Located 24.3 degrees north and 76.3 degrees west, stretching in a north-westerly to south easterly direction covering a mass of two hundred and sixty thousand square miles, is an archipelago of seven hundred islands and cays known as the islands of the Bahamas. Ruled under a constitutional monarch government, this former British Colony of approximately three hundred and sixteen thousand, one hundred and eighty two people (Bahamas, The Demographics Profile 2013); thrive in competing with neighboring Caribbean countries competing in the hospitality industry; The Bahamas’ number one source.
Bahamas deriving from the Spanish word “Baja Mar" meaning "shallow seas", first inhabitant’s where the Lucayans. The Lucayans also known as Arawak’s a label given to them by Christopher Columbus who later mistakenly discovered them, were originally from South America. They were very skillful sailors and fishermen who migrated to The Bahamas sometime during the Ninth Century.
The Lucayans were believed to have inhibited the island of Guanahani later renamed San Salvador, for approximately five hundred years. They were then discovered by Christopher Columbus an Italian explorer in the year 1492. Twenty five years after this discovery, the population of about forty thousand Lucayans dwindled down to almost extinct, due to their deportation to Hispaniola for mining purposes and deadly diseases introduced to Lucayans by the Spaniards.
Years after Columbus’s discovery other explorers came to The Bahamas. The Eleutheran Adventurers came in year 1647 and The Loyalist arrived sometime between the years 1784-1785. Cotton plantations, housing, schools and churches such as Christ Church Cathedral and St. Mathews, which still exist today, are some of the many things including the islands first newspaper “The Bahama Gazette” that The Loyalist introduced to The Bahamas.
During the seventh century there was an era called the ‘slave trade’ where African slaves were transferred across the Atlantic and bought to The Bahamas to be sold. In the year 1804 this trade was abolished, however the slaves that were already owned were not freed. Thirty years later August 1st, 1834, were freed under a new law called the Emancipation Act.
Although Bahamians were now free from slavery, black Bahamians could not voice their opinions and were not allowed to vote. They also had boundaries. Certain schools, stores, streets, clubs and hotels were restricted entrance to black Bahamians. Black leaders afforded men who owned land the right to vote and later during 1961 women also gained the right to be heard. In the year 1965 because of the strong feelings of injustice to black Bahamians, Sir Milo Butler, a Bahamian Leader protested. Therefore his actions allowed all Bahamians aged eighteen and older the right to vote. Eight years later, July 10th 1973, The Bahmas won their independence from the British Monarch.