The way we were

This is my third article about the 1905 book “The Bahama Islands”(often referred to by the name of the leader of the team that was sent to the Bahamas by the University of Baltimore, but the following excerpts were written by WH White, one of the Shattuck team members.)

“The history of the Bahamas presents many interesting problems. Among them, perhaps the most important, is that of the social elevation of the black population.

When Great Britain attempted to ameliorate the condition of the slaves and free blacks, she dealt with her West Indian possessions as if they were one body, and applied the same measures to all of them, notwithstanding the fact that many of their interests were divergent.

This problem of amelioration, in the successive stages of proscription of the slave trade, the regulations of the institution of slavery, and the transition to freedom, through the apprenticeship system, was a living issue for many years, while the latest phase of the question, to wit, the education of the liberated black Bahamians, continues to be of the utmost importance, to the people of the Bahama Islands. (And, as reported in The Tribune of February 8, 2023, has not yet been solved)

Historical sketch of the Bahamas prior to the 19th century

The (site of the) landfall of Columbus, on his first voyage to America was one of the Bahama Islands. The question as to whether it was the present San Salvador (changed to Cat Island in 1925) or Watlings Island (which was renamed San Salvador in 1925), on which he first set foot is still a matter of controversy, and from evidence that has been brought to light, it would seem that the dispute can never be definitely settled, but this coincidence, interesting though it is, had little influence on the later history of the Bahamas.

At the time of the discovery, the Islands were inhabited by so-called ‘Indians’, who were given the name Lucayans. Subsequently, the Spaniards came and carried them away, or forcibly deported them, to end their miserable lives in slavery, in Spanish mines at Hispaniola and elsewhere.

It is said that the Spaniards returned, again and again, to the Bahamas, to kidnap the Indians, until the Islands were completely depopulated of their native inhabitants and left desolate.

This may be too strong a statement of the case, but it is certain that there are no Lucayan Indians living in the Bahamas to-day (1903), nor are there any traces of Lucayan blood to be seen in the present inhabitants.

The Indian, as an element in the population, has completely vanished, and the only trace of his former existence in the Bahamas is the occasional discovery of Lucayan bones, in lonely caverns, scattered throughout the archipelago. Most of these remains have found their way to various museums in America, but a nearly perfect skull is now on exhibition in the Library at Nassau. A glance at this skull will show that the Lucayan Indians possessed considerable cranial capacity, although they practiced artificial flattening of the head.

Another thing that attracted Spanish adventurers to the Bahamas was the fabled Fountain of Youth, reputed to be located in or near them. The aged Ponce de Leon, who was guided to the Bimini Islands in 1513, actually bathed in a fountain there, but was forced to go away a disappointed man, without the restoration of his youth, which he so much desired.

Title to the Lucayan Islands, as the Bahamas were first called, which was given to the Spaniards by the Pope, was not left undisputed. English searovers haunted the West Indies in order to prey on Spanish commerce, and pirates, who early resorted to these waters and rapidly increased in numbers, found among the keys (cays) of the Bahamas, havens of retreat, where they could easily elude the clumsy Spanish galleons.

In 1578, Queen Elizabeth I granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert a title to lands in these parts not occupied by subjects of any other Christian power.

Sir Humphrey (1539–1583) –[an English adventurer, explorer, member of parliament and soldier, who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, was a pioneer of the English colonial empire in North America and a half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh’s] – included the Bahamas in his grant, although he made no attempt to settle them.

On October 30, 1639, another grant, including the Bahama Islands, was made by King Charles I, this time to Sir Robert Heath, Britain’s Attorney-General. A few colonists were sent out under this patent and a settlement was formed on New Providence, but this settlement was ill-fated, for the island was visited, in 1641, by a force of Spanish seamen and the small band of Englishmen was captured and carried away. The place was then taken possession of by the Spaniards and held for about twenty years.

In the meantime, while the Spanish were still in possession of New Providence, the Eleutherian Adventurers, a band of religious exiles, driven out from Bermuda, sailed southward to the Bahamas in, 1649, and founded a settlement on the island of Eleuthera…”

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