2 minute read
Forgotten Facts
from 11192021 WEEKEND
by tribune242
history How the salt trade shaped Turks and Caicos
Several readers have asked about the early history of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and I could think of no better source than the 2002 thesis The Politics of Salt by Patrice M Williams, Director of the Bahamas Department of Archives.
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Like it or not, the Americas came to the notice of Europeans with the landfall of Columbus.
“His encounter with Amerindians was of mammoth importance to history, as it signalled the advent of written history…[but] due to a lack of written language, much of their history has been lost.”
Jumping forward, Bermuda was settled before the Bahamas, but in 1648 a group of beleaguered British Puritans, who were fleeing from religious persecution such as prohibition against assembly and preaching in Bermuda, set sail for the Bahamas. These Eleutherian Adventures became the first Europeans to successfully occupy the Bahamas.
In the 1670s, an unknown Bermudian captain ‘discovered’ the Turks Islands and claimed them for Bermuda. Their prolific salt ponds became an asset to Bermuda.
Salt was used to cure leather, as a preservative and as a curing agent for fish and meat, worldwide. The Bermudian settlers sold their salt to Britain’s 13 colonies in North America.Because of its extensive fisheries, New England required large quantities of salt.
“Between 1678 and 1710, hundreds of Bermudians migrated to the Turks Island to rake salt…at first, the visits were seasonal…salt rakers left Bermuda in April and returned in November.”
The salt trade became very profitable, so the Bermudians established a small settlement on Turks Island.
“Life on Turks Island was hard for the immigrants. In 1764, they occupied ‘little huts, covered with leaves; their whole wardrobe consists of a straw hat, a check shirt and a pair of ordinary trousers.”
“During the 17th and early 18th centuries, there was no sort of government on Turks Island…the inhabitants paid taxes to Bermuda… (Governor of the Bahamas from 1741 to 1758), stated that the Turks and Caicos Islands were not included in the commission of any British governor, leaving them open for any country to claim. In 1740, Tinker had asked to have them included in his commission, but he was met with opposition from Bermuda’s agent.
“In the 18th and 19th centuries, the nation that had naval supremacy benefitted in the New World.”
To make their shipping safe, Britain, France and Spain sought possession of any strategicallylocated territories – including the Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“Between 1703 and 1713, the Bahamas was plundered and destroyed 34 times, by French and Spanish forces.”
There were so many wars between various European powers and so many islands changed hands, more than once, until, in 1764, King George III (1760-1820) “issued an Order-in-Council which stated that the Turks and Caicos Islands were, geographically and politically a part of the Bahama Islands.”
This ‘marriage’ of the two island groups was never a happy one and, as I wrote in Forgotten Facts of October 8, 2021, a ‘divorce’ was granted on Christmas Day 1848.
TURKS and Caicos islanders engaged in the salt trade. Late 19th-century postcard.
