House of Assembly and Senate 1971-72: PLP, UBP, Free PLP, Labour and Independent

Prior to the general elections of 19th September 1972, an extraordinary group of people sat in the House of Assembly …
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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 …
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Loftus Roker told ‘boy come back when you grow up’ withdraws from election 1956

In 1956, the newly formed Progressive Liberal Party were actively preparing for the June general elections. The Party, was effectively …
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PLP Founder Forced To Resign From HOA After Sentenced To Four Years For Multiple Land Scams 1956

William W. Cartwright was elected, as the Member for Cat Island, in the 1949. Cartwright ran as an Independent. He …
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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 …
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A young Sir Franklyn R. Wilson and Unicoll, a Nassau-based movement of young people 1967

Among the after-effects of January 1967— a tumultuous period in Bahamian political history, known as ‘The Quiet Revolution,’ —-some very …
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Nerve Gas Ship Dump Cargo Near Abaco Brings Unexpected Opportunity To Whisper Independence – 16th August 1970

By 1970, some twenty-five years had passed since the Second Great War. Memories were beginning to fade. The great reconstruction …
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‘Come Outside So I Could Bust You In Your Mouth’ says PM Pindling to Michael Lightbourne MP 1975

‘Who run you hot’ is a common Bahamian saying. It simply means, who or what has made you angry… really …
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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 …
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PLP Very FIRST Director of Communications was a white man, a fixer, named David Probinksy – January 1967

David Probinksy, was a onetime Miami night club owner, catering to coloureds, in the 1950s. By 1965, Probinksy had became …
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‘UBP is a hooked fish, club it over the head, lest it gain strength and jump out the boat’ Pindling 1967

Oddly enough, the UBP were celebrating in September 1967. They were circling, the House of Assembly, like a shark that …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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‘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 …
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“A politician must be a Christian and a crook” L. W. Young (30 years in the House of Assembly) April 1949

Leon Walton Young had been in the House of Assembly for 30 years. He first sat as a representative in …
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“Democratise the [Public] Boards… train new people in the functions of government so that they may be prepared to accept responsibilities and provide stable leadership in the future” Etienne Dupuch 1957

In 1957, appointments to Public Boards were still done exclusively by the British appointed Governor, whoever he happened to be, …
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Freeport’s New Model City But This Time It Was 1,000 Low Cost Homes For Blacks Who Helped Build Freeport 1965

Just ten years after the Hawksbill Creek Agreement was signed on 4th August 1955, The Bahamas government had to go …
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A. R. Braynen’s Only Son Changes His Name No Longer Wanting to be a Braynen 1949

Alvin Rudolph Braynen should really be considered a national hero. There should be something significant named after him, where his …
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‘Who told you that the Bahamas belonged to Bahamians?!’ asks A. R. Braynen in House of Assembly 1950

Under British administration, better known as, colonialism, the cost of all foreign public service appointments, fell on the Bahamian government …
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“Free Things Kill Nassau People” Roland T. Symonette MHA for New Providence East 1949

In May 1949, an important economic report was tabled in the House of Assembly. Little did they know at the …
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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 …
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‘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, …
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Taylor and Stevenson Who Started the PLP Run AGAINST PLP in Historic 1967 Elections

Part of the history of the PLP, in an unexpected way, resembles something akin to a pivotal point, in the …
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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 …
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PLP Congratulated on ‘New Day’ Win As Over 2,000 Work Permits Are Approved In First Six Months While Shantytowns Expand – 1967

‘Square Deal’ was the Progressive Liberal Party’s campaign slogan for the 1967 General Elections. For many, at the time, there …
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Where the people’s Money GONE? Here’s where YOUR money gone! 1967

Just 72 hours before the 10th January 1967 general elections, Minister of Finance, Sir Stafford Sands, decided to tell the …
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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 …
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Convene ARAGONITE Commission of Economic Inquiry as a matter of Public Transparency – Then, let the chips fall where they may!

There needs to be a Commission of Economic Inquiry, convened, as a matter of urgent public interest and promised transparency, …
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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, …
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‘No Votes’ Paul Adderley’s Party Defeat in 1967 Not One Candidate Got His Deposit Back

1967 was a tough year to be a political third party. The United Bahamian Party had old money at their …
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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, …
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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 …
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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 …
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Bahamas Assembly Pays £36 To Stop Slave Compensation Claim For Negro Hanged Four Days After Emancipation 1835

Castletown Roberts, a slave, was hung on August 5th, 1834. It was a Tuesday. Castletown was hung, from the top …
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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 …
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Vote Granted To Murray G. Farquharson, Free Person of Colour, By An Act of the Assembly Was Undoubtedly Political 1830

In January 1830, Murray G. Farquharson, a free, person of colour, was politically gifted with one of the highest honours …
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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 …
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Turks and Caicos Forced To Pay Separation Debt To Nassau To Be Free Of Bahama Islands 1848

Independence debt or Separation debt, however one wishes to call it, historically speaking, meant that territories were forced to pay …
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General Elections 1962 – UBP Wax Lyrical About Losing – Winning Came As A Surprise

By mid-year, 1961, the United Bahamian Party, was undoubtedly feeling the cold tide of political change, swirling around them. General …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Member Of Assembly Convicted of ‘Tiefin’ Da People’s Money’ Election Declared Void 1890

In 1889, the conviction of Thomas Narcisse George Clare for ‘tiefin’ da people’s money’ while in public office, caused his …
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Rosiliza Price, 100-year-old Great-Grandmother of Sprinter Tommy Robinson loses claim to valuable acres on Paradise Island in favour of War Time Nazi Sympathiser Alex Wenner-Gren 1961

100-year-old Ms. Rosiliza Price went to her grave fighting for the generation rights to a valuable strip of land on …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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“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 …
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Bahamians Samuel Kard, colored, Jew and Simon Brown, white, Protestant Forced to convert to Catholicism Hours Before Executed in Cuba 1873

Maybe, Bahamians Samuel Kard and Simon Brown, were simply hapless ship workers, caught up in world events, finding themselves, albeit …
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Founder of Sandilands Village and FoxHill —Justice Robert Sandilands Had To Find God After Getting Shot For Being Biggety – 1831

Robert Sandilands arrived in the Bahama Islands in 1830. Sandilands was a rich slave owner and plantation owner. This earned …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Henry Milton Taylor Founder of PLP Party in 1953 Formally Joins UBP Party in 1971

In 1971, Henry Milton Taylor, founding member of the Progressive Liberal Party in 1953, was rueing the day that he …
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The White Man’s Economics- UBP $10 million Government Surplus in 1967 But Still Voted Out Boasting 75% Negro Membership

1967 wasn’t about economics; but by 1970 it was. The general elections of January 1967 was a fight over love …
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Ousted Haitian President General Firmin Flees To Inagua With Over 300 Hundred Who Never Left 1902

Haiti’s history of revolutions and revolutionary leaders is a long one. In 1902, one ousted Haitian leader, General Joseph Auguste …
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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 …
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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 …
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Uriah McPhee, The Death That Solidified Black Power Politics in The Bahamas 1968

Nestled between Augusta and Nassau Streets, in the heart of old Nassau, there rests in the solemn, underbrush challenged Western …
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Resigned PLP Education Minister Cecil Wallace-Whitfield Beaten When Ten Men Try To Stop Political Meeting – Freeport November 1970

Ten men, bent on rendering violence and mayhem, in order to stop a political meeting of rebel PLP members, were …
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American Armed Robber Buys Bahamian Passport And Becomes Dr. Micheal James Robertson of Cable Beach 1984

For $25,000, an American armoured car robber, managed to buy a Bahamian passport and a new fugitive life in Cable …
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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 …
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Lucayan Beach Hotel, From Boom To Bust, From Government Purchase To Commission of Inquiry, From Gangsters To Bankruptcy

The Lucayan Beach Hotel, in Freeport, Grand Bahama, began life, in the early 1960s, as a result of breathtakingly audacious …
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Illegal Haitian Immigration into The Bahamas, Britain Gives Up, Leaving It To An Under Resourced Bahamian Government 1963 – 1965

By 1963, the illegal Haitian migration problem, had all but overwhelmed, British colonial officials, in Nassau. Reliance on regulations contained …
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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 …
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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 …
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Prime Minister Pindling Drops His $4m Canadian Filed Defamation Lawsuit Against American Television Station NBC 1989

The drug years ostensibly began in the late 1970s. Drug trafficking started with marijuana smuggled out of South America headed …
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Bahamas Government Act To Compensate Storm Victims For Property Damage and Personal Injury 1850

A witness said they saw four negro children. They had been struck dead. Their bodies buried under the ruins, which …
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Majority Rule, An Imperfect Ideology, But It Is All That We Have So Far – Africa and United States 1925 – 1986

Majority Rule is far from being a perfect concept in political ideology. It is however, all that we have that, …
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The Last Shah of Iran, Frail and Desperately Sick, Forced To Leave Nassau After Two Months June 1979

One of the penultimate photos of the last Shah of Iran, in the Bahamas, was of the deposed ruler being …
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UBP Party Leaves Bahamas Number 1 On International Blacklist February 13, 1967

By 13th February, 1967, less than a month after what would become the most historically significant, and far reaching political …
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Canada Accuses UBP Education Minister Godfrey Kelly of Trying To Profit From Donation of School Desks 1967

By 1967, Canadian authorities had had just about enough of the millionaire-rich, beggar-poor UBP (United Bahamian Party) Bahamas government. They …
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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 …
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Governor Ranfurly calling the UBP “recalcitrant, stubborn and politically obtuse” and the coloured people “extremely ignorant and easily led” 1956

Governor Ranfurly wrote that Milo Butler was “hugely fat and unattractive coloured man without a brain in his head.” Ranfurly’s …
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“The House of Assembly is the House of the People” PLP Party Magazine 1956

In terms of understanding modern Bahamian political history, there is no bypassing the beginnings of the Progressive Liberal Party. In …
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Secret 1970 British File On UBP Party Meeting in London, To Try To Stop Independence, Declassified in 2001

In 1970, three UBP Party members, Reginald Lobosky, Geoffrey Johnstone and Eric Watkins, arranged for a secret meeting with British …
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Secret Political File on Progressive Liberal Party 1957 Declassified (London) 1988

In 1957, when a visiting Colonial Office official from London, came to the Bahamas, he accepted a dinner invitation from …
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Declassified Under British 30 Year Rule Confidential Assessment File on top Bahamian Political Figures 1966

No one in this world, was more obsessed with what colour Sir Roland Symonette was, than white British people. From …
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Former Slave Sam Charged With Hiding Runaway Apprentice Tulip, Disobeying His Master and Working the King’s Land Without Permission, The Bluff, Eleuthera, 1835

In the Bahamas, we know next to nothing about the British colonial governors, who oversaw and administered, the public affairs …
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Haitian Revolutionary Party Manages To Assemble 3,000 Strong Force Under The Nose of the Bahamas Government 1963

In August 1963, the United Bahamian Party (UBP) government, was caught off guard. A substantial national security threat was looming …
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“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 …
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Adelaide’s Poor Negro Population of 80 Raises 18 Shillings and Bahamas Government Sends Priceless Antique Cannon to Scrap Metal War Effort in England 1941

Sacrifice, is a word so gratuitously used today, that it is easy forget superlative moments in the history of mankind, …
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Famous Deportations Part 1 – Man Who Claimed He Loaned Pindling Money For 1967 Campaign, Deported 1969, Named In Plot To Kill Pindling 1973

Deportation is a tool, either anonymously administered through procedure or strategically targeted through vigilance. In the end, it is an …
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Miami Woman Exhibits Deed To 120 Acres In Abaco Granted By King William 1925

Every war that has ever been fought, in the world, was because of it. Early man walked out of Africa …
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A Ship Wreck of 300 Slaves on Green Turtle Cay Brings Call Of Too Many Free Negroes From New Providence 1816

By 1816, continued wrecks and capture of slave ships, across the archipelago of the Bahamas, suddenly brought unexpected social and …
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Bahamas Receives Haitian Flag in 1830 But By 1843 France Sends War Ships When Haiti Tries To Pay Debt They Agreed To With Haitian Money

In 1830, the Bahamas Governor, James Carmichael Smith, had been instructed by England to receive the Haitian flag and afford …
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Whatever Happened To The 200 Haitian Pickers on the Bahama Star Citrus Farm in Abaco 1993

Migration has often been depicted as a major problem for struggling developing countries, whether as receiver or sender nation. The …
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Abaco Farm Owned By Member of Parliament Attracts 800 Haitians Every Season To Plant And Harvest Cucumbers “the grounds turn mushy with mud” 1982

The polemic over the Haitian presence, in the Bahamas, is an 80-year-old ongoing, unsettled debate. For Haiti, its economic and …
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First Idea For British West Indian Federation Rejected In 1891 Then Revived To Be Rejected Again 1897

In 1891, more than half a century before it actually came to fruition, the idea for a British West Indian …
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Getty Oil Awarded Exploratory Licences To Drill In Bahamas For An Undisclosed Bonus Amount 1982

When companies, with a globally recognised name like Getty Oil, throw their hundreds of millions behind an oil exploration venture, …
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UBP Brand Still Strong As Electrician Cleophus Adderley Wins Over PLP Milo Butler Jr In By-Election 1967

Politics, in the Bahamas, is like a fickle sweetheart. Many have taken her to their warm bed at night, only …
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When A. D. King Tried To Be M. L. King in Nassau It Became The First ‘GTFOH’ Moment In Bahamian History 1968

Only Bahamians can criticise other Bahamians, as many have found out, much to the peril of their social media accounts …
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Stafford Sands Hired Private Police For Bahamas Government Work And Later To Protect His Daughter From Her Husband 1967

In May 1967, during a U. S. Senate investigation hearings on electronic eavesdropping, it was disclosed that Sir Stafford Sands, …
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First Black US Presidential Candidate In Nassau’s Foxhill Prison 1979

Clennon Washington King, was the first black man to run as an independent for president of the United States, in …
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£15m Loan In 1835 To Compensate British Slaveowners Finally Paid In 2015

On February 9, 2018, HM Treasury (Her Majesty’s Treasury) via its Twitter account, from London, tweeted a most extraordinary bit …
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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 …
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August 1st Emancipation Day Should Also Remind The Bahamas Their Historic Role In Enabling Slavery In America 1861 – 1865

As the August 1st annual celebration of Slavery Emancipation, is observed once again, present day Bahamians, should also be cognisant …
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Trying To Reopen Harry Oakes Case Almost Costs Cyril Stevenson His Life 1959

The killer of Sir Harry Oakes, was still alive and well, and living brazenly in the open, in Nassau, in …
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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 …
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Cyril Stevenson Uncovers Who Got The Most Road Building Contract Money 1958

Prior to 1967, the 7Cs did not apply to the process of awarding Bahamas government contracts. Contract. Costs. Competencies. Connections …
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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, …
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COFFEE SHOP MEETING ORGANISED BY JOHN CRUDEN LEADS TO EVENTUAL MERCHANT CLASS RULE Nassau 1785

John Cruden, an angry, disgruntled Loyalist driven out Florida in 1784, called a meeting of British Merchants, in Nassau, in …
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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 …
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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 …
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First UBP Convention After Political Loss, First PLP Convention After Political Win 1968

1968 was a tumultuous, rollercoaster year for politics in the Bahamas. A new political cement was hardening. Realities had sunk …
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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 …
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New Minister of Health Milo Butler In Conflict of Interest Because He Was An Undertaker 1967

Conflict of interest for Bahamian government ministers only became an issue after 1967. After that is, a negro-led party took …
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Stafford Sands Spends Some Of His Corruptly Gotten Millions in Italy 1968

The 1960s was good to Sir Stafford Sands CBE, MP; that is, until 1967. In January 1967, the seat of …
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Winston Churchill Heard Singing Bahamian Tune ‘Mama Don’t Want No Rice’ 1942

There is probably a rather simple reason why Winston Churchill would remember a song he heard in the Bahamas in …
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Conchy Joe Problems! When Bay Street Oligarchs and Foreign Investors Fight 1942

When the rich fight, they don’t play by the same rules as the poor. In the Bahamas, poor negroes like …
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Governor Refused Assistance of George Washington Carver Because There Would Be No Place For Him To Stay 1942

There are only two possible Bahamas Governors who could have refused the help of Dr. George Washington Carver because he …
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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 …
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Las Vegas Prostitutes For Bahamian Officials in 1969 Revealed In Gambling Licence Testimony in 1979

How did paying for prostitutes, for Bahamian government officials, who ran out of money, on a trip to Las Vegas, …
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Was Dr. Meyer Rassin’s Permit Application Denied Because He Was Jewish 1946

During World War II, if there had been no RAF Wing Commander Meyer Rassin, stationed in Nassau, to be in …
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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 …
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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, …
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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, …
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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, …
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Sliced Beef Tenderloin À la Pindling February 10th 1967

À la, in the gourmet culinary world, as well as in the popular vernacular, was shortened when borrowed from the …
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Fervour and Simplicity – The PLP CAMPAIGN MANIFESTO (in pictures) 1962

A published declaration of intentions, motives, or views of the issuer. That’s really all a manifesto is. But throughout history, …
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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 …
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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 …
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300,000 Acres of Crown Land in Grand Bahama Leased for 99 years in 1925

At the beginning of the 20th century, Grand Bahama presented a significant problem, in terms of economic, and social development …
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2,000 Illegal Bahamian Immigrants Hunted By U.S. Federal Agents 1935

Shockwaves from the catastrophe created by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, reverberated like an economic tsunami, through the Bahamas …
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Bahamas Democratic Party (BDP) Decimates The Free National Movement (FNM) Then Disappears Like Dust 1977

By 1977, there were any number of appropriate aphorisms that could have been used to describe the curious debacles, which …
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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 …
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Miss Germany Wins The Miss Bahamas International Beauty Contest For The Second Time 1966

Sir Stafford Sands, had an immense economic vision for the Bahamas. It is why he is credited with being the …
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Commonwealth Meant Family 1968

How to create a “Family,” in every sense of the word, was one of the greatest challenges the Bahamas government …
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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 …
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Randol Fawkes First Person In Parliament To Shout Independence August 1966

Oddly enough, the first call for Bahamian independence came long before Prime Minister Lynden Pindling would make it a primary …
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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 …
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‘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, …
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The Men Who Built Rock Sound, Eleuthera In A Pre-Independent Bahamas 1940 (part one)

Rock Sound, Eleuthera was once known as Wreck Sound. It was called Wreck Sound during the ferocious pirate years when …
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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? …
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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, …
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Battle Lines Drawn Over Control of Freeport 1969

In 1969, regarding the battle over Freeport, a London paper wrote, “Black power is an element, certainly, in the Bahamas …
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Lynden Pindling and Adam Clayton Powell and the One Share Which Almost Derailed The Quiet Revolution 1967

In January 1967, just as negro Bahamians were celebrating a pinnacle point, in their quiet revolution for political and economic …
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Intimidation and Terrorism By The New Loyalists On New Providence 1784

In 1784, the Loyalists began a campaign of intimidation, bordering on terrorism, in Nassau. What else would you call a …
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Two Bahamian Negroes Killed By Miami Police 1927/1928

In the southern States of America, of the early 1900s, the Bahamian negro encountered a form of vicious racism and …
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Lynching – An Unexpected Impediment to the US Takeover of the British West Indies 1922

Of all the factors to become an impediment to the US acquisition of some, if not all, of the British …
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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 …
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14 Whites Injured by 12 Negroes Who Cause Terror Freeport 1968

Freeport, Grand Bahama was envisioned as the ultimate island utopia, by its creator, Wallace Groves. Groves wanted to create a …
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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 …
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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 …
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Obscure Negro Grocer Runs For Assembly Against Millionaire Harry Oakes 1938

In 1938, Milo Butler, was an obscure negro grocer. Butler, described by all who knew him as a seriously religious …
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Howard Hughes Leases Cay Sal From Company Owned by Roland T. Symonette 1957

In 1956, the Cay Sal islets, then part of Bahamian crown lands, covered about 200 useable acres. The group of …
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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 …
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Anti-Explosives Bill Passed After Terrorist Bombing Nassau 1958

The 1958 bombing of the Royal Victoria Hotel in Nassau, and the hurriedly passed government anti-terrorism bill, tells us one …
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Bahamas Gets British Convicts as Labourers and Settlers 1856

In 1856, despite there being thousands upon thousands of unskilled negro labourers languishing outside huts, and lazing aimlessly in the …
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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 …
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Deputy Speaker Frank Christie Resigns Over 12 Counts of Election Bribery and Corruption 1956

Since the Loyalist years in the late 1700s, which changed the balance of power in the Bahamas, the direct descendants …
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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 …
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Burma Road Riot: Secret Race War in Whites Only Sears Addition 1942

Something happened, in Nassau, on the Monday evening of June 1, 1942 moving into the early morning of June 2, …
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Burma Road Riot: R. T. Symonette among Curfew Breakers 1942

British troops were deployed, across areas of Bay Street, from the very first evening of the riot, The riot has …
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Burma Road Riot: 5 Negroes Shot Dead and 30 White Men Injured 1942

The reality of the Burma Road Riot has been largely buried under folklore and legend. This is really how all …
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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 …
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Burma Road Riot: Conspiracy of the Fifth Columnist 1942

Was there a “Fifth Columnist” secretly in play, in the Bahamas, in 1942? Was a “Fifth Columnist,” spy or agitator, …
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‘One Big Rock Lick Him In He Head’ 2,000 Negroes Riot 1893

Grant’s Town, once largely swamp land, sits just on the doorsteps of the city limits of Nassau. As the 1800s …
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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 …
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Bahamas Gives Unequivocal “No” to Federation 1947

The Bahamas was always wary, of forming certain types of collectivist alliances, with its Caribbean neighbours. There were many reasons …
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Blood Money for Bahamian Negro Killed by Cuban Cannon 1908

In the heyday of what was an incredibly profitable international trade in turtle shells, the Bahamas, was once king. Turtles …
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Knaur Flees Colony then Stafford Sands hires him in New York 1959

What Peter Knaur, the short-lived UBP propagandist, did not realise about Bahamians, was that they had a long history, of …
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Peter Knaur and that infamous UBP Master Plan 1959

In September 1958, journalist and freelance writer, Peter Knaur, and his new employers, ensured that newspapers across America carried the …
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“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 …
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First Controversial Appointment of a Wife to Public Office 1903

In 2018, when it was announced that the wife of Prime Minister Hubert Minnis would have her own office, to …
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Loyalists Seize Political Power in Nassau 1784

British Loyalists, after the American War of Independence, largely, had two choices. Britain offered them refuge in Canada or they …
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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, …
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Speaker of the House of Assembly Fined for Selling Overpriced Flour 1947

One of the biggest names in politics and business in the modern Bahamas, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Asa …
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Bahamas Governor John Gregory born in Canterbury, England 1795

The historical significance of Canterbury to British history, is perhaps equal to the historical significance of an Arch, named after …
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The Slavery Compensation Records 1838

The Slavery Compensation Records for the Bahamas make for interesting and sobering reading. There were 1,109 uncontested claims and 24 …
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Prophetic Words 1942

Every so often, a few articles, editorials and commentaries, appearing in Bahamian newspapers, would carry cryptic words and foreboding messages …
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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 …
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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, …
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Blockade Bahamas By Land, Sea and Air says Minister of National Security Loftus Roker 1987

The 1980s tore through the Bahamas like a Category 5 hurricane. Cocaine, the white plague, formed like an atmospheric depression, …
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When the Americans Body Searched Finance Minister Carlton Francis He Barred All Americans from the Bahamas 1972

On Friday 21 January, 1972, then Finance Minister, The Honourable Carlton Francis, was subjected to a humiliating and degrading experience …
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Obituary to Social Decency: A War of Words Between Newspaper Editors 1959

Cyril Stevenson, publisher of the Nassau Herald, held nothing back when pen and ink were in hand. Neither did Tribune …
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Governor Sir Bede Clifford names Polo Field After Himself 1936

Iconic Clifford Park, the grassy knoll and historical venue where Bahamian national independence was first celebrated in 1973, was named …
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Penultimate British Governor and Commander in Chief the Bahamas, 8th Baron Thurlow 1968

On August 3, 1968, the British press announced the appointment of a new Governor and Commander in Chief for the …
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The Tragic Death of Walter Ferdinand Bethell M.L.A., 1908

Walter Ferdinand Bethell was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Bahamas. Not very much is known about him …
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UBP Film on Communist and Fascist Dictators in Fox Hill 1962

Inciting fear of the ‘other,’ through the use of propaganda films was rife in the 1930s through to the 1970s …
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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 …
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House Speaker Asa H. Pritchard rules unsolved murder question as “out of order” 1959

By 1959, the unsolved murder count, for the Bahamas, had been steadily climbing. It was a fact, which minority members …
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The Oakes Murder: Were Two More People Killed To Hide A Dark Secret of Homosexuality? 1943

Toss away every notion, every preconception, you may have about the Bahamas, in the 1940s. Put every idea, as far …
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Member of the House of Assembly Indicted in US for drug trafficking 1944

According to a New York Federal Grand Jury indictment, as early as 1940, a Bahamian Member of Parliament, was involved …
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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 …
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Robert Lee Vesco was the Real Cancer That Took Down Pindling 1973

Sir Lynden Pindling, the first Prime Minister of the Bahamas, died on August 26, 2000, after a long battle with …
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13,500 Illegal Haitian Immigrants Register to Go Back Home 1974

On Thursday 22nd. April, 1971, Haitians across The Bahamas were taking to the streets to celebrate the death of Haitian …
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Pindling Buys Three Hotels to Stop Closures 1974

In 1974, it wouldn’t have been the first time, in the history of the Bahamas, that the government had gone, …
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Kelly Island renamed Arawak Cay, Nassau 1969

Oddly enough, it was a deal signed with mobsters, gangsters, hidden figures and front men, for Paradise Island that enabled …
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“Not prepared to be a paid politician” Sands quits UBP and Bahamas forever 1967

Stafford Sands entered Bahamian politics in 1937. This was in an era before Members of the Assembly, were paid, and …
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Governor For Less Than Five Months 1881

You can always tell which governors made very little impact or who served very short terms, in administrative office, in …
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Salary proposal for Assembly met with howls of laughter 1942

In 2017, the FNM government, after voting against proposals for an increase in Member of Parliament salaries while in Opposition, …
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L. W. Young voted out after 30 years in Assembly

Leon Walton Young can be credited for one thing before he was voted out after thirty years as an elected …
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Roland Symonette and Stafford Sands clash in the House of Assembly 1942

In January 1942, Stafford Sands got up in the General Assembly and proposed that the current sitting of the House …
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Milo Butler brings the fire 1959

To anyone old enough to remember the first Bahamian Governor-General of the Bahamas, Sir Milo B. Butler, one thinks of …
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The ‘We March’ and ‘Freedom March’ of 1904

There is a saying, which offers something to the effect that, there is nothing new under the sun. It may …
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The Secret Bahamian Lottery 1959

Gambling, in all its various forms, including the lottery,  has long remained a source of national and moral contention. Admittedly, …
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We saved £7,090 of the people’s money! But…

The year 1913 had produced something quite rare for the Bahamas government. The year had delivered a whopping £10,000 surplus …
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Stafford Sands Won’t Discuss Bank Accounts August 1967

When the year 1967 dawned in the Bahamas, no one in the country could have imagined  how it would end …
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The Obituary of Stephen Dillet, the first coloured member of the House of Assembly (2)

The second obituary of Stephen Dillet makes no mention of the fact that he originally came from Saint Domingo (renamed …
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The Obituary of Stephen Dillet, the first coloured member of the House of Assembly (1)

The death of Stephen Dillet, the first coloured man in the Assembly earned two  obituaries. One in The Nassau Times, …
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HOUSE REJECTS NEGRO AS DEPUTY SPEAKER 1958

When the chair of Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly became vacant, a junior member for the South, a …
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Cyril Stevenson, co-founder of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) of the Bahamas and prolific newspaper publisher.

Cyril St. John Stevenson, a dynamic figure during incredible times. Stevenson was born just a decade after the turn of …
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Leon Walton Young MP – A question of citizenship and solvency

A little over 100 years ago, in 1915, the House of Assembly was thrown into crisis. What had been discovered, was …
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The Bahamian Member of Parliament who was an MP for only six short weeks 1962

General elections are always exciting times in the Bahamas. Like all those that have transpired, elections are always filled with …
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Happy Constitution Day Bahama Islands!

Lost in the annals of time is one of the most momentous days in Bahamian history, the day the colony …
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