
Land, is a contentious topic, in the Bahamas. And for good reason. A famous person once wrote, “Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.” Herein lies the problem, the problem of heroes. It reaches across time, seizing hold of the immense historical significance the land has to the inhabitants of this small island nation. The vast majority of Bahamians today, don’t consider themselves to be the hero, of their land story. So much of it had been granted, gifted, quieted, stolen, sold, squandered and squatted upon, that there exists a feeling of futility amongst generations of islanders. When one considers that large scale development, especially private land development and tourism development, has really only been accomplished by foreign investors, this has led to further futility and acrimony within the native Bahamian community. It has been so, for more than a hundred years.
If truth be told, the land was gone long before national independence in 1973. What had been happening since the 1800s, was a selling and subdividing of vast parcels of land originally granted, gifted or settled by the British, and to a lesser extent, the French and the Spanish.
From 1670, and in the ensuing two hundred years of English settlement of the Bahama Islands, vast amounts of land was granted away to encourage settlers. More land was then gifted away to reward the Loyalists and those who did what the English monarch at the time considered as good work on behalf of the realm.
By the 1800s, a number of English slaveowners, tired of hot island life and foreseeing the end of slavery or finding their vast plantations more trouble than they were worth, soon began selling. The children of slaveowners, upon their death, realised that more value lay in subdividing the land. They too began selling their parent’s slaves and plantation land, which had been originally granted or gifted, by the Crown.
March 13, 1822 – THE EXECUTORS OF THE LATE JOHN SINGER OF WATLINGS ISLAND, DECEASED, WILL SELL 34 VALUABLE SLAVES AND 1,129 ACRES OF LAND
FEBRUARY 15, 1822 – TO BE SOLD JAMESTON PLANTATION ANDROS 1,000 ACRES OF EXCELLENT LAND INCLUDING NEGRO SLAVE HOUSES
FEBRUARY 13, 1822 – MR. E. I. SOLOMON WARNS TRESPASSERS OFF HIS HOG ISLAND LAND
(Hog Island is now Paradise Island)