In his book, Silencing the Past, M.R. Trouillot observed that “any historical narrative is a bundle of silences” (Trouillot 1995: 27). This process is what he terms an act of silencing. It is not merely absences, but an active process in which “one silences a fact as an individual silences a gun” (Trouillot 1995: 48). All historical narratives ipso facto contain silences, because any attribution of significance implies parallel attribution of insignificance, but it is the actively manufactured absences in historical production as a result of power that Trouillot takes issue with. He writes that silencing takes place at four points in the production of history. They are the moments of fact creation (making of sources), assembly (making of archives), retrieval (making of narratives) and retrospective significance (making of history). He illustrates how those in positions of power have created, controlled and/or appropriated narratives about the past (Haitian Revolution, Columbus), and secured the subordination of subaltern narratives. These individuals and nations have often done so as they have largely influenced the making of sources, archives, narratives and history, in efforts to secure positions of dominance and legacies of majesty. These groups decide what and who is important and significant to history and at the same time, what and who is unimportant and insignificant. He writes of a historical guild in the present that includes academics, professional historians, journalists, political appointees and who often discuss, build on and perpetuate dominant narratives and trajectories (Trouillot 1995: 19).
Heritage, being a past legacy in the present, has developed in much the same way. The silencing of subaltern narratives as described by Trouillot (1995) and the lack of representation of subaltern heritages become evident when examining Bahamian history and heritage. Some narratives that lack representation are those of the Afro-Bahamian experience, women, Out Island community development, and the arrival and contributions of other nationals and ethnic groups to cultural milieu of The Bahamas. The lack of historical data on these subjects contribute to misrepresentations of heritage, and as Jamaican cultural theorist Stuart Hall (2014) expresses, “those who do not see themselves reflected in national heritage are excluded from it.”
Understanding that written histories of The Bahamas have been compiled from documents created and archived by that of the dominant society, being the British government, one must acknowledge that these documents, the very source for compiled histories, contain inherent biases. Images of The Bahamas have been gleaned from Colonial Office records (produced by British administrative officials), newspapers (introduced by Loyalists and largely for their interests) and early literature, such as the recollections of stipendiary magistrate, L.D. Powles in The Land of the Pink Pearl (1996). In his writing, Powles (1996) displays biases toward a European worldview in his terming of Africans as lazy and his explication of “Nassau Negrology” (Powles 1996: 78). These sources have been assembled and retrieved by those of the historical guild in the creation of narratives that are today known as Bahamian history. Narratives of the subaltern are, at best, inferred from these sources.
At the time of independence in 1973, the most widely read book on Bahamian history was Michael Craton’s A History of The Bahamas published in 1962. It has been recognized to be a history of the dominant white elite with a view of black Bahamians and the African past that they would have approved of (Johnson 2000: 16). Of the ethnic groups from West Africa, Craton wrote:
Practically their only common denominator was ignorance and primitive barbarianism…for good or for bad, the institution of slavery gave these Africans their first unity. Very quickly their tribal identities broke down; their babble of tongues before the unity of a single European language; their customs before their unity of a single law; their religion before the attractions or organized coercion of Christianity (Craton 1962: 188)
Further to the silencing of the African experience in The Bahamas is the story of a slave girl named Kate. There is very little literature on plantation life in The Bahamas. Information on plantations tend to focus on economic production, its rise and fall, population and its mildness relative to other British West Indian colonies and the United States (Saunders 1983). Kate’s story is set on Crooked Island in the southern Bahamas. She was a 16-year-old domestic slave, also known as a house niggress on the plantation owned by James Moss. Kate was accused of theft and disobedience, of refusing to mend her clothes, and of not performing her work. On July 22, 1826, Kate was confined to the stocks for seventeen days and nights without intermission. Mr. Henry Moss and his wife, Helen, rubbed red pepper (capsicum) in Kate’s eyes to prevent her from sleeping (Murray 1999). While in the stocks she was given tasks, which she was unable to perform and flogged for non-performance. In the following days, she was sent to labor in the fields and continually flogged until she died.
The court sentenced Mr. and Mrs. Moss to imprisonment in the common prison at Nassau for 5 months and a payment of a £300 fine. Even with this lenient sentence, the “most respectable inhabitants of the town and colony” wrote to the Governor, General Lewis Grant, to remit the sentence of Mr. and Mrs. Moss. The Governor then wrote to Lord Bathurst to authorize the remission. He was anxious that persons of their respectability be spared from imprisonment lest they be deemed cruel. He writes “the unfortunate Henry and Helen Moss are to be pitied for the untoward melancholy occurrence which has taken place” (The Negro’s Friend pamphlet).
Kate’s story presents many questions. The account highlights the ontological traditions of Europe in the suppression of these incidents. The voices of the oppressed were and are only ever heard by inferring in the recorded histories of the oppressors, like Kate’s. It is also special because Bahamian history hardly mentions females let alone female slaves. Is this the one and only time something like this happened? The Anti Slavery society writes that a “violent distemper had been prevalent on the plantation during the summer” (The Negro’s Friend pamphlet). This incident also took place years after the failure of cotton due to the chenille worm and red bugs in 1805 (Saunders 2010). This raises questions of what was taking place on Bahamian plantations, and what more was being suppressed and silenced?
Kate’s story is one of whispers. It is largely untold and typical of Bahamian history. The oppressed often have no voice. These groups are not necessarily physically bound or incapable of sharing their stories, but may believe that they or their stories are of no value. Therefore, they are not shared, verbalized or written. This is partly why little is known of the Bahamian past and why many Bahamians believe The Bahamas has no history. The Bahamas has history, and plenty of it. It’s just a matter of finding it.
Click here for the story of “Poor Black Kate.”