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  • The Bahamas Seeks Independence
    Awake!—1973 | May 8
    • Foreign rule had its beginning years ago when Christopher Columbus mistakenly came ashore on the island of San Salvador (or Watlings Island), an island in the Bahamas, thinking he was in the East Indies. That was in October 1492. Since then the Bahamas has been anything but independent or self-governing. Within twenty years its native Arawak and Lucayan Indians were displaced; all of them enslaved and shipped off to the mines of Cuba and Hispaniola. For over one hundred years after its discovery, the Bahamas remained in Spanish hands.

      A British Colony

      It was first in 1629 that England made its formal claim to these islands. On October 30 of that year Charles I gave a grant to his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath, and the islands came under the yoke of British colonialism. The colony attracted religious Englishmen looking for freedom of worship, while at the same time serving as a haven for others, including such notorious pirates as Edward (“Blackbeard”) Teach and Anne Bonny.

      In 1718 Captain Woodes Rodgers, the first royally appointed governor, drove out the pirates. For two weeks during the American Revolution, Nassau, the capital of these islands, was held captive by the young United States Navy. In 1782 the Bahamas fell to Spain again, but was restored to the British a year later.

      The Bahamas has thus been a British colony, with only short interruptions of rule, for well over 300 years. Since 1729 in particular the country has had a representative assembly under a constitution, one older than that of the United States. This constitution is similar to the one drafted for the original thirteen American colonies.

      Unlike other independent states of the British Commonwealth, such as Jamaica, Barbados, and Ceylon, the Bahamas depends upon Britain for directives concerning (1) Foreign Affairs, (2) Defense and (3) Internal Security, or police. Britain, of course, will no longer have any say in these matters when the Bahamas becomes independent.

  • The Bahamas Seeks Independence
    Awake!—1973 | May 8
    • A New Constitution

      By 1962 the two parties in government, the UBP and PLP, both were in favor of a greater measure of self-government, and therefore included this in their political platforms. A constitutional conference was held in May 1963 at the London Colonial Office. The outcome of this discussion was that the Bahamas would be given a new constitution.

      Thus it was that in January 1964 a new constitution came into effect. Declared Sir Roland, the premier of the Bahamas: “We now have the internal freedom . . . to move swiftly when swift movement is needed, to act decisively when decisive action is called for, and to shape our destiny to our best advantage.” The new constitution was a significant step toward independence.

      A Change in Status

      The Progressive Liberal Party, the one claiming to represent mainly the Colored voters, became the governing party in 1967. The following year a general election gave it a large majority in the House of Assembly​—twenty-nine PLP members, seven UBP members and one member each for the Independence Party and the Labor Party.

      In an address before the House on October 7, 1968, Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling explained that the recently held talks in London did not have as their aim independence, at least not immediate independence. Rather, their purpose was to “ensure that the Bahamas would have more responsibility for self-internal government than hithertofore.” This purpose was achieved, evidenced by the change of the Bahamas from a British colony to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. While the traditions of the British monarchal system remained, the stage was set for obtaining independence.

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