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Slavery and The Loyalists in The Bahamas
 The first slaves were brought to The Bahamas by the Spaniards who needed labourers after due to the fact that Lucayan Indians were dying out from hardship and diseases. The Portuguese and other Europeans, including the English organized the slave trade, supplying demand from the New World, a trade that would open way to the “Middle Passage” the route in which slave ships traveled form West Africa to the West Indies. Slaves describe this as a most horrific journey by which they were stacked between decks.
Upon arrival in The Bahamas slaves advertisements were put in the Bahama Gazette and slaves were put on Auction at Vendue House, built in the early 1800’s as an Auction House, today now houses the Pompey Museum of Slavery and Emancipation.
During the American War of Independence that begun in 1776 and ended in 1783, the fledging United States Army invaded the Bahamas twice, followed by the Spanish in 1782 who formed a government that ruled until January 1783 when the Bahamas was ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Versailles.
Before treaty could be executed, American Loyalist Colonel Andrew Deveaux and a few men from Harbour Island recaptured the Bahamas on April 14th 1783. A the end of the American Revolutionary War, many people who were loyal to the British Crown, encouraged by Land Grants began to migrate to the Bahamas from places like New York, Florida, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. From the period 1783 to 1785, 6,000 Loyalist and their slaves moved to the islands. Before the migration, entire colony consisted of some 4,000 people with just under twice as many blacks as there were whites.
The white population doubled while the black population tripled as each newcomer brought with them ten to a hundred slaves; setting up plantations on New Providence and many of the Out Islands with cotton as their commercial crop, until 1788 when the chenille or red bug attacked the crops and devastated the industry, the first three of growing cotton were very productive ones; but, by the 1800 the industry was seriously affected resulting in the decline of the prosperity of plantations.
In 1807 British abolished the slave trade and many slaves were freed, would-be slaves being transported by ships were set free on British Islands by the Royal Navy when the vessels were captured. This resulted in settlements like Adelaide, Carmichael and Gambier Villages.
However, Slavery was not abolished in The Bahamas until 1834; the act instituted a four to six year apprenticeship period that served as a transition from slavery to freedom; 1838 saw the passing of the Emancipation which gave full freedom to slaves. Emancipation brought more difficult times for The Country when plantation owners lost most if not all of its workforce.
Prosperity never came until the American Civil that began in 1861, when Nassau which was near to the two most vital ports in the US southern ports of Charleston and Wilmington became a rendezvous and neutral port for gun runners and cotton traders. The Royal Victoria Hotel built between 1859 and 1861 became the headquarters of the blockade runners and the Nassau Harbour was packed with ships. Unfortunately this was short lived and not everyone prospered, when the war ended in 1865 the Colony went into depression. Attempts were made during the 19th Century to build up local industries such as salt, sponges, sisal, pineapple and citrus fruit. Sponging being the major industry until 1938 when a mysterious fungus hit the beds, crippling the industry.
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