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Runaways was conceived to amplify the subaltern voices in the historical archive of runaway slaves in and through The Bahamas. Advertisements for enslaved persons are important to see those who otherwise might be obscured from the historical narrative. Slave advertisements from The Bahamas are one of the only ways to see enslaved people’s actions clearly from primary source documents. While they speak with a colonial voice they possess great possibilities for information. Despite the silences of the enslaved voice within the newspaper advertisements, you imagine and piece together, with other primary source material, the possibilities and meanings of these silences. Runaways is a resource for researchers and laypersons alike who want to learn more about those "with the look of a complete villian." 1 Running away was a common act of resistance amongst enslaved persons. With Runaways, all the runaway slave ads published in the Bahamian colony are complied in one place for everyone to view.
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Take a look and meet Castalio who ran with Dick from New York to Abaco or Peter and Pindar who ran away from their enslaver's plantation with their four sons. Black Loyalists, Sambo and Prince, appear in the archive, and they would later be a backbone for the free Black Loyalists community in New Providence. These persons named are just a small few that appear in over 300 runaway slave advertisements.
The photos listed down below allow you to begin to visualize Nassau, New Providence and The Bahamas more widely.2 See yourself walking along Bay Street and breathing in the salt air. Walk Over-the-Hill to Grant's Town and see the stack stone walls and thatched roof houses. Let your mind carry you to Alligator Bay, Long Island. Labour alongside predial workers as they harvest sisal and herd cattle. Use the photos and the runaway slave advertisements to see what life would have been like in the eariler late 18th and eariler 19th century for enslaved people of colour.3
In an effort to promote Bahamian Creole -- yes, it is a "real" language -- some of the website contains words, phrases, and entire paragraphs in Bahamian Creole. Don't argue wit me, argue wit ya ma!
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Bahama Gazette, October 28, 1786. ↩
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These photos are estimated to be from around 1890-1895 and are primarily set in Nassau, New Providence. ↩
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These photos from Cambridge's archive allows viewers to see Black Bahamians engaging with jobs they would have done while enslaved. Some of the locations, such as Grant's town were places that enslaved and free people of colour lived that only grew after emanicipation. Many of the buildings seen in these photos were built by the early 19th century. ↩