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Overview, articles etc.

"Most Bahamians in my generation were never taught Bahamian history in schools" Gail Saunders,source
Gail Saunders is Director of Archives at the Department of Archives and author of several books and articles on aspects of Bahamian History.
 

See also:
- Museums
- Books
- cultural events
- historical photos, postcards etc.
- historical industries
- society (Bahamian identity - Asue -
- Bahamas Genealogy
 

Bahamas history, overviews
!! encarta africana Bahamas History http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/tt_911.asp
LOC countrystudies.us (dated?), Bahamas http://countrystudies.us/caribbean-islands/116.htm
!! Timeline/Chronology http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Bahamas.html
Fodors Invasions  "Colonial and Tourist Invasions in the Wake of Columbus " Fodors Miniguide (9.2002)

History - as taught at Bahamian schools (course outline of Queen's college) http://www.qchenceforth.com/history.htm

historytoday.com, "Tek Force Wid Force", Paul Shirley describes the freedom struggles of African Americans in the Bahamas after the American War of Independence (loyalists & planters e.g. William Wylly, up and down of cotton industry, marroonage, Governors John Maxwell and Lord Dunmore, Grand Jury)
XX 22.4.04 Struth! now only excerpt available, rest against fee. Check later if article gets available again, maybe from another source.
 
 

Misc. topics: Columbus - HMBS Flamingo - WW I / WW II

Columbus

! Hale, Edward Everett (1822-1909), about "...where Columbus first touched land." > Appendix A

MillersVille Uni - Columbus and the Age of Discovery, large database http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus e.g. "Index of Articles"
MillersVille Uni - Search result for "Bahamas" http://www.google.ch/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&q=bahamas+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fmuweb.millersville.edu&meta=

Wikipedia Christoper Columbus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus
Wikipedia - which island is Columbus' "Guanahani"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanahani
Christopher Columbus: first cruising guide to the Bahamas in 1492 http://www.pelicanpower.com/Columbus/index.htm and other texts
Just where was Columbus? (http://www.infoplease.com) http://www.infoplease.com/spot/columbus.html
Columbus Navigation Page, 1st voyage 1492-93 http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/v1.htm
MSN Encarta, Columbus http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568472/Columbus_Christopher.html
Enchanted History - Juan Ponce de Leon http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/d/deleon.shtml
Enchanted History - Christopher Columbus http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/c/columbus.shtml
+++Article Sept. 1992 "Man's Best Came With Columbus", Michael S. Berliner The Intellectual Activist

Windward Passage

The Windward Passage is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti/Dom Rep). (Windward/Leeward Islands see here: http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzwindward.htm

 
 

12th October - Bahamian Public Holiday: National Heroes Day / Discovery Day, US Columbus Day

Wikipedia "Columbus Day", celebration vs opposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day

+++Articles
11.10.02 "Good bye Columbus" Nassau Guardian
12.10.03 "National Heroes Day celebrated" Nassau Guardian
12.10.04 "Putting The Bahamas on the Map" Nassau Guardian (+local save)
 
 
 
 

HMBS Flamingo

+++Articles:
10.05.04 "Sunk HMBS Flamingo 24th anniversary observed today" Nassau Guardian
11.05.04 "Defence Force remembers flamingo victims" Nassau Guardian
 

...It was in this role that HMBS Flamingo, at the time under the command of Lt. Commander Amos Rolle, attempted to arrest on May 10, 1980, two Cuban fishing vessels, the Ferrocem 165 and the Ferrocem 54.  In retaliation, two Cuban aircraft invaded Bahamas airspace and fired on the patrol boat.  The Cubans sank HMBS Flamingo and fired upon marines in distress in the water (Duncan 1980; Smith 1980). original-rtf-source see also http://www.urrib2000.narod.ru/EqMiG21a.html and here (Spanish only) which mention also 1st similar incident on 18.5.1970

 
 

WW I / WW II - Bahamian soldiers
see also RBDF

The British West Indies Regiment (1st World War) - 441 Bahamians served according to list http://website.lineone.net/~bwir/bwi_regt.htm
XX ? 2nd World War

see also Nassau Guardian article about "The contract" 
see also here regarding "Burma Road" 
 

History of a particular island

see above for overviews

Abaco
The Abaco Lighthouse http://www.go-abacos.com/news/whatson/whatson_lighth.html

Castaway Island née Gorda Cay
Outside Away Magazine, Jan 1999 - "Blackbeard Doesn't Come Here Anymore"  http://outside.away.com/magazine/0199/9901blackbeard.html
Abaco Journal, Sept 1998 "Abaconians tour Disney Magic and Castaway Isl"  http://oii.net/Journal/sep98/ABACONIANS_TOUR.shtml
Buzzy (story about a manatee, DEA etc.) by Jack Lagan (2000) http://www.offmsg.connectfree.co.uk/travel/buzzy.htm

+++Articles:
07.12.97 Green Turtle Historical Preservation Efforts (Abaco) http://www.go-abacos.com/news/histpres.html
14.09.04 "The 'Abaco Adventurers'" Nassau Guardian
 
 

Andros
HG Christie History of Andros  http://www.hgchristie.com/Bahamas_Info/andros_info.asp
Small Hope Lodge  history http://smallhope.com/History.html
see also Books - Howard Rosalyn, Black Seminoles in the Bahamas
Discovery Channel "The Wee-wee legend", about the chickcharnie and history of Forfar station on Andros http://www.discovery.com/exp/coralreef/prev_today3.html
 
 
 

Bimini
History of Bimini by Michael Checkley, Director of the Museum of Bimini) http://home.att.net/~bimini-museum/history.html or via http://www.bimini-museum.org
see also Bimini archaeology
 
 

Cat Island
Bahamas.gov http://www.bahamas.gov.bs/bahamasweb/aboutbahamas.nsf/0/403ebea13d01d61a06256a8700785cff?OpenDocument
Bahamasreport a little bit about history http://www.thebahamasreport.com/public/168.cfm
geographia about Cat Isl history http://www.geographia.com/bahamas/bsciin01.htm
 
 

Eleuthera / Harbour Island
Eleuthera History http://www.briland.com/topmenu/hist.html and http://www.eleu.net/eleuthera.html
Governors Harbour History http://www.bahama-vacation.com/governors_harbour.html - ! follow links to other towns and their history
"The Articles and Orders of the Eleutherian Adventurers (1647)" http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/1647_articles.htm
Bo Hengy - a Harbour Island Legend (Brother Henry, Henry Sawyer) http://www.bahamasferries.com/hangy.html
 
 

Exuma
History on Peace and Plenty Resorts website http://www.peaceandplenty.com/en/history.html
History on exumabahamas.com http://www.exumabahamas.com/
 
 
 

Grand Bahama
!! Grand Bahama History  (Jim Baker) http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/History.htm
"The Scandal in the Bahamas." (1967), Oulahan Richard  and Lambert William  http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/oulaha2.htm
+++Articles
20.09.04 "The dark side of Sir Stafford Lofthouse Sands" Nassau Guardian (+local save)
21.09.04 "Sir Stafford Sands - a resume" Nassau Guardian (+local save)
 
 
 

New Providence - Nassau & Paradise Island

! Jim Baker's website
Nassau/PI on-line version of  "Nassau...The Sanitorium of the Western Hemisphere" (Murray Ferris & Co.1877) http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/Murray-Ferris2.pdf
General Description of the City of Nassau &c. ca. 1870 http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/bahamas1870.pdf
Church, William. "A Midwinter Resort" (Century Magazine, February, 1887) http://www.jabezcorner.com/william-c-church.pdf
 

+++Article
05.10.04 "Why Nassau is Nassau" Nassau Guardian (+local save)
08.11.04 "The other Marsh Harbour – a personal journey back in time" Freeport News - (+local save)
16.02.05 "The historical development of "the City of Nassau" By D. Gail Saunders Part I-III Nassau Guardian (+local save)

... more about Paradise Island
History of Paradise Island http://www.flychalks.com/Paradise.htm
(late) History of Paradise Island see here
see also here for Hartfort (especially in 2nd part of document)
 
 

San Salvador

A lot of (or rather most) information about history of San Salvador can be found in historical resources about Columbus (see above), but see also  Archaeology and Ancient history (below).

GERACE - history http://www.geraceresearchcenter.com/sansalvador.htm
Carleton College - history overview http://www.acad.carleton.edu/curricular/GEOL/RelatedPrograms/bahamas/info/overview.html
 
 
 

Ancient history (Lucayans, Arawaks, Caribs, Tainos)

Bregenzer, extract from dissertation 1976 ""Tryin' to Make It:  Adapting to the Bahamas." http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/JB-TRYIN.ART
Aarons George A. 1990 "The Lucayans:  The People Whom Columbus Discovered in the Bahamas" http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/ant/AARONS01.ANT
see here for more articles

Jayikislak Foundation, especially: Native Peoples of the Caribbean... (from lithic > archaic > ceramic-making cultures to Taino, Islands Caribs etc.)
see also Florida history re Tainos
!! Kacike, Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology (texts and links) http://www.kacike.org/List.html (e.g. search for Bahamas)
The Siboney Indians (earliest settlers of Grand Bahama, superceded by the Lucayans) http://www.interknowledge.com/grandbahama/gbhistory01.htm
African Americans in Florida and the Caribbean 1763 - today http://www.jayikislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/parker1.htm
Caribbean Spotlight, Arawaks & Caribs (short) http://www.caribbean-spotlight.com/arawak.html
 
 
 

National Archives & Historical Society / Other sources for information

"Because of the absence of a National Museum system, the Department of Archives was designated in the early 1980s as the organization in charge of The Bahamas’ material heritage, historic buildings and sites, and archaeology." source

Bahamas National Archives, DOA Bahamas Department of Archives http://www.bahamasnationalarchives.bs/index.html
Bahamas National Archives - a brief history http://web.wm.edu/oieahc/Uncommon/117/Bahamas.htm

ACARM Newsletter (2003) "Memory in Diasporic Communities" by Gail Saunders http://www.acarm.org/documents/issue33/Saunders.pdf (more from Gail Saunders see  books and National Archives)
ACARM Newsletter (2003) "Looking back - looking forward, a brief overview of the mission and vision of the Bahamas National Archives" http://www.acarm.org/documents/issue33/Williams.pdf

XX 03.05.04 under construction, only index-page so far AMMC Antiquities, Monuments, & Museums Corporation (National Museum of the Bahamas) http://www.antiquitiescorp.com/
Bahamas Historical Society http://www.bahamas.net.bs/history/

History Guide - resources for historians http://www.historyguide.org/resources.html
 

Other sources for information
Interknowledge (Geographia): Prehistory - Pirates - Independence http://www.interknowledge.com/bahamas/bahistory.htm
1911 encyclopedia (OCR) http://74.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BA/BAHAMAS.htm
Mel Fisher Heritage Society, Ship Wrecks (St John), the last slave ship Henrietta Mare http://www.melfisher.org/
The History of Saint Augustine's Monastery http://www.sja.osb.org/saugustine/history.html
British Colonies: How They Started and Where They Are Now / Bahamas Timeline http://www.usd.edu/honors/HWB/hwb_c/lauren.htm
History Channel Bahamas results http://www.thehistorychannel.com/cgi-bin/frameit2.cgi?p=%2Fperl%2Fsearch.pl&word=bahamas
NARA US National Archives and Records Administration http://www.archives.gov/welcome/index.html
 
 
 

Bahamians in Florida, Florida history

Uni of Florida - Center for African Studies, Links etc. http://web.africa.ufl.edu/index.html
First settlements of free blacks, Fort St Augustine and here - Fort Mose - Essay
jayikislakfoundation.org - Essay "The Bahamian Influence on the South Florida Shotgun House"
Bahamian influence in Coconut Grove, Miami http://www.magazineusa.com/cityguide/fl_mia/c_coconut_grove.asp - http://www.coconutgrove.com/CoconutGroveBrochure.pdf
Bahamians work for Henry Flagler (1890s, Railway, Hotels)
Oral history - Overtown (Miami' Coloured Town) http://www.library.miami.edu/archives/ohp/Overtown/Index.html - Chronology

+++Article (11.1997) "Blacks in Blue" http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1997-11-13/feature.html

(extract of above article) Although authorized to arrest only blacks, the patrolmen could detain whites until white officers came to make the official arrests. It was an opportunity Kimble says he relished. "If I caught a white guy after 2:00 a.m., boom, I would arrest him, put the cuffs on him, and pin him to the telegraph post," he says. "I'd call downtown and tell them, 'We got a white guy in the red-light district.' See, but he'd have to wait two hours before they got to him, at which point he'd be robbed 90 times and be scared to death he was going to get killed."

MCPBA Miami Colored Police Benevolence Association (later C = Community) - preservation of the precinct http://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/pdfs/BlackPolicePrecinct.pdf and appeal of MCPBA  http://www.law.emory.edu/11circuit/jan2002/99-12938.opn.html

St Agnes' Episcopal Church, Miami http://www.historicpreservationmiami.com/pdfs/stagneschurch.pdf
Father John E. Culmer http://www.floridacdc.org/members/overtown/culmer2.htm - St James in Tampa - St. Augustine in St Petersburg

Florida Keys http://www.keyshistory.org/ - Early Settlements & Bahamas History
!! Exploring the Cultural Legacies of Florida and the Caribbean (Exhibition 99-02, Essays etc.) http://www.jayikislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/home1.htm
see also Key West Conchs
!! Floripedia - collection of articles about Florida and Florida history http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/docs/docs.htm
 

Taino Timucua people of Florida http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Timucua/index.html
History of the Tekesta People of South Bimini (Florida)  http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Tekesta/history.html ( )
Bimini,  the Taino name for Florida

Ponce de León, Juan / (1460--1521), Spanish explorer, who founded the oldest settlement in Puerto Rico and discovered the present-day state of Florida. Born in Tierra de Campos Palencia, Ponce de León conquered the island of Boriquen (Puerto Rico) in 1508 and served as its governor (1509-12). In 1512, he obtained permission from the Spanish king to find, conquer, and colonize a legendary island called Bimini. He landed on what he believed to be Bimini in April 1513 and named the region Florida. After rounding Key West and sailing up the west coast, he returned to Puerto Rico. In 1513 he discovered Florida, and in 1521 Ponce de León set out to colonize Florida. With two vessels, 200 men, 50 horses and other domestic animals, and farm implements, he sailed for Florida. He landed on its west coast, where his party was attacked by Native Americans. Severely wounded by an arrow, Ponce de León withdrew to Cuba, where he soon died. http://welcome.topuertorico.org/glossary/index.shtml

 
 
 
 

The Caribbean and  the neighbour countries

Haitian History Prof B. Corbett  http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/history.htm
Treco Ria N. M., The Haitian Diaspora in the Bahamas (2002) fiu Florida Int. Uni
see also Article 08.11.04 "Nassau experts advise humanitarian approach to addressing The Mud and Pigeon Pea issue" and various articles about situation on Abaco after hurricanes Sept/Oct 2004

Hispaniola - Dominican Republic history http://www.hispaniola.com/DR/Guides/History.html
! Bermudas History http://www.bermuda-online.org/history.htm
! Turks & Caicos Museum http://www.tcmuseum.org/
! see also here (study made in 1987) Caribbean Islands, a country study > search for Bahamas
The Caribbean (1492-1800)  (short summary) http://www.zum.de/whkmla/period/absolut/Carib1518.html
WHKMLA Central America 20th Century http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/xcamerica.html
 
 
 
 

Historical Personalities

see also politics/parties

Blacks in Bahamian Politics - In a nutshell

While the Bahamas were 80 percent to 85 percent black long before the middle of the 20th century, they were still governed by the same small group of white elites who had always been in power. This group of politicians was nicknamed the Bay Street Boys. The islands' political districts were drawn in such a way that white voters were represented in disproportionately large numbers, but it was also true that black Bahamians had never organized a viable political challenge to the existing leadership. This changed in 1953 with the formation of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). Lynden Pindling, a London-educated lawyer, quickly became the party's first leader, and in 1956 the PLP won six seats in the House of Assembly. That same year, with the PLP's influence, the assembly passed an Anti-Discrimination Resolution forbidding segregation in public places — a major step forward in the Bahamian political struggle, and the first mark of the PLP's influence. 1958 general strike that shut down the entire tourist industry for 19 days. The PLP had supported the strike, and the effort was a powerful sign to black Bahamians of just how much power they could hold. The passage of the law granting women the right to vote in 1961 gave blacks even more hope as the size of their electorate doubled. But when the next general election was held in 1962, even though the PLP won 44 percent of the vote, it won only 8 of the 33 available seats as a result of the unfair districting. It became clearer than ever that the time for equal representation for black Bahamians was long overdue. The issue reached a dramatic crescendo on Black Tuesday—April 27, 1965. On that day, a debate on the redistricting question in the House of Assembly had again ended with white representatives stating that they were unwilling to consider reapportioning the seats fairly. Pindling, by then one of the PLP's assembly members, rose at the end of the debate to state that he did not want to be part of a government that did not represent its people fairly. Declaring that the true authority belonged outside with the people, Pindling took the wooden mace that had been the symbol of parliamentary authority in the Bahamas for 165 years and threw it out the window, where it broke in half in the middle of the crowd that had gathered outside. The act was predictably met with shock and charges of blasphemy by white assembly members, but the drama reflected the changing tide in Bahamian politics. Two years later a new redistricting act was finally approved, and when the PLP finally won a majority in the April 1967 general election, Pindling became the country's first black prime minister. In a general election held in September 1972, Bahamians voted to support a petition for independence, and in May and June 1973 the British House of Commons and House of Lords, respectively, voted to accept it. On July 10, 1973, the Bahamas became an independent country.  (source: encarta africana) Black Tuesday 27.4.1965 (PLP document) http://www.progressiveliberalparty.com/download/PLP_history_blacktuesday.pdf Struggle to Majority Rule (PLP document) http://www.progressiveliberalparty.com/download/PLP_history_struggle.pdf "Bay Street Boys" Frommer's: "Bay Street: This was the street of the infamous "Bay Street Boys," a group of rich, white Bahamians who once controlled all political and economic activity on New Providence" // http://www.worldinformation.com : "For many years the Bahamas were controlled by a white elite based on Bay Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of Nassau, known as the 'Bay Street Boys'." // Source unknown: "the white merchant élite operating out of Bay Street, Nassau" !! read also here about Bay Street Boys (especially in 2nd part of document)

 

Various historical personalities
XX !!! BNA Bahamas (historical) personalities http://www.bahamasnationalarchives.bs/EducationalResources.htm under construction, so far all available 31 (short) biographies (not only about educators) are listed under "Educators"
 

Early Governors & politicians

+++Articles
20.07.04 "Woodes Rogers and the pirates of Nassau" Nassau Guardian
25.10.04 "An historical overview of the role of governors in the Parliament" Nassau Guardian/Freeport News (+local save)

Woodes Rogers, Governor Bahamas 17th Century http://home.earthlink.net/~artrogers/Woodes.htm
Dillet StephenA. (free black, MP, around 1850) http://www.planetware.com/sites/BAH/NE/NSDTMBH.HTM and http://www.rbpf.org/formation_of_bahamaas_police_force.htm
 
 

Former Prime Ministers
Roland Symonette past (UBP) Prime Minister 1964-1967
Sir Lynden Pindling, past (PLP) Prime Minister 1967-1992, http://www.progressiveliberalparty.com/people_pindling.lasso
Life and Legacy of Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, by George W Mackey http://www.fredmitchelluncensored.com/George_Mackey_Lecture.html
From Burma Road to August 19, 1992, by George W Mackey http://www.fredmitchelluncensored.com/Mackey_LOP_Lecture.htm
Hubert A. Ingraham (FNM, exPLP), past Prime Minister 1992-2002  FNM website freenationalmovement.org
 

Other politicians
Fawkes Randol (PLP) http://bahlibs.org/n/april03/7/origins_of_the_plp.htm
Johnson Dame Dr. Doris http://www.progressiveliberalparty.com/download/PLP_history_suffrage.pdf
McWeeney Sean, AG 1989-92 http://www.grahamthompson.com/smcweeney.lasso?alt=print

more politicians (without links so far): Alfred Francis Adderley (PLP), Milo Butler (see article), Clarence Bain, Arthur Foulkes, Garnet Levarity, Mary Ingraham, Kendal G. L. Isaacs, Arthur D. Hanna, Eugenie Lockhart, Cyril Stevenson, Jeffrey Thompson, Cecil Wallace Whitfield

List of previous Governor Generals http://www.bahamas.gov.bs/BahamasWeb/aboutthegovernment.nsf/Subjects/Previous+Governor+Generals
! Timeline/Chronology (Governors, chiefs, PMs etc) http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Bahamas.html
 

Party History
(short) Political Party History http://www.thebahamasguide.com/society/
Historical political parties: "The Afro Bahamian League" (1880s), "The Ballot Box Party" (1920s) - reference: Nassau Guardian
 
 

Famous people with Bahamian roots (for artists see here)
James Weldon (William) Johnson (Bahamian roots) http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/johnson/life.htm and http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/johnson1.html - and http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/tt_810.asp
W. E. B. DuBois (Bahamian roots) http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/DuBois/DUBOISP1.HTMLand http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/DuBois/ and http://afgen.com/dubois2.html - WEB > William Edward Burghardt Du Bois / "His great-great grandfather from his father's side, Dr James Du Bois was a white plantation owner in the Bahamas" source
Dr. J. Robert Love (Bahamian, mentor to Marcus Garvey) Joshua Cockburn (Bahamian, captain of Garvey's Yarmouth, Black Star Line) http://www.marcusgarveylibrary.org.uk/biography1.htmandhttp://www.marcusgarvey.com/and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/peopleevents/e_blackstar.html
 
 
 

Piracy (late 1600s to the early 1700s )

Geographia, Pirates in the Bahamas http://www.geographia.com/bahamas/pirates01.htm
see also Woodes Rogers, Governor Bahamas 17th Century
1911 encyclopedia (OCR) http://14.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PI/PIRATE_AND_PIRACY.htm
! Article by Ben Lowe (FAU) "Early Modern English Pirates" myths versus historical truth http://www.jayikislakfoundation.org/collections_articles.html > click on Henry Morgan picture
History, biographies, legends (Krzysztof Wilczynski ) http://www.piratesinfo.com/
Blackbeard (North Carolina Maritime Museum) http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/maritime/blackbeard/   - and  http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/blackbea.cfm
Pirates of the Whydah, National Geographic May 1999 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/story.html   - and http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/main.html
Exhibition: The Pirate Legacy of the Spanish Main incl. ! Glossary http://www.mdpls.org/virtual/index.htm
Piracy in the Caribbean (Autengruber LMU, interesting details, ignore typos...) http://www.stud.uni-muenchen.de/~christian.autengruber/piracy-thesenblatt.pdf
Early Modern English Pirates: More than Treasure Maps and Pixie Dust http://www.jayikislakfoundation.org/exhibitions.html > Article by Benno P Lowe
caribbeantales - a lot of information about ships and crews in the Caribbean http://www.angelfire.com/realm3/caribbeantales/ships.html
Pirate Flags, some information, shop and links to more background info about pirates http://www.gettysburgflag.com/FamousPirateFlags  
 

Corsair > Korsar: Pirate, especially : a privateer of the Barbary Coast of North Africa (European crusaders named their Muslim enemies “Barbary Corsairs”).Buccaneer > Bukanier: French boucanier, any of the freebooters preying on Spanish ships and settlements especially in the West Indies in the 17th century. "Boucan": means barbecue as they were frequently seen barbecuing their meat on grills. They learned this form of cooking from the Arawak Indians >  boucan, a grill for the smoking of viande boucanée, or dried meat, for use in ships at sea. Freebooter, Freebooty > Freibeuter, Freibeuterei: Pirate, Plunderer, from Dutch vrijbuiter, from vrijbuit plunder, from vrij free + buit booty Privateer > Freibeuter, Kaperer: an armed private ship licensed to attack enemy shipping; also : a sailor on such a ship Cimaroon (sometimes Maroon): Fugitive African slave in Spanish America, especially Panama and Jamaica. Panamanian cimarrones were key allies in (Francis) Drake's campaign. Filibuster: (Spanish filibustero, literally, freebooter) an irregular military adventurer; specifically : an American engaged in fomenting insurrections in Latin America in the mid-19th century Marauder: to roam about and raid in search of plunder Letters of marque/of reprisal > Kaperbrief (als Repressalie gegen einen anderen Staat): written authority granted to a private person by a government to seize the subjects of a foreign state or their goods; specifically : a license granted to a private person to fit out an armed ship to plunder the enemy Swashbucklers > Säbelrassler Spanish Main the mainland of Spanish America especially along N coast of S. America / the Caribbean Sea & adjacent waters especially at the time when region was infested with pirates Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 divided the world outside of Europe in a exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portugues. The remaining exploring nations of Europe such as France, England, and the Netherlands were explicitly refused access to the new lands, leaving them only options like piracy" Hispaniola: today Haiti/Dominican Republic, in 1493 Christopher Columbus founded the first Spanish colony in the New World on it. Man-of-war: a combatant warship of a recognized navy Jolly Roger: a black flag with a white skull and crossbones formerly used by pirates as their ensign. (definitions mostly from Merriam-Webster and/or Wikipedia)

 

Slavery, Segregation etc.

In a nutshell (because this info was so hard to find...):

The first black Bahamians were free immigrants who arrived when Bermuda decided to banish all of its free blacks, and some of its more "troublesome" slaves, to Eleuthera (around 1656). By 1734 more than a third of Bahamians were black slaves, and another 5 percent were free people of color. The first Bahamian slave laws had been passed in 1723, restricting the mobility and rights of black Bahamians. In the late 1700s the Bahamas became a popular refuge for British Loyalists from the American colonies who chose to flee as the revolution approached. Many of these were Southern slaveholders who brought their slaves with them, and as a result, the black presence in the Bahamas also grew rapidly. By the 1780s blacks formed the majority of the Bahamian population. The abolition of slavery in all British territories in 1834 freed 10,000 black Bahamians. During the period of apprenticeship that lasted until 1838, former slaves were obligated to remain on their former owners' land in return for some form of payment that was agreed to individually. Even after apprenticeship had ended, many black Bahamians chose to remain employed as farmers and fishermen, the occupations most Bahamians had traditionally pursued. (source: encarta africana)

 

Bahamas

"Bibliography of Bahamian Genealogy" http://www2.gsu.edu/~libpjr/bahgen.htm   
 

National Archives of the Bahamas
"INDEX TO THE SUPREME COURT WILLS 1722 - 1917" http://www.bahamasnationalarchives.bs/Genealogy/Will%20Index/Will_Index_HOME.htm 

(March 2008) "Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834" http://www.ancestry.co.uk/home/new.aspx?o_iid=31662&o_lid=31662#historicalRecords

"Former Colonial Dependencies Slave Register Collection, 1812-1834" http://landing.ancestry.co.uk/intl/uk/barbados.aspx 

Emancipation Day celebration: a three-day holiday marking the end of slavery in the [Bahamas] former British colony in 1834.
Creole slave ship revolt http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/civilwar/03/creole.html see also "Heroic Slave"
WilliamWylly, Clifton Cay NP, plantation / archaeological settlement http://www.newsouthassoc.com/newsletter16.html > search for Wylly
and http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/99legacy/11-22-1999.html - see also here

Publications (source: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~south/bibs/slavebib#bah)
Johnson, Howard. The Bahamas in Slavery and Freedom. Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers; London: James Currey Publishers, 1991
Saunders, Gail. Bahamian Loyalists and their Slaves. London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1983
Saunders, Gail. Slavery in the Bahamas, 1648-1838. [Nassau?]: D.G. Saunders, 1985
Saunders, Hartley Cecil. The Other Bahamas. 1st ed. Nassau, Bahamas: Bodab Publishers, 1991

General

! Black History Quiz (play more than once, there are different sets of questions) http://www.bet.com/blackhistoryquiz/

!! Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism (3rd part: 1830- to the end) http://innercity.org/holt/chron_1830_end.html
(XenuErr)!! Wikipedia, Slavery in general, see also comments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery)
Slavery a peculiar institution (LOC) http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart1.html historical documents !
African American Odyssee (LOC) http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/
South Carolina History, African-Americans http://www.sciway.net/afam/slavery/indexs.html
Encyclopedia of Slavery http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAslavery.htm
Pro-slavery arguments http://www.assumption.edu/users/lknoles/douglassproslaveryargs.html and http://www.hutchisonschool.org/home/HotLists/proslav.html
Slave Resistance - a Caribbean study (Miami Uni) http://www.library.miami.edu/archives/slaves/index.html
ARM Africa Repatriation Movement, linklist re slavery http://www.arm.arc.co.uk/other.html
Sam Farring, sources related to "involuntary immigration to US" http://web.cocc.edu/hum299/students/sam/webpractice2/samswebliography.htm
Uni Heidelberg - Slavery http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~el6/presentations/pres_c1_african_americans_ws02_03/slavery_start_page.htm
more African Studies links http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/sfbs/sfb-fk560/home-links.html
Discovery Channel "Understanding Slavery" e.g. "Witness a Slave Auction" http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/slavery/
Juneteenth  http://www.juneteenth.com
Constitution of  the U.S., Amendments (e.g. XIII - XV) http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/constitution_amendments_11-27.html
(British) National Archives Exihibition "Black presence - Asian and black history in Britain 1500-1850 http://www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/
Paper/Abstracts from Conference Oct 2003 (University of Basel): Imperial Culture in Countries without Colonies: Africa and Switzerland http://www.unibas.ch/afrika/nocolonies/prog.htm - see especially paper of Hans Faessler
Ida B Wells Statistics on Lynching  http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blidabwells_lynchlawingeorgia1.htm
The Case of Scott Dred http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/text6-16-2004-55541.asp
 
 

Segregation
Timeline African Slave Trade & European Imperialism, 15th - early 19th centuries http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline4.htm
Timeline Anti-Colonialism & Reconstruction, 19th to mid-20th centuries http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline3.htm
Jim Crow Laws http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/history.htm - http://www.paralegal.net - on the front page click the tab "Jim Crow Laws" to get to the article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
Timeline Segregation in America (movie "George Wallace") http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/wallace/seg.time2.html
!! A Black Perspective of American History http://www.duboislc.org/BlackPerspective/BlackPerspectiveContents.html
 
 

Amistad (see also Creole)
! USINFO Amistad Revolt http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/amistad/
Amistad, 1841 US Supreme Court Decision http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/amistad.html
Amistad, various links/sources http://www.amistad.org/
RWOR Rebellions on the High Seas: Untold Stories of the Slave Trade http://rwor.org/a/v19/940-49/943/revolts.htm
 
 

Texts see also books (e.g. slave narratives, Douglass, Craft, Harriet A. Jacobs etc.)
Donald Sensing, blog: http://onehandclapping.blogspot.com/2002_05_26_onehandclapping_archive.htmlsearch for "crab"
Lord Gifford, British Parliament debate "African reparations" 14th March 1996 http://www.arm.arc.co.uk/LordsHansard.html
Thomas Carlyle http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/texts/carlyle/odnqbk.htm(Karl Ludwig von Haller, "Restauration")
Lucas J.M. "Exposed Roots", about slave narratives- http://indyweek.com/durham/2002-02-27/ae3.html
Harp Stephanie "Stories of a Lynching" http://www.library.umaine.edu/khronikos/html/lynching/lynching.htm
 

Various slavery/segregation/black history related expressions (which I looked up and listed here because I did not feel familiar enough with them and because other "Continental Europeans" may have the same problem ...)

plantation dilemma/syndrome > .....  / Black Codes, (before 1890, after: Jim Crow Laws) "laws passed by Southern states during Reconstruction which made it unlawful for African Americans to live in certain areas and hold certain jobs." http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/blackcodes see also Jim Crow Slave Codes "Laws concerning the enforcement of racial slavery" - Middle Passage "The Atlantic crossing during which enslaved Africans endured inhumanely cramped unsanitary conditions", "rite of the passage"  triangular trade > Dreieckshandel Juneteenth & Middle Passage > Juneteenth - June 19th 1865, Texas = celebration of the ending of slavery  http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm and Lembrich, seminar/links about Middle Passage, see also Wood, J. Taylor "The Capture of a Slaver"  - Uncle Tom Dilemma / Uncle Tom's Cabin Syndrome, Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html- crab bucket syndrome: Greg Griffin:  http://www.greggriffin.com/Editorials/CrabBucket.htm and  +++Article 18.1.03 "Black people and black crab syndrome" Nassau Guardian - Willie Lynch Speech + comments http://www.freemaninstitute.com/lynch.htm and http://www.umsl.edu/services/library/blackstudies/narrate.htm peonage, bondage, serfdom > Leibeigenschaft, serfs = Leibeigene indentured bondsmen/servant "A person who is legally bound to work for another person for a predetermined period of time. In the eighteenth century this period of time was often, but not always, seven years" > Schuldknechtschaft, mittellose Einwanderer arbeiteten für einen bestimmten Zeitraum (3 - 10 Jahre), um ihre Lebensgrundlage bezahlen zu können  / indentured slave ... absichtlich falsche Bezeichnung, da es für Sklaven normalerweise weder einen Vertrag, noch Lohn oder eine begrenzte "Vertragszeit" gab slavery, bondage, bondsmanship servitude > sklaverei / slave > a person held in servitude as the chattel of another chattel  / a chattel slave / chattel slavery > "traditional" slavery, like cattle, he or she can bought and sold without regard to anything but the owner's interest in profit", "A moveable item of personal property. [In eighteenth century Virginia,] slaves were considered to be chattel property" http://www.hartford-hwp.com/HBHP/exhibit/02/ (slave owner, slave trader) - slaver > a person or ship, that is engaged in the trafficking of slaves  - ante-bellum, antebellum (1800-1860) >  vorkriegs- (Sezessionskrieg) (Film Review of "Gone with the Wind" Sun Times) - http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA99/diller/mammy/ The Peculiar Institution > Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South, "the euphemism Southerners (and some others) adopted when referring to slavery. Many southerners disliked the term “slavery” and found ways to make it sound less harsh than it really was." (peculiar > eigentümlich, !double meaning: from Latin peculiaris/peculium of private property, from pecu/pecus cattle (thanks "hm"))  buffalo soldiers > Established under a 1866 law that authorized the formation of a black infantry, the buffalo soldiers were a African American regiment in the U.S. Army that served from 1867 to 1896 in the western United States. (Film Reviews of "Glory" Sun Times / Washington Post) / Rolling Stone), very detailed private website http://www.bjmjr.com/civwar/usct.htm - Black Loyalists, Ethiopian Regiment, Black Pioneers and Guides > early 1770's, "Those who supported the British became known to history as Loyalists, and their many black supporters as the Black Loyalists" http://collections.ic.gc.ca/blackloyalists/story/our_story.htm - mutiny, revolt, insurrection, upheaval > Aufstand Maroon > a fugitive black slave of the West Indies and Guiana in the 17th and 18th centuries; also a descendant of such a slave http://www.jayikislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/burnside1.htm - petit marronage > the flight of slaves from their masters, either singly or in small groups, often for finite periods of time. grand-marronage > the formation of independet, permanent communities of successful runaways the Moors > one of the Arab and Berber conquerors of Spain = die Mauren the color-line > the entity allegedly separating human beings by skin color (term used by W.E.B.duBois) see also Jim Crow The gag rule, in effect in US Congress 1836-44 http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/treasures_of_congress/page_10.html - manumit, manumission > manumissio, to release from slavery "The act of releasing an individual from slavery, usually by the slave owner" > Sklaven freilassen UGRR "Underground Rail Road" a study http://www.nps.gov/undergroundrr/contents.htm  - "Jim Crow Laws" > 1876 to 1960s, see above - supremacists > racist, Verfechter der Vorherrschaft einer Gruppe - hireling > Mietling/Lohnarbeiter, someone who hires himself or herself out, esp. to do menial (unskilled, low social status) or unpleasant tasks. The South (Souther plantation) had slaves, the North (Northern industry)  hirelings. According to the South, slaves were much better off than hirelings because they were given direction, work, food, bed & clothing. Apostle Paul's Letter to Philemon about Onesimus (Philemon 1:0) > Paul asks Philemon to take back  Onesimus (a runaway slave) as a beloved brother. e.g.: ccel-website Ham > youngest son of Noah +++Article "From Noah's Curse to Slavery's Rationale" NYT 2.3.03 - "The catholic church and slavery" catholiceducation.com  amalgamationists > were said to advocate intermarriage between black and white people or, failing that, to favor uninhibited sexual relations between them (Amalgam > a mixture of different elements). Misceganists (to mix genes, race-mixers, desegregationists), miscegenation = marriage or cohabitation between a white person and a member of another race Mulatto/Quadroon/Octoroon/Quintroon > a child of white and black/mulatto/quadroon/octoroon parent Racial reconciliation > Versöhnung der Rassen Minstrel Show > http://www.musicals101.com/minstrel.htm and e.g. Wikipedia- suffrage > Wahlrecht disfranchise/disenfranchise > entrechten > to deprive of a privilege, an immunity, or a right of citizenship, especially the right to vote separate but equal > Jim Crow Sharecropping: (1866-1955) Landless farmers contracted to work the land for a share of the crop as their wages, using the remaining shares to pay rent and supplies > Jim Crow Debt Peonage using the debts incurred by sharecroppers for supplies to bind them to the land and thus control their movements and greatly restrict their freedom. > Jim Crow "dissembling"-tactics, psychological ploy in which blacks assumed positions and the appearances of non-confrontation. > Jim Crow Mound Bayou (Isaiah Montgomery) > Jim Crow and http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~aloung/mbayou.html  the Tuskegee Machine (Booker T Washington), school system based upon the theory that blacks should avoid politics or crossing the color line socially separating the races, also called called the industrial model of vocational education (male students studied carpentry, printing, brick-making, and agricultural economics, while females took courses in domestic skills such as laundry, sewing, and cooking.) Liberal arts model (general knowledge and intellectual skills) was favoured by schools supported by churches, missionary organizations, northern philanthropists.> Jim Crow (definitions come from various sources, another interesting glossary http://johnbrownsbody.net/Glossary.htm) Bozal / Ladino / Creole "bozal negroe" = (1) quite newly imported from Africa, legally free (2) Bozal (Sp.) Boçal (Port.): fresh African slaves.  Often considered by slave owners to be the most difficult to control.  Unassimilated, they were generally cheaper than criollo slaves. // "ladino" = (1) Africans, long settled in Cuba, acclimated, introduced before 1920 (2) Central American term for mestizo.  However, it generally refers to anyone who adopts customs and traditions alien to their own cultural birth community... bozals who adopted Christianity and learned the language of the master (acculturated) // "creole" = (1) negroes born in the island (of Cuba) (2) Criollo (Creole): in Spanish America, a criollo indicates a person of Spanish ancestry born in the Americas.  Also refers to people of African ancestry born in the Americas. Sources: (1)(2) (When slavery was getting abolished by one country after the other, slavers would choose the term most favorable to their "business", such as ladino instead of bozal, because in some countries selling ladinos was possible whereas selling bozals was forbidden. The necessary faked official documents could be obtained against money.) Creolization "Despite its use of the root word Creole, the word creolization is not used exclusively to describe Creole culture.  A broad anthropological term, it describes any coming together of diverse cultural traits or elements, usually in the context of the West Indies or Louisiana, to form new traits or elements.  In the context of linguistics, for example, creolization occurs when two or more languages converge to form a new, indigenous language.  Often applied to Cajun culture, creolization can be said to describe Cajun music, because of its mixing of black and white sounds; it also describes the Cajun dialect, because of its mixture of French and English words.  Cajun food also is a good example of creolization.: the dish called gumbo (a word of African origin) derives from French, African, and American Indian origins." Sources: Ancelet et al., Cajun Country; Encyclopedia of Southern Culture http://www.cajunculture.com/Other/creolization.htm   see here for Gullah, Ebonics, Taino, etc.

 

Sankofa

Sankofa is the name of a mythical bird of the Akan people of Central Ghana. This bird is represented as moving forward, while simultaneously looking back. The literal translation of Sankofa is: "It is not a taboo to repossess something you forgot in the past." It is also translated as: "In order to move successfully into the future, one must look back to the past." In other words, the past must serve as a guide to the future. []Sankofa bird: It is a powerful symbol which carries a clear message to people of African descent everywhere: "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we can understand why and how we came to be who we are today." For us Africans in the Diaspora, both those born on the continent and those born here in North America, Sankofa is a constant reminder of our roots. It offers a bond of unity between continental Africans and their cousins in all the four corners of the world. Source: sankofanews

 

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