Title: Whittington B. Johnson.<i>Post-Emancipation Race Relations in the Bahamas</i>.:Post‐Emancipation Race Relations in the Bahamas
Abstract: In 1834, slave emancipation ushered in dramatic changes that reshaped the nature of race relations in British Caribbean societies. Almost overnight, black, brown, and white were forced to renegotiate their positions within a new economic system and reconsider their identities within a new social climate. In this book, Whittington B. Johnson examines the key forces shaping the development of race relations in this unique setting. Drawing on court records, census data, and personal correspondences, Johnson skillfully investigates the way race relations played out in politics and the economy during the Bahamas' formative period (1834–1865) as a free society, a period in Bahamian history that until now has received little scholarly attention. Education, law, and religion provide Johnson with especially useful prisms through which to view the social changes that followed the abolition of slavery. More importantly, Johnson embraces a comparative perspective to highlight the relatively smooth transition of the Bahamas to a free society and show the rather peaceful nature of post-emancipation race relations in that nation. In particular, Johnson contrasts post-emancipation race relations in the Bahamas with those in the American South, where a powerful white planter class sought to maintain its control over former slaves through policies of disenfranchisement and the institutionalization of hate groups. While race riots and violent clashes often marred race relations in other post-emancipation settings, such events were rare in the Bahamas.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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