The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783-1933

by Howard Johnson

"A significant contribution to the history of the Caribbean and to the comparative study of slavery and transitions to free labor systems."--O. Nigel Bolland, Colgate University "An extended and comprehensive history of the Bahamas. . . . Shifts the focus of interest from the islands’ elites to the common people . . . with special reference to the black population which has hitherto been largely ignored in historical writing."--Richard B. Sheridan, University of Kansas, Lawrence In the only scholarly treatment of Bahamian socioeconomic history in the post-emancipation years, Howard Johnson begins by examining the last phase of slavery as one element in the foundation of later, and often more exploitative, labor systems. Looking at both urban and rural slave populations, Johnson discusses the systems of slave hire, apprenticeship, and indenture and highlights the ways in which the people of the Bahamas often exerted more autonomy and power as slaves than as a "free" people.
Following emancipation in 1838, an export economy based on cotton, salt, sponges, and pineapples spawned coercive credit and truck systems, which bolstered the dominance of a white mercantile elite that would exercise control until the early 1960s. Various government policies further perpetuated a "machinery of class slavery," making migration (primarily to Key West and, later, to Miami) one of the few escape routes available to the lower classes.
Throughout, Johnson relates historical developments in the Bahamas to those in neighboring Caribbean islands, Latin America, and the United States, making this an important sourcebook for all Caribbeanists. It will also be of interest to scholars of the historiography of slavery in the Americas and the transition from slavery to freedom or--in a post-emancipation system of domination like that of the Bahamas--from slavery to servitude. Howard Johnson is associate professor in the Department of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware, editor of After the Immigrants and Minorities in Caribbean Creole Society (1988), and author of The Bahamas in Slavery and Freedom (1991).

Genres: History

235 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude was another great addition to the chronicle of Bahamian history. Johnson takes his time with the historical period and milks it for the reader to learn more from. I won't say this book is light reading because it's not, but it is informative. The time Johnson spent learning and researching about the topic is impressive. The chapter layouts are really helpful when searching for information about the various topics covered. I enjoyed the fact that Johnson went into the difference between slavery and freedom from the black enslaved people and the type of labour and compensation they had to receive. Learning more about enslaved people who would lease themselves out for self-hire was very interesting; never heard of it before. My favourite chapter was the credit and truck systems. I found that while other authors like Saunders mention the truck system they do not go into enough detail for me. The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude have wonderful little quotes and interesting comments here and there that I found fascinating like these ones.

"In the Bahamas, however, blacks spoke a vernacular that was closer to the English language, as contemporary observers noted... The writer commented: 'Thus may we justly contrast the Bahamas with the other colonies. Our labourers [are] intelligent-- speaking the English language, and not that a miserable patios.'"

"In the Bahamas, under the share system, tenants remained basically 'permanent hired hands' whose main resource was their labor power."

"The credit and truck systems frequently left the lower classes in debt and, as a governor of the colony in the late nineteenth century remarked, in a position of 'practical slavery.'"

In the Bahamas, as elsewhere in the British West Indies and later in Africa, the black population was regarded as 'working' only when it was engaged in wage labor."

These are just a brief brief look into some of what Johnson talks about and what the book contains.

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and useful, extensive data on life in the Bahamas. The discussion of the task and apprentice system, self-hire by slaves, how it differed from US slavery and the role played by the crops that didn't flourish (cotton, especially) make this an important study.