the best interpretations, as to what the colours of the Bahamian flag signify, doesn’t invent adoration for symbols …
Account Number 505 – My Father’s Bank Book 1967-1973
For that generation of Bahamians, born in 1943 like my dad, the bank book represented unique hopes and aspirations. 1943 …
William Anthony Musgrave Sheriff Wins City of Nassau Election Unopposed With 55 Votes Then Immediately Introduces A Bill To Ensure His Pension 1880
Colonialism represented a type of oneness, in terms of the administration of territories. Colonialism was also a great career builder …
Governor John Gregory Dies After Catching Yellow Fever At Funeral Of Man Who Died From Yellow Fever – Nassau July 1853
Bahamas Governor John Gregory took ill with yellow fever on Monday. Got worse on Tuesday. Rallied on Wednesday. Declined on …
As Negroes Realised Political Power, Bahama Friendly Society and Anglo-African League Engage in a Public War of Words on Emancipation Day 1888
By 1888, it had been approximately fifty years, since the early end of slave apprenticeship. Many changes to the negro …
First of August Eventually Became Emancipation Day
The anniversary of the abolition of slavery, in The Bahamas, was originally called ‘The First of August.’ It would be …
Nassau Negro Working On Blockade Boat Refuses Confederate Money For His Pineapples and Nassau Man Kept His Confederate Flag for 60 years
Slavery had been abolished in the British West Indies in 1834. By 1863, some 29 years later, a new generation …
Pindling Planned Protest For Prince Philip’s First Visit to Bahamas April 1959
The news of the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Her Majesty, Queen …
A Black Middle Class Long Before 1967 Challenges Narrative Of Total Abject Poverty For Bahamian Negroes
A Bahamian black middle class existed long before Majority Rule in 1967. Albeit, this social and economic class did not …
Accomplished Brothers Henry Ethelbert Sigismund Reeves and Cleveland Harrington Reeves 1919
Henry Ethelbert Sigismund Reeves (1882-1970) and Cleveland Harrington Reeves (1891-1985) were tremendously accomplished men. Brothers, born in The Bahamas before …
Monetising History (1821-2021): Two Hundred Years Since the Seminoles Settled Andros, Time To Capitalise on Chickcharney, Bosee-Amasee and Yahoos Folklore
Words like Tallahassee, Okeechobee, Coacoohee, Cohedgo and Amathla are all from America’s Seminole Indian tradition. Some are the names of …
Nassau Prostitutes Selling Their Wares For Less Than a Dollar and One Unforgettable Case of The Clap, Nassau, 1940
Venereal diseases were rampant, in The Bahamas, in the 1800s. Most cases, especially on the Out Islands, went untreated until …
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats – Progressive Liberalism in The Bahamas 1967
For The Bahamas, since January 1967, Progressive Liberalism it can be said, became the first organised political ideology. It remains …
Eric Wiberg Travelled 10,000 Nautical Miles To Chronicle Bahamian Maritime History
For The Bahamas, these incomparable, crystal blue waters have long been an intrinsic part of its economic and social history …
Unusual Deaths From Long Time 1940 – 1960 Part One
Death in the African tradition is a complicated process. The process of Death encompasses magic and gods and chieftains and …
Consumption, La Grippe, Syphilis, Typhoid, Fever: Major Causes of Death in The Bahamas 1917 – 1920
Reading historical death records may not be the exciting of things to do on any given day. However, during a …
Attesting to the Pure Whiteness of George Granville Morton of Palmetto Point, Eleuthera 1907
For Bahamian whites and those hoping to pass for white, there were tough times ahead, as they emigrated from the …
Polio Epidemic Hits Bahamas With Ban and Mandatory 14 Day Quarantine For Foreign Arrivals 1946. Polio Outbreak Causes Immunization of Entire Population 1964
In the early 20th century, few diseases were more dreaded, than the crippling infantile paralysis disease, called polio. Polio, short …
Flu Pandemic Sees Bahamas Bootleggers Making Money From Whiskey Cure for Deadly Influenza 1920
In March 2020, as the coronavirus, or Covid-19, began to negatively affect the fortunes of the Bahamas, it is interesting …
The CDP, NDP, ABC, CCKG, BYPA – New Bahamian Political Parties and Activist Groups 1966
Secret intelligence files, from 1966, released only after the thirty-year rule, reveal that nothing escaped the watchful eye of British …
The Rise and Demise of Bahamianization 1967 – 1983
Bahamianization was once a fully formulated, implemented political ideology. Its twenty year popular rise, post 1967, was to address the …
Twenty Percent of Teenagers Giving Birth at PMH Were In Fifth to Ninth Pregnancy 1979
A presumptive causal link between social and economic unrest on the one hand and its growing negro population on the …
Ebo Venus, Hard Times and Good Luck, the Slaves of Alexander Forbes of Exuma 1822
The surname Forbes, like Rolle, and Bain are some of the more prevalent surnames in the Bahamas. They, like many …
Chole, Black Female Slave Sold Early 1822, Mulatto Baby Jessie, Born December 1822 Watlings Island, Bahamas
What did it mean to be female and black during slavery? It symbolised nothing good that’s for sure. Being constantly …
Black Slave Owner Richard Owens and Daughter Mary Owens, Free Woman of Colour, Sold Slaves 1825
Black slaveowners remains a quarrelsome subject. A number of free blacks and free coloureds, in the Bahamas, owned slaves. And …
Freeman’s Hall Plantation, Cat Island and 15 Slaves For Sale in 1812; For Sale Today Minus the Slaves and Sheep
Substantial crown land grants, given to the Loyalists, an assortment of British settlers, and to a miscellaneous hodgepodge of opportunist …
Every Curry in the Bahamas Today Are Descendants of Five Scottish Loyalist Brothers Joseph, John, Richard, Benjamin and William Curry
The Curry surname, in the Bahamas, came from Scotland. According to a 1962 research paper entitled The American Loyalists in …
Harbour Islanders Say No To Electricity 1943
Bahamians call electricity – current. Such as strange word in today’s vernacular, don’t you think? To those unfamiliar with history …
American Thanksgiving in the Bahamas 1935
A 1935 photo of a Bahamian woman, carrying a rather large turkey on her head, gives some indication of just …
“Guard Our Heritage” Celebrating 250 Years of Parliamentary Democracy 1979
With its 1973 independence, a new Social Contract had been psychosocially and constitutionally enacted between the Bahamian government and the …
E. P. Taylor’s Vast New Providence Land Stock Listed on Toronto Stock Exchange 1979
From Mount Pleasant to South Ocean to Lyford Cay to Old Fort Bay, Canadian land speculator Ernest Plunket Taylor once …
100 Scottish-Irish Bahamians and Thousands of Black Bahamians Exported As Labourers To America 1945
If we look to great stories of historical importance, especially those whose origins begin in the ocean crossing annals of …
Great Bahama Bank Known As “The Mud” 1934, Bahamas Mud Produces Chemicals To Cure Diseases Scientists Say 1992
The geological mud of the Bahamas is priceless. It is an untapped economic resource, which sits, waiting on further scientific …
Popular Bahamas Police Band Performance “Beat Retreat” Explained
Some of greatest military manoeuvres in history involved the retreat. The Retreat of Dunkirk during World War II, the March …
When The Seas So Cherished Came Upon This Land – An Ode To The Afterward of Hurricane Dorian 2019
For the Bahamas, the sea has afforded every beauty and bounty, to every life that has ever existed on its …
Common Journey better known as Johnny Cake, An Early Mention In A Poem About Two Women Marrying Each Other 1799
Common Journey is perhaps the most appropriate name for the bread, which has, over the past two hundred years or …
Green Turtle Cay People Hardly Bathed And Marsh Harbour Was Just A 1,500 Orange Tree Plantation 1851
In 1851, people from Green Turtle Cay hardly bathed for fear of catching cold. We might laugh at this old …
$3,000 Move That Began A Slow End To Tony Curry’s Promising Baseball Career 1961
In 1959, Bahamian Tony Curry was named the MVP of the Eastern Minor League, leading with 179 hits, 108 runs …
‘What Tommy Robinson Know About Business Or Running Any Pharmacy’ Black Crab Politics 1967
Politics, in the Bahamas, changed after January 1967. Attitudes changed as well. Orchestrations that the United Bahamian Party (UBP), white-minority …
CALL THE MIDWIFE 1953
In 1953, there were 257 licensed midwives in the Bahamas. In fact, there were more licensed midwives than there were …
Sir Roland Symonette “It is my considered opinion that the roach did not consume much of the rum” House of Assembly 1961
Some reckon that part of the good old days, was when Bahamians weren’t scared of anything. Your old Grammy and …
Climate Study Concludes Bahamian Heat Makes Generationally Lazy People 1915
Fear drove the ideas behind the eugenics, master race, movement of the 20th century. Books, like Civilisation and Climate, written …
Was The Stench From Outdoor Toilets Blocking Sale of Royal Victoria Hotel For 33 Years 1866
It took 33 years to finally sell the Royal Victoria Hotel. It sold in 1898 to E. L. Flagler. Was …
19th Century Propaganda: Most Poisonous Plant In The Bahamas Linked to Obeah 1888
One day, the principles and teachings of Obeahism, the once ancient practices of African-Caribbean people, will be to the world, …
Loyalists Tax Exemption Extended From 7 To 15 Years: AND THEN THEY TOOK THE GOVERNMENT 1784 – 1785
If we are bound to repeat the unheeded lessons of history, then, in the future, the Bahamas will fight for …
10.12 p.m. House of Commons, London: Bahamas Independence Bill Read Lord Balniel Begins…15 May 1973
By 21st September 1972, mere moments after the results of the general elections were called, the date of national independence …
Negro Bahamas Friendly Society, Lodges and Other Societies Finance Political Movement To Circumvent Bay Street Capitalists 1944
In 1944, the 110-year-old, Bahamas Friendly Society, under the leadership of W. E. Dorsett, began to pave a new road …
Whatever Happened To The Hoard Of Priceless Coins Turned Over To The Bahamas Government in 1965
There has never really been a formal, nationally published accounting of all the archeological treasure, in the possession, of the …
Schoolmasters Beating Coloured Boys and Old White Men From America Sneaking Off To Meet Dusky Ladies in Grants Town’ 1884
Schoolmasters bending negro boys over desks to get a whacking and old white men from America, telling their wives that …
Selling Land They Never Paid For: Plantations and Slaves For Sale 1822
Land, is a contentious topic, in the Bahamas. And for good reason. A famous person once wrote, “Unhappy the land …
Man Hush Ya Mouth! The Elusive Rum Runner Capt. Symonette Was No Negro 1922
With that fiery Bahamian island sun, turning the very tar on the streets to boiling molasses, it’s just too hot …
Edgar Mayhew Bacon, Third Generation Bahamian and Prolific American Writer 1889
In 1889, Bahamian born Edgar Mayhew Bacon, then an acclaimed American author with many published books to his credit, returned …
British Transport 109 Irish Convicts To Settle Abaco 1785
As early as 1752, in an effort to populate the many near uninhabited islands of the Bahamas, the British began …
Divorced Bahamian Mothers Finally Get Equal Custody Rights To Their Children 1961
Prior to 1961, in the Bahamas, one of the reasons why many unhappily married women stayed in broken marriages was …
Pig Feet Souse Is No More Bahamian Than Duff Is
The Bahamian staple food dish of pig feet ‘souse’ is not of native island origin. Souse is, in fact, an …
Cannibalism to Incest: Stories in Bahamian Negro Folklore 1895
Cultures and traditions, outside of Europe, between the 15th to 19th centuries, were roundly dismissed as primitive. Whatever intellectual property …
Skyline Heights, No Portion Shall Be Sold To Anyone Who Is Not of the Pure Blood White Race 1957
A word of advice. When you see the old generation of Bahamians, sitting on the front porch, talking about the …
Praying So Hard To Stop Casino Gambling, We Never Saw The Storm Of Drugs Coming 1977
From the days of slavery, to emancipation, to the push for civil rights, the journey for negro people, since 1492, …
Police Even Took His Balls! “Father Allen” Caught Selling Numbers From His Chicken Shack 1965
Four very important things one needs to understand about the numbers racket and the predominantly negro area of East Street, …
Bahamas Are Not In The Caribbean and That’s Final 1960
By 1960, after a few hundred years of historical associations, the link, putting the Bahamas somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, …
Walter Wilfred Parker, An Early 20th Century “Sunshine Boy” 1922
The ethos of the original Sunshine Boys, who founded, the Sunshine Group Ltd., in the Bahamas, in the mid 1970s, …
First Negro Motorcycle Policemen In The World Nassau 1927
The history of negro policemen, in The Bahamas, goes all the way back to the early 1800s. Nassau Police Force …
Merchants and Government Conspire To Create Food Import Dependency 1915
At some point, in the late 1800s, the penny, the economic penny that is, dropped for the merchant class, and …
Leslie Miller Breaking Track and Field Records for 440 yard dash 1966
Sport has long been a pathway to scholarships for secondary and tertiary education abroad, for many naturally gifted Bahamian athletes …
A Nassau Family Photo Of Nine Little Ni**ers 1897
Within the pages of a 1897, pictorial coffee table book entitled, The Queen’s Empire, there sits a photo, of a …
Afro-Bahamian Club Calls For African and Black Man’s History To Be Taught In Schools 1966
The black man’s history began long before slavery. Popular African history, however, for as long as many can remember, centred …
Commonwealth Meant Family 1968
How to create a “Family,” in every sense of the word, was one of the greatest challenges the Bahamas government …
When Bahamian Women Finally Got The Vote They Didn’t Vote For A Woman 1962
Critically speaking, the beginning of the struggle for women’s suffrage, in the Bahamas, had nothing to do with women or …
Tribune Responds To Baseball Legend Jackie Robinson’s Observation on Majority Rule February 1967
The victory of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in January 1967, which ushered in the first Majority Rule government in …
‘The Bahamian Woman Has Always Been A Highly Sexed Individual… And I Say Thank God For That’ 1975
At some point, after 1967, the all too accepted “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” way of life in the Bahamas, …
What do Jehovah’s Witnesses, Rock Concerts and Ziggy Marley’s Band All Have in Common in the Bahamas?
As it relates to The Bahamas, what do Jehovah’s Witnesses, Rock Concerts and Ziggy Marley’s Band all have in common? …
Cascarilla of the Bahamas Was Once the Marijuana of the Early 1900s
With all the brouhaha surrounding Jamaica and its new medical marijuana export industry, it is easy to forget that the …
Dundas Civic Center – Training Negroes For A New Style Plantation 1931
Many contentious arguments have been made over the years, that the Bahamas seemingly traded one plantation type existence for another, …
Cotton Tree Law – Blessed Be The Law of the Elders
Apparently, the Great Silk Cotton Tree, that once stood on Bay Street, came from South Carolina courtesy of a British …
Off The Streets If Your Shorts Are Too Short 1942
You wouldn’t think it looking around Nassau today, but there was once a very strict dress code in place, in …
Husband Finds Wife In Bed With Another Man Then Slices Lover’s Ears Off on Grand Bahama 1824
John D. Smith of Grand Bahama was one angry white man in 1824. Smith had only one thing on his …
Tommy Robinson Breaks 100-Yard Record But Not Recognised Due To Wind 1958
To Bahamians in 1958, it probably sounded an awful lot like the Empire cheated local boy sprinter, Tommy Robinson, out …
Independence cried the Merchant Class But It Was Only Whiskey Talking 1921
About half a century before 1973, an inebriated call for independence rang out, from the merchant class in the Bahamas …
An Attempt To Attract Negro Tourists To A Segregated Bahamas 1955
By 1955, the Bahamas began to make a concerted effort of sorts to attract American negroes, as tourists, to Nassau …
Briton Eneas, a Slave Boy Kidnapped from Nigeria and Great Grand Father of Dr. Cleveland Eneas 1977
In 1976, the late Dr. Cleveland Eneas published his story entitled “Bain Town” which detailed, among other things, his family’s …
Blacks Celebrate Freedom Whites Celebrate Enlightenment – Emancipation Day 1937
Somewhere along the historical line, Emancipation Day, in the Bahamas, became considered a negro holiday. Oddly enough, this was not …
Smallest Woman in the World Isabella Pinder of Spanish Wells 1895
Isabella Pinder, 35 years old, was only thirty-six inches tall. The world would have never even known she existed, if …
Poor white t… and the N-word. When Spanish Wells and Harbour Island inhabitants hated each other 1894
By 1894, the acrimony which existed between the two settlements of Harbour Island and Spanish Wells was most definitely between …
The Murder Clock Starts Ticking 12:01 am July 10, 1973
Murder and other forms of violent crime, in the Bahamas, had historically been seen as a malignant, but limited social …
A Bitterly Divided Bahamas Limps Towards Independence 1971
Nothing was more divisive, in the modern era of the Bahamas, than the question of independence. It created a climate …
Negro Life and Burdens of Emancipation 1888
By the year 1888, almost a whole generation had come and gone since emancipation, and the shameful apprenticeship system, which …
Policeman Who Pretended To Still Be In High School To Play Basketball 1975
Sports, in all its forms, has long been notoriously riddled with accusations of cheating. Amateur high school sports is no …
Key West Population Half Bahama Negroes and One Quarter “Conchs” 1888
Bahamians were apparently leaving the islands in droves in the years after the American Civil War. They were headed to …
When “Numbers” Was The Most Dangerous Game For Negroes 1961
With the legalisation of the once underground gambling racket in the Bahamas, called ‘Numbers,’ it is easy to forget just …
600 Liquor Licences for 60,000 Nassau Population 1961
On September 20, 1961, Chairman of the Licensing Authority, Magistrate Maxwell J. Thompson, denied new applications for liquor licenses on …
Bahamian Invention Patented To Grow Artificial Sponges 1927
Back in the days when the Bahamian hotel season last only for the few winter months of the year (December …
Real Estate Men Were Kings and Everyone Else Selfish and Narrow 1940
There was a time, when real estate men, in the Bahamas, were veritable kings. They were the fat cats who …
Burma Road Riot: Duke becomes known as ‘Sweet Papa HRH’ 1942
To many alive today, in the Bahamas, the first political leader called “Papa” by the Bahamian people was former Prime …
An Early Reference to Goombay from Haiti 1899
Many Bahamians have proffered a long held idea that Goombay was uniquely homegrown. From the celebration festival, to the very …
May 24th Empire Day! When We Celebrated Being British
May 24th was once a very important day in the Bahamas. It was Empire Day! Jolly Good and Hurrah!! The …
Her Majesty Queen Ophelia, Queen of the South Crowned in Nassau 1884
Royal families have existed, all around the world, for as long as man had begun to live in collective communities …
When even the Dog Inspector was an Expat 1954
Arguably, there is one area of island life which has long been the unfettered domain of the white, and expatriate …
No home! No hair! No teeth! Dogs in Nassau 1895
Travel writing was an emerging field of journalism in the mid 1800s. Winter tourism was also just emerging for the …
Rescued Yoruba and Egbar Slaves Arrive in Nassau May 4th., 1838
“A ni ominira!” is Yoruba for “We are free!” On 4th May, 1838, one thousand and forty three (1,043) Yoruba …
Favourite Names in the Bahamas 1888
“What’s in a name” Shakespeare asked. And, the American comedian W. C. Fields once said, “It ain’t what they call …
Haunted Goal in Inagua 1889
The Bahamas Negro, and his assumed wily ways became endless fodder for journalists, and writers in the 19th century. A …
“In the hour of peril the people of the Bahamas earned the gratitude of the British nations…” 1942
Never let it be said that, in its history when the call came, The Bahamas did not answer. For it …
All African Labourers Report to African Board 1837
There were largely five factions of negroes in the Bahamas on 31st., July, 1834. There were slaves, there were free …
£500,000 Government Farm Project Abandoned on Andros 1953
Self-sustaining food and livestock production has always been a difficult objective for the Bahamas. Throughout its modern history, one agricultural …
Squalor, Huts, Rickets and Worms – Grant’s Town 1941
If one believes in such things as blessings, then consider that for The Bahamas, the appointment of the abdicated King, …
English Lawyer Ordered Deported Tries to Sue Bahamas 1947
In 1946, Walter Sidney Chaney, an English Barrister, had just landed his dream job. He was on his way to …
Bahamas Population 27,519 souls March 1851
The British newspapers didn’t mince words. They noted, there was nothing of any real interest going on in the Bahamas, …
Spaniards Held Prisoners on Mayaguana 1905
On February 17, 1905, the inhabitants of Abraham Bay, on the southern coast of Mayaguana, couldn’t believe their good fortune …
Erasing History – Where Have All the Freetowns gone? 1893
So far, we know the Bahamas had three. Could there have been more? There probably was. At some point in …
Prophetic Words 1942
Every so often, a few articles, editorials and commentaries, appearing in Bahamian newspapers, would carry cryptic words and foreboding messages …
Supposedly “No Jim Crow” on new Nassau Buses 1942
Jim Crow laws were a construct of the former confederate states. They were laws that enforced racial segregation in the …
Nassau Boy Beaten For Not Picking Enough Cotton 1894
Whipping, beating and the wholesale corporal punishment of children did not begin, in modern human culture, with negro slavery. All …
Bahama Islands Raised To Rank of Diocese 1960
The Bahamas was designated an Apostolic Vicariate of the Catholic Church in 1941. The elevation from an Apostolic Vicariate, to …
Pindling’s Famous ‘Bend or Break’ Speech at Opening of Freeport Oil Refinery 1969
With all the controversy now swirling around OBAN, the second major oil refinery scheduled for Freeport, Grand Bahama in 2018, …
On Brink of Starvation 1898, 1926, 1974
The dependency of the Bahamas on American food imports didn’t just begin in the 20th century, as some may think …
Was Maud Culmer the first Bahamian Female World Explorer? 1922
White women have been largely overlooked, in the history of the Bahamas. In the early era of Bahamian time, white …
Chinese People of Nassau Celebrate their Independence Day 1961
As early as 1863, the British were discussing the idea of introducing Chinese labourers into the Bahamas. The islands needed …
Pindling and Wallace-Whitfield: From Allies To Bitter Enemies 1968
Lynden Pindling was good enough to get them all to the Promised Land. The Promised Land of historically significant political …
Who Changed Woodes Rogers’s motto? 1940
We have a peculiar historical mystery here. Who changed Woodes Rogers’s historic words, originally inscribed on the great seal of …
“A colony was as near being dead as a living body may be” but then came liquor 1920
Historically speaking, there is one inescapable fact, the Bahamas, has profited immensely from various forms of smuggling. From pirates in …
An enduring legacy by a man who once lived in a cave in Abaco 1974
A statue depicting an Afro-Bahamian mother and child, was unveiled on 11th August 1974, in Rawson Square. A figure of …
‘Man why you so fool’ A Comedy of Errors 1918
‘Man why you so fool’ is a popular Bahamianese saying, in response to acts of stupendous stupidity. In 1918, a …
Leprosy in the Bahamas 1905
In 1905, leprosy was a rampant, incurable disease everywhere it struck, including in the Bahamas. Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s …
Armbrister Shoes, Bay Street, Nassau 1908
In 1908, shops on Bay Street, had the monopoly on retail fashion. That’s where you went to buy everything from …
Oh Lawd! Sweet Richard Gone 1964
When someone has ‘gone’, in Bahamianese language, that means they have died. And when someone dies, that is time for …
The first Bahamas Flying Treasure Hunt 1963
By 1962, more than 9,000 private planes had landed, in various ports, within the Bahamas. This was a new record …
“He is a grumbler and a gossip” Bahamian Creoles 1861
Colonial Governors were required to submit extensive reports on the economic and social progress of their respective colonies. They were …
Bimini Boxing Sensation “Yama Bahama” 1956
From highs to lows to highs to contentment, that might characterise the incredible life of William Butler, better known as …
Tradition of the Curfew Nassau 1888
The curfew bell was a long held English tradition. During the Medieval Period, the curfew bell was rung as a …
He said he had money. He lied. She get swing 1890
This story of misbegotten love, reminds me of that song by Bahamian artist Eddie Minnis “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” …
Married by 13. A toothless hag by 35. Hope Town, Abaco women 1890
Disclaimer: We didn’t write this. They did. So the ladies of Abaco need not write to us in protest. Who …
A Problem with History – What are we really celebrating at John Canoe?
In the Bahamas, at some point in its not too distant past, the native fete of John Canoe, the dance …
Christmas in Nassau 1884
Christmas in New Providence, in the bygone era of 1884, was different in some ways and similar in many ways, …
Conchological Society of New Providence
Oddly enough, the Conchological Society of New Providence founded around 1939, was an offshoot of the oldest of such societies …
Holy Ghost visits San Salvador 1885
In January 1886, a most extraordinary story appeared in the London Times. A parish Rector wrote about a strange occurrence …
Finding love at the Dance Assemblies Nassau 1797
Where were respectable, genteel single men, of Bahamian high society supposed to find social amusements, as well as, be able …
“Wampus” Bahamian shoes made from car tyres 1942
The 1940’s was a desperate time, in terms of economics, for the Bahamas. Times were at their worst during the …
Rev. James A. Edden two bronze stars for valor WWII and Korean War 1960
There are some life stories just leave you amazed. Some stories remind what incredible contributions people across the globe have …
David Biggs, of Congo Buta, New Providence, died by the visitation of God 1884
Medicine was far from an exact science in the 1800s. Death was as much a mystery, as was life. For …
“We your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects Natives of Africa” Grants Town, 1835
It is somewhat incredible, when one considers the speed in which a mutual savings scheme, a Friendly Society, was organised …
“Hice up the John B. sail” by Austin Ira Destoup 1927
The work of Austin Ira Destoup (1883-1956), a Bahamian constable, composer and pianist, sits in the British Library, as well …
Former slave, Grace Lord, run down by carriage on her way from Emancipation Day jubilee in Fox Hill 1866
On August 8, 1866, the Nassau Herald noted that the festivities in Fox Hill for the August Emancipation Day observance, …
The Big Clean Up 1798
It is quite a thing to consider that even in 1798, the early Bahamians of the late 18th century, littered …
The Big Clean-Up of Nassau – 1963
Long before the present day debates about the public dump, recycling, preserving the environment and climate change; the haphazard throwing …
Florida resident competes for Bahamas in the Olympics 1976
By 1976, the Bahamas had only ever won two Olympic medals in all of its history and nothing since 1964 …
Founder of the Ardastra Gardens, the only zoo in the Bahamas
On Friday September 5th, 2017 as the killer Category 5 hurricane Irma was barreling across the Atlantic Ocean toward the …
Nassau, Bahamas, March 13, 1947
Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas, has long embodied a unique charm which has beckoned writers, from all over …
Duff is not that much Bahamian after all
Guava Duff is a popular desert in the Bahamas. You often hear Bahamians today saying, that many aspire to, but …
“Culture to the Bahamian is like the beating heart at rest. It’s just there. Under the surface. Ready to be touched and felt and appreciated at any time.”
