Exuma (The Bahamas): When pigs Swim
The Bahamas is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. The country consists of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, and is located north of Cuba and northwest of the island of Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the U.S. state of Florida. The capital is Nassau on the island of New Providence.
The Bahama islands were inhabited by the Arawakan-speaking Taíno, for many centuries. Christopher Columbus was the first European to see the islands, making his first landfall in the “New World” in 1492 when he landed on the island of San Salvador. He made contact with the natives and exchanged goods with them, claiming the islands for the Crown of Castile,
However, later, the Spanish shipped the natives to Hispaniola and enslaved them there, after which the Bahama islands were mostly deserted from 1513 until 1648. Nearly all native Bahamians were forcibly removed for enslavement or died of diseases that Europeans brought with them from Europe. In 1649, English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera. The Bahamas became a British crown colony in 1718.
After the American Revolutionary War, the Crown resettled thousands of American Loyalists to The Bahamas; they took enslaved people with them and established plantations on land grants. Enslaved Africans and their descendants constituted the majority of the population from this period on. The slave trade was abolished by the British in 1807. Although slavery in The Bahamas was not abolished until 1834. Africans liberated from illegal slave ships were resettled on the islands by the Royal Navy, while some North American slaves and Seminoles escaped to The Bahamas from Florida. Bahamians were even known to recognize the freedom of enslaved people carried by the ships of other nations which reached The Bahamas.
English Rule and the Pirate Republic
The English had expressed an interest in the Bahamas as early as 1629. However, it was not until 1648 that the first English settlers arrived on the islands. They migrated from Bermuda seeking greater religious freedom. These English Puritans established the first permanent European settlement on an island which they named Eleuthera. They later settled New Providence.
In 1670, King Charles II granted the islands to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas in North America. In 1684, Spanish corsair Juan de Alcon raided the capital Charles Town (later renamed Nassau). During Proprietary rule, the Bahamas became a haven for pirates, including Blackbeard. To put an end to the “Pirates’ Republic” and restore orderly government, Britain made the Bahamas a crown colony in 1718, which they dubbed “the Bahama islands”.
The American War of Independence and American Civil War
During the American War of Independence, the islands became a target for US naval forces. The US Navy occupied Nassau in 1776, before being evacuated a few days later.
After US independence, the British resettled some 7,300 Loyalists with their African slaves in the Bahamas. The Slave Trade Act of 1807 abolished slave trading to British possessions, including the Bahamas. The United Kingdom pressured other slave-trading countries to also abolish slave-trading and gave the Royal Navy the right to intercept ships carrying slaves on the high seas.
During the American Civil War of the 1860s, the islands briefly prospered as a focus for blockade runners aiding the Confederate States.
The 20th Century
The early decades of the 20th century were ones of hardship for many Bahamians, characterized by a stagnant economy and widespread poverty. Many eked out a living via agriculture or fishing.
In August 1940, the Duke of Windsor was appointed Governor of the Bahamas. He arrived in the colony with his wife. The Duke was praised at the time for his efforts to combat poverty on the islands. He resigned from the post on 16 March 1945. Modern political development began after the Second World War. The first political parties were formed in the 1950s. A new constitution granting the Bahamas internal autonomy went into effect on 7 January 1964.
The United Kingdom Government gave the Bahamas its independence on 20 June 1973. This date is now celebrated as the country’s Independence Day. It joined the Commonwealth of Nations on the same day.
In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama at Category 5 intensity, devastating the northwestern Bahamas. The storm inflicted at least billions of dollars in damages and killed more than 50 people. The most recent hurricane to strike the archipelago was Hurricane Nicole in 2022.The COVID-19 pandemic reached The Bahamas on 15 March 2020 with the announcement of the first case.
Today, the economy is based on offshore finance and tourism. Exuma Island is famous for its swimming pigs and draws tourists from all over the world.
Glossary:
a cay: un piccolo isolotto, un grosso scoglio;
an islet: un isolotto;
landfall: uno sbarco;
to land: sbarcare, approdare, atterrare;
goods: merci;
to claim: (in questo contesto) rivendicare, reclamare;
to enslave: schiavizzare;
forcibly: con forza;
a Loyalist: un lealista;
a grant: una concessione, un’offerta;
to resettle: reinsediarsi, sistemarsi in un nuovo luogo;
the Seminoles: gli indiani Seminole;
to carry: (in questo contesto) trasportare un carico di merci o persone
to reach: raggiungere;
as early as: già da (un momento nel tempo);
seeking: in cerca di
to raid: razziare;
to restore: ristabilire, ripristinare;
the US Navy: la marina militare statunitense;
a possession: possedimenti, beni;
a blockade runner: qualcuno che tenta di forzare un blocco qualsiasi;
a hardship: delle difficoltà, stenti;
stagnant: stagnante;
widespread: diffuso;
to eke out: guadagnarsi da vivere a stento, con grande difficoltà;
to praise: lodare, elogiare;
to strike: (verbo irregolare: strike-struck-struck) colpire;
offshore finance: finanza offshore, fondo comune di investimento in paradisi fiscali;
Exuma: When pigs swim
