The Bahama Connection

At the end of the Civil War the British government issued land grants to a group of British Loyalists, and the sparse population of The Bahamas tripled in a few years. Six-hundred refugees from New York founded Carleton, the first Loyalist settlement in the islands on Great Abaco near the present-day resort of Treasure Cay. They envisioned their town would become King Cotton of the Caribbean and, for a few years, their dream came true. The Abaco Islands' economy boomed and the population grew to more than 2,000. But soon the bloom was off the cotton blossom and fields failed within a few years because of pests and soil depletion. Most of the settlers moved away, leaving a population of 400 on the islands by the end of the century -- 200 white planters and 200 black slaves. The fifty-fifty ratio has held steady to this day. The Abaco Islands have five times more white residents per capita than The Islands Of The Bahamas as a whole.

In the 1800s, The Abaco Islands took on an almost New England character as fishing, wooden boat building and "wrecking" -- salvaging damaged ships while they were sinking -- became the mainstays of the local economy. It took nearly a century for the boat building industry to strip the island of its hardwoods, and today only two firms carry on the tradition. Still, the Loyalist heritage of The Abaco Islands remains strong. Many island residents, commonly called Conky Joes, vehemently opposed Bahamian independence and even tried to secede from The Bahamas and form their own British colony. Descendants of the original settlers even went to England to solicit the support of Queen Elizabeth II, but their efforts were rebuffed.

The Bahamas Plantation life was finished after the emancipation of remaining slaves in 1834. By the early 1840s many residents had left the Bahama's and settled in Florida, particularly in the Keys. Those that remained in the Bahamas frequently traveled to Florida and sometimes set up fishing camps in the Palm Beach County Island (Singer Island).