HISTORY OF THE BAHAMA ISLANDS, WITH A 



SPECIAL STUDY OF THE ABOLITION OF 



SLAVERY IN THE COLONY 



BY 

 JAMES M. WRIGHT 



INTRODUCTION. 



Investigation of the history of the Bahama Islands has been almost entirely 

 neglected. Abundant materials for such a study are in existence, but, except 

 for a pamphlet entitled The Bahama Islands; Notes on an Early Attempt at 

 Colonization, by J. T. Hassam, efforts to present the substance of these mate- 

 rials to the public have been lacking. Numerous short sketches of the Colony 

 have been given in histories, and accounts of travels in the West Indies, such 

 as Edwards' and Coke's histories, McKinnen's Tour of the West Indies, Froude's 

 Bow of Ulysses and G. J. H. Northcroft's Sketches in Summerland. 



The history of the Bahamas presents many interesting problems. Among 

 them, perhaps the most important, is that of the social elevation of the negro 

 population. When Great Britain attempted to ameliorate the condition of 

 these people 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 actually divergent. This problem of amelior- 

 ation in the successive stages of proscription of the slave trade, the regulations 

 of the institution of slavery, and the transition to freedom through the appren- 

 ticeship system, was a living issue for many years, while the latest phase of 

 the question, to wit, the education of the liberated negro, continues to be of 

 the utmost importance to the people of the Bahama Islands. 



The author of this paper, who was a member of the Bahama Expedition 

 of the Geographical Society of Baltimore, spent the summer^ of 1903 at 

 Nassau collecting materials on the history of the Bahama Islands, and the 

 results of his researches are here presented. 



The despatches of the Governors and the Secretaries of State for the 

 Colonies contain much information of great value, but there are certain gaps 



