During the American War of Independence, the Bahamas was attacked by American and allied forces on several occasions. In 1778, American forces launched an amphibious assault against Nassau, resulting in its two-week occupation. In 1782, Spanish forces under General Galvez captured the Bahamas in 1782. A British-American Loyalist expedition led by Colonel Andrew Deveaux, recaptured the islands in 1783.
After the American Revolution, the British issued land grants to American Loyalists who had gone into exile from the newly established United States. The sparse population of the Bahamas tripled within a few years. The Loyalists developed cotton as a commodity crop, but it dwindled from insect damage and soil exhaustion. In addition to slaves they brought with them, the planters’ descendants imported more African slaves for labour.
Most of the current inhabitants in the islands are descended from the slaves brought to work on the Loyalist plantations. In addition, thousands of captive Africans, who were liberated from foreign slave ships by the British navy after the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, were resettled as free persons in the Bahamas.
Details
- Designer: John Waddington of Kirkstall Ltd, Leeds, England
- Printer: Format International Security Printers Ltd
- Process: Lithography
- Paper:
- Watermark: Crown CA (Diagonal)
- Perf: 14.5 (comb)
- Cylinders: Printed in four panes separated by gutter between the four panes, and guillotined into two horizontal panes.
- 1D (Cyan), 1D (Yellow), 1D (Magenta), 1D (Black), 1D (Deep Olive) [lower right]
- Sheet: R10 x 5 in two panes separated by a gutter (100 stamps)
- Quantity:
Cylinder Numbers
