Conclusion

The conclusion covers the events that embroiled black loyalists during the period from 1784–1834. It highlights the continuous struggles that black loyalists faced, particularly with the arrival of white evangelicals associated with the Baptist Missionary Society in the 1830s. The author also argues that much of the religious and social life of black Bahamians is influenced by the early contributions that black loyalists made as institution builders. He also advances the need for complicating how we study black communities throughout the loyalist diaspora. Attention needs to be given to both intra-racial and inter-racial discord in ways that move beyond heroic narratives.

Labor, Land, and the Law

Chapter 4 turns to the importance of work and labor relations for black loyalists in the Bahamas. It argues that similar to their counterparts in Nova Scotia, black loyalists in the Bahamas were often denied access to land and property, complicating their efforts to earn a living free of dependent relations with whites. Acquiring land was not the only obstacle facing black loyalists. They were often forced into coercive and exploitative labor relations with more affluent white loyalists in order to pay off debt owed, or simply, as a means to escape starvation and poverty. Despite the innumerable challenges facing black loyalists, there is convincing evidence that they succeeded in carving out important niches in the urban work environment of Nassau.

Roots and Routes

“Roots and Routes” examines the ways in which the world black loyalists left behind profoundly shaped the world they entered as exiles to the Bahamas. As such, it examines the extent to which their war-time experiences in the garrisoned sea-port cities along the Atlantic shaped the social, political, and religious values that they brought to the Bahamas after 1783. It also highlights the unique socio-political conditions in the Bahamas that were encountered by black and white loyalists upon evacuation in 1783. Of central importance is the emergence of the Bahamas as a non-plantation, slave-holding society on the eve of loyalist emigration to the colony. The Bahamas developed on the margins of the British Caribbean imperial design, evident by the fact that the islands remained remote, scarcely settled, under-developed, poorly defended, and unable to produce a dominant export crop. These salient features made the Bahamas an unusual arena in which black loyalist claims to freedom would be contested.

Introduction

In the introduction, Christopher Curry provides a theoretical foundation for the thematic chapters that follow. He discusses the notion that the Bahamas represents a unique geo-political space settled by loyalists at the end of the American Revolution. Racial identities inscribed in law, customs, and practices became the source of friction between black and white loyalists in the Bahamas. Such friction in fact was initiated during the course of the Revolutionary War but was amplified in the Bahamas due to competing aspirations. One group was seeking greater freedom under the protection of British promises and proclamations; and the other, already possessing liberty, was attempting to gain economic advantages as potential slave-owning planters. Curry argues that black loyalists were cultural carriers of a revolutionary movement reflected in their attitudes to work, demands for freedom, and their efforts to establish important religious and social institutions.

Codifying Power, Challenging the Law

“Codifying Power, Challenging the Law” focuses on the ongoing political battles that emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between black loyalists and the white mercantile elite. The central argument advanced is that despite gaining freedom from bondage, a series of legislative Acts passed between 1795 and 1817 challenged the efforts of black loyalists to enjoy the kind of civil liberties that they anticipated receiving as loyal subjects of the British Empire. Black loyalists did not remain quiescent. Rather, their efforts to achieve civil liberties remained a constant source of friction that was contested by black loyalist leaders in various public spaces. In this respect black loyalist evangelicals provided tangible support for their congregants, often witnessing land transactions, funding manumission efforts, and administering wills and testaments in order to safeguard the property of their members.

Setting Their Feet Down

Chapter 3 focuses on the emerging black loyalist social institutions, including churches and schools that reinforced the development of self-reliant communities in Nassau and Abaco. Beyond the immediate need to fight for freedom, black loyalists established churches and schools that eventually became important centers of black community activity. The significance of the black loyalist impact on social institutions in the Bahamas can be measured by the fact that almost all of the denominational churches established between 1784 and 1800 were either founded or led by black itinerant preachers originating from the thirteen colonies in America. Much like their counterparts in Nova Scotia and Jamaica, black loyalists exiled to the Bahamas not only established the first Baptist and Methodist churches, but transmitted a unique brand of evangelical Christianity based on the revivalism of the Great Awakening.

Their Struggle with Freedom from Bondage

Chapter 2 explores the political activism of black loyalists as they fought for their freedom in Lord Dunmore’s “Negro Courts” established in Nassau and Abaco by 1787. The courts represented a rare and unprecedented public space where black men and women not only affirmed their rights as British subjects but contested counter-claims by white loyalists who were bent on re-enslaving them. Where legal redress failed, black loyalists turned to alternative strategies including flight and armed resistance. The Abaco rebellion of 1787–1788 demonstrates the multifaceted nature of black Loyalist political activism.