The islands of The Bahamas are home to some of the last hand-wound, kerosene-fueled lighthouses in the world. Commissioned by the British government in 1833, eleven imperial lighthouses, as well as other historic lighthouses, have stood the test of time. They have been apathetic overseers in decades of triumph and tragedy, in trades of goods and people via the high seas. Many, just like us, are haunted by traumatic events past – memories that refuse to rest and decompose in the graveyard of our minds, but persist and wander through to present themselves as reminders of the worst.
18 miles north of Bimini, on the western edge of the Great Bahama Bank, stands Great Isaac. Great Isaac is a 137-foot overseer with eyes over dark water for 23 miles all around. Its existence from its very outset is marred by tragedy.
It was in 1833, that the chartered ship, Stanley, left England with large, weighty pieces of iron, glass, and machinery that would become Great Isaac. While unloading on the north tip of the cay, both of her anchors were dragged by a strong norther and the ship was driven onto off-lying reefs by onshore winds. The grounding tore a gaping hole in the hull. All of the workmen on the Stanley survived, but the cabin boy had been washed overboard and was struggling for his life. All concern had been above water, but the danger lay below. The cabin boy, in his attempt to reach the shore, was attacked by a shark that tore his body in two. The lower half of his body is buried on Great Isaac Cay. His spirit since wanders the cay and haunts Great Isaac…at least according to witnesses who have seen this young boy around from time to time.
Later decades brought to the cay new life…and new death, as local fishermen can attest. One day in the late 19th century, fishermen noticed a ship wrecked off the shores of the cay. Upon approach, broken ship parts and the mangled bodies of her passengers could be seen scattered over the land. Among them was the body of a young woman, still holding her infant. The baby boy had somehow survived the maelstrom. Since that ill-fated journey and the day fishermen steered away from Great Isaac Cay carrying a rescued infant boy, there have been reports of a ghostly grey lady wandering the grounds, up and down, and into the Great Isaac lighthouse in search of her child. Some say a full moon brings strange noises to the tiny island. Some say that even today, you can hear her moaning, wailing in sorrow as she searches about the lighthouse for her long-lost son.
Paranormal activity and mystery at Great Isaac do not end with the Grey Lady. On 4 August 1969, the light station was discovered undisturbed but abandoned. All food and gear were accounted for and nothing missing except the two keepers. Its two missing keepers were never found.
These are just a few tales of one lighthouse. Doubtless, there are many, many more.
Beginning in 1943, thousands of Bahamian men and women from throughout the chain of Bahama Islands migrated to the United States for agricultural work on what is referred to simply as “The Contract”. Bahamian men especially responded to the opportunity for employment and the chance to strengthen their economic position by filling vacancies caused by World War II. At home in The Bahamas, the vacancies created by the mass migration of men led to a transformation of society at the family, community and national levels. During the Contract period (1943 – 1966), Bahamian women whose husbands traveled for work were forced to step up as the head of household and often as the principal provider. In some ways, this facilitated female empowerment and may have been one of the contributing factors of the rise of the Women Suffrage Movement.
Although both men and women migrated to the United States of America, the majority of Bahamian migrants were males. The objective was to work and send remittances home to provide for their families. However, many men once in the United States became sidetracked or simply lost sight of their main goal. Thousands of these men who moved to the U.S.A. began to feel there was a better life there. They no longer wanted to bear the burden of caring for a family in a different country. Calvin Bethel, a Bahamian worker on The Contract, explained: “It made it good for us, workin’. We didn’t actually, say, enjoy [working on The Contract]. But the way t’ings was home, it beat home”. This simply meant that although working on The Contract was not always pleasant or easy it was better to have a job in a different country than to be back in The Bahamas without a job and barely able to provide for themselves or their family. Some women say that after about a year on The Contract their husbands stopped writing letters to them. Even when they would write to their husbands their letters would go without reply. For this reason many women were left to assume their husbands had died in the United States. Although feeling hurt and embarrassed in some cases, they knew that they had to provide for themselves and their children.
At this time, it was acceptable for women to work outside of the home, but it was not the social norm. Many women once married were expected to stay home, raise a family, cook, clean and do other household chores. Previously, women were not trained to work outside the home and, therefore, had to learn the basics of education, such as reading and writing, and various trades in order to sustain their families. Women found jobs as domestic workers for private homes and winter residents. Some worked as office clerks, while others took up odd jobs such as construction work. Through these experiences women gained a sense of independence and pride. These women became a driving force in society proving that women were more than just child bearers and housewives. Women were either made permanent or temporary heads of their households, responsible for financial management, child rearing and their traditional domestic chores with additional farm work.
As women settled into their new roles, they began transforming their communities. They became more aware of inequalities prevalent in Bahamian society and institutionalized in the law. Up to this point, they had been deprived of many benefits of citizenship. Voting privileges were restricted to property owning men aged 21 and above. Women could not vote, be elected to Parliament, serve on juries, on public boards, as justices of the peace or in many of the established institutions in the colony. They wanted better jobs and higher wages, which were still reserved for men and fairer skinned women. They wanted to be able to go into J.P. Sands Grocery Store and to know that the Caucasian clerks would not ignore them. The sentiment grew that if women could gain the right to vote, they would be better able to control their own destinies. Former Governor General, Dame Ivy Dumont, feels that the impact of the Contract in this regard is still felt today.
The 1950s was a decade of tremendous activism by Bahamian women. The absence of many men on the Contract led women to develop a sense of independence and empowerment. However, it became complicated once the man returned. Once home, he would want to regain his status as the head of the household, but some women said “no we are not going back to staying home doing nothing”. The mindset of Bahamian women had changed and no man was going to change it back, the need and desire for better education had come.
Most Bahamian women, especially from the lower socio-economic class, were not afforded formal education beyond primary school. Some women sought help with their education from men who had returned home. Other women sought to learn from those few women who could barely read. Mr. Rodney Smith shared that because his grandfather did not return home from the Contract, this forced his grandmother who at the time only had a primary school level education to further her education. Smith’s grandfather did not return to his grandmother. She was depressed for weeks after finding out that her husband would not be returning home. She would barely do anything around the house. Yet, after a while they would find her sitting in the little living room reading anything she could get her hands on. This alone speaks about the determination that these newly independent women began to develop.
The Movement
Toward the end of The Contract period racial segregation and gender inequality were still prevalent in The Bahamas. A year before the General Strike in 1958 was the formal organization of a women’s group whose prime objective was to win the right to vote for women. The Suffrage Movement was constitutionally formed around 1957 by a group of progressive and aggressive Black Bahamian housewives.
There have been conflicting accounts of how the organization developed, but the need for such an organization emanated from the minds of Mrs. Eugenia Lockhart and Miss Georgina Symonette who had recently returned from the island of Eleuthera where they helped the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in its bid to win the seat for Cecil Wallace-Whitfield in 1956. The women who led the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the leading “Suffragettes” included Mary Ingraham who emerged as the leader, Eugenia Lockhart, Georgiana Symonette, Mabel Walker and Althea Mortimer. It is said that Mary Ingraham’s motive was to help her husband win his seat in Parliament again during the next general election. The Suffragettes petitioned Parliament for the right to vote and were largely supported in their efforts by the Labour Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party.
In the year 1958, Dr. Doris Johnson who was then completing her doctorate studies in Canada joined the organization bringing with her a wealth of expertise and experience gained over the years spent in the United States and Canada. Dr. Doris Johnson was well educated. It was extremely rare for a Bahamian woman to be educated at her level, and a black woman at that. Before the arrival of Dr. Johnson, the group was completely frustrated in its effort. Dr. Johnson gave the group a new life. It began to pressure legislators and with the support of the then opposition, the Progressive Liberal Party, it began to move toward success. Dr. Doris Johnson in the year of 1958 demanded that women obtain the right to vote. According to her, “not being able to vote and share in the government of the country is a serious disability which women must fight hard to remove”.
The governing United Bahamian Party fought every ounce of the way with hopes of suppressing this organization. It was just a little too late for the governing party, as the spirit of determination had been awakened in the dominant minds of Dr. Doris Johnson and Eugenia Lockhart who had already expressed with great resolution to take the matter to the Commonwealth Office in London if necessary.
With the able assistance of Doris Johnson, the Suffragettes asked consent to speak to the members of the House of Assembly in 1959. They were denied. Magistrate Maxwell Thompson allowed them to use the Magistrate’s Court for their presentation. The Suffragettes then took it upon themselves to send a petition to the Governor of the colony to change the law for universal suffrage and this also failed. With the help of Henry Taylor, then chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party, the group traveled to London to seek assistance from the British government. Upon returning, the Women’s Suffrage Movement made another petition and sent it to the government of The Bahamas in 1960. The petition was rejected once again.
The PLP took up the cause of women’s suffrage and held rallies in Nassau and the Out Islands to spread the word about the widespread inequalities and the need to support the movement. Following a ruthless, focused and continued struggle, on February 23, 1961 Parliament finally gave in and passed a Bill which came into effect on June 30, 1962, allowing women to vote and to serve in Parliament. Registration of women immediately followed and on Monday, November 26, 1962, women voted in The Bahamas for the first time. These women had an unparalleled drive in comparison to women before The Contract and it is seen that the level of their education had improved tremendously.
The Women Suffrage Movement continued with the advocacy for freedom and social justice. In their singular “womanish ways”, these women advanced and expanded the cause of democracy in The Bahamas. It can be noted that Women’s Suffrage is a significant part of Bahamian history because it helps to show a shift and tremendous change in Bahamian society at the family, community and national levels. The Contract served as a catalyst to the start of this great movement by showing women they were capable of doing the same things that men could do and at times even more than men could do.
Click here for more information on The Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas.
The ContractSamuel Johnson of Eleuthera (D.O.B. 1924)2:04
Gowing Up, Prejudice & The ContractSheila-Mae McCartney of Eleuthera (D.O.B. 1939)3:52
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.
