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The Bahamas from
Slavery to Servitude, 1783-1933
by Howard Johnson
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this Book now
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 Crossing:
Immigrants and Minorities in Caribbean Creole Society
(1988), and author of The Bahamas in Slavery and Freedom (1991).
1997. 235 pp. 6 X 9.
5 tables, 1 map, notes,
bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1494-8
Cloth, $55.00
ISBN 0-8130-1858-7
Paper, $24.95s
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".... an important contribution to the social history of the Bahamas and to the comparative study of slavery and the transition to other coercive labor systems after
emancipation. Highly recommended for collections on the Caribbean and comparative slavery and emancipation."--Choice
"A valuable contribution to the historiography of slave and post-slave societies. These essays add considerably to the comparative literature on slavery and emancipation and reinforce the need to study societies outside of the pure plantation model."
--American Historical Review
"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
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