Bahamas History: The Island Nation's Seafaring Past

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Bahamas History Takes Us Through Prehistory, Piracy, Smuggling, and Finally... Independence!

Bahamas History begins around 1500 years ago with the Lukku-Cari, or island people, as they called themselves. Today, we refer to them as the Lucayan Indians. The Lucayans are my favorite era of Bahamas History. They originally came from South America and arrived in canoes after making their way through the Caribbean. They were the first people to make the Bahamas their home. Interestingly, recent discoveries have revealed that they shared the Bahamas with a unique species of giant tortoise and a large terrestrial (land dwelling) crocodile!

Today, all that is left of the Lukku-Cari, Bahamas tortoise, and the terrestrial crocodile are fossils... but these fossils tell a story about the way life was before the Europeans "discovered" the Bahamas. The Lukku-Cari were part of the Arawaks or Taino peoples, the South American tribe that settled on many of the Eastern Caribbean islands. The Arawaks were displaced by the Carib indians, a fierce and cannibalistic tribe also originating in South America.

It is known that many of them arrived in Haiti around 200 AD and the Bahamas around 500 AD. They lived relatively peaceful lives. They were an agricultural society, and also hunted and gathered food from land and sea. They lived in communities of thatched huts and practiced pantheism. Their religious beliefs also included ancestor worship, and they would place their dead in caves and blue holes which were places of great respect. By the time Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator funded by the Queen of Spain, arrived in 1492, the Lucayans had been in the Bahamas for centuries. They were wiped out within two decades by the Europeans through slavery and disease.

Exactly which Bahamian Island that Columbus first arrived on is still the subject of much debate, although recently and after long and arduous research, a team from National Geographic stated it was most likely Samana Cay. When the Europeans first arrived in the Bahamas, they called the area "Baja Mar," meaning "shallow sea." This is because there are many sandy shoals and coral reefs that pose a threat to ship navigation. Thus, Baja Mar became Bahamas, "Islands of the Shallow Sea." The Spanish made no attempt to colonize the islands, instead they moved on to Hispaniola in search of gold.

columbus

For the first time in Bahamas History, a colonization attempt was made by Europeans. In 1648, a group of English Puritans migrated South from Bermuda to the Bahamas in search of religious freedom. They called themselves the Eleutheran Adventurers and they attempted the first European settlement in the Bahamas on the island of Eleuthera. They gave Eleuthera its name, which means freedom in Greek. The Lucayan had called the island, Cigatoo. The colony was not a success, and only a few settlers ended up staying.

Britain claimed the Bahamas in 1670, and pirates ruled the islands for the next forty-seven years until Royal Governor Woodes Rogers arrived on the island of New Providence in 1718. Woodes Rogers was a reformed pirate himself, and he was responsible for the capture of famous pirates such as Calico Jack and Anne Bonny. He expelled other pirates, including the famous Blackbeard and the pirates who stayed became privateers. Privateers were authorized by their government to attack foreign shipping. There are many stories of pirate's treasure being sunk, buried on the islands, or in caves around the Bahamas. Maybe you'll be the lucky one to stumble upon some while you're there....

pirate ship battle

According to Bahamas History, it was over a century later when British Loyalists fled America after the Revolution to the Bahamas. They brought their slaves with them as they planned to start cotton plantations there. They were unable to grow enough cotton in the rocky, limey soil. Many Loyalists left the Bahamas, but did not bring their slaves with them. In 1807, Britain outlawed the slave trade and the Royal Navy began intercepting the slave ships and depositing the freed slaves in the Bahamas. In 1834, the remaining slaves were emancipated.

During the Civil War, Confederate blockade runners were used to export cotton from the American South to Britain and to import arms from Britain to the Confederacy. After World War I, the islands became a base for American rum-runners. When Cuba closed itself to American tourists in 1961, the Bahamas seized the chance to develop a booming tourist industry. The Nassau harbour was dredged so that it could accommodate six cruise ships at a time. Finally, a day for great celebration in Bahamas History, the Bahamas legally became an independent nation on July 10, 1973.