Abaco and the Need for Heritage Tourism

by Larry Smith

HOPE TOWN, Abaco -- In 1976 the late American writer Alex Haley won a Pulitzer Prize for Roots, a historical novel said to have been based on his family history, starting with an African named Kunta Kinte who was kidnapped into slavery.

The book was adapted into a sensational TV mini-series that played endlessly on ZNS whenever election time rolled around. And while it later transpired that Haley's specific genealogical claims did not pan out, in the end that did not matter - they were generically true.

Although critics condemned the book as fraudulent, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr put it this way: "Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone's imagination."

Tough Call could produce a similarly fanciful account that would be just as accurate in its own way - an idea that took shape this past weekend while attending Hope Town's Heritage Day.

This annual fair staged by the local museum celebrates the settlement's founding by a loyalist widow named Wyannie Malone, who came to Abaco some 10 years before Kunta Kinte was supposed to have arrived in America.

Little is known about Wyannie's ancestors, although a massive hardcover genealogy "bible" documents her descendants (including me) in excruciating detail. But Bahamian Peter Roberts, an archivist at Georgia State University who specialises in these things, provided a glimpse of the way backward in a Heritage Day lecture he presented in Hope Town last Saturday.

For the past few years Prof Roberts has been promoting the Bahamas DNA Project, a genetic database that tracks the roots of those Bahamians who submit their DNA for testing by a genealogy lab. So far, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Slavic, Berber, Abyssinian and West African origins have been identified for Bahamian participants.

One result shows that a direct Bahamian descendant of Wyannie Malone is a perfect DNA match with an American Malone who traces his genealogy to Virginia, with origins in Ireland. This Malone's family history says they came to America by way of the Bahamas, but that an ancestor named Daniel was born in Westmeath, Ireland in 1642 and was "in the colonies" by 1665.

In other words, the Bahamian Malones may have originally left the 'auld sod' for Eleuthera, then moved to Virginia and on to South Carolina, before leaving from Charleston in 1785 to settle in Abaco. As an aside, Wyannie's husband, Benjamin, fought for the British in the War of Independence, and their descendants were strict protestants. So clearly, they were not Irish patriots.

There were many non-Malones present at the recent Heritage Day celebrations, and Prof Roberts had lots of interesting snippets of information about some of them. For example, genetic testing shows that the Bahamian Lowes do not trace their lineage to the British Isles as most of us would suspect. Instead, they have a Portuguese background and are probably related to Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Iberia in the 15th century.

Since 2004 the Bahamas DNA Project has tested hundreds of people, most of them with an Abaco or Key West background. But this represents only about a third of the 195 surnames found in the Bahamas, and black Bahamian families are grossly under-represented, Prof Roberts told an avid audience in the Hope Town library. And before you ask, no trace of Lucayan ancestry has yet been found - not even among Long Islanders.

"The DNA results so far show that we Bahamians are all closely related and have a shared heritage," Prof Roberts said, adding that: "If a black person marries into a white family there will be no visible trace of that after only six generations - and vice versa."

The "Roots-like" suggestion that the Malones may have arrived on Eleuthera before settling on Abaco was supported to a degree by Florida archaeologist Bob Carr, who also gave a talk at the Heritage Day event. Carr has been investigating Bahamian sites since at least 1986, when he helped confirm the discovery of Carleton, Abaco's original loyalist settlement located near present-day Treasure Cay.

For the past several years Carr has been digging up Preachers Cave at North Eleuthera, a geological feature which he describes as "the Plymouth Rock of the Bahamas", and which contains Lucayan, European and African cultural remains.

"The Eleutherean Adventurers never came to the Bahamas," he told the Hope Town audience. "They were the investors back in London who were hoping to find precious metals and valuable hardwoods in the islands. About 70 people arrived on Eleuthera from Bermuda in 1648, but we have never found the list of names. We do know that within two years there were 150 people living near Preachers Cave, including free blacks and some slaves."

After a 1656 slave conspiracy in Bermuda led by a free black named William Force, some of the plotters were banished to the Bahamas, which Carr referred to as "the first Australia". Many white Bermudians were also exiled to the Bahamas, and DNA evidence has confirmed that descendants of these first settlers now live in nearby Spanish Wells. Others ended up in Harbour Island, Nassau, and possibly Abaco, Carr said.

Preachers Cave has been an archaeological site since 1992 and has yielded important information about Bahamian history. It was originally a Lucayan cemetary, and among the five Indian burials that have been found is one of a chief or shaman, together with the bones of a sacrificial victim who was beheaded with hands and feet tied. Charcoal found at the site has been radiocarbon-dated to the 8th century.

When the first Europeans settlers were shipwrecked off Eleuthera in 1648 they also used the cave for shelter and for religious services, clearing away all the Lucayan bones they could find, according to Carr. "The legend of the first church is true - the pulpit rock is there with a notch for the bible, along with two crude chairs cut into the rock."

There are five Puritan graves in the cave, including two bodies in coffins, one of which was a very old man who was likely to have been a leader. Interestingly, one of the skeletons was a dwarf and DNA studies have confirmed the existence of Laron Syndrome, a growth hormone deficiency found among Jews and Arabs. Several inhabitants of Spanish Wells today have this genetic syndrome and the Preachers Cave dwarf was probably their ancestor.

Bob Carr was Dade County's first archaeologist and is renowned as the discoverer of the Miami Circle on Brickell Point - an 800-year-old Tequesta Indian ceremonial site. He is a co-founder and director of the Miami-based Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, which handled the Preachers Cave dig, and has worked with the Florida Division of Historic Resources and the US National Park Service.

One thing that came out of Tough Call's Heritage Day visit to Hope Town is that visitors need more cultural experiences than they are getting in the Bahamas. Some of the wealthier family island settlements like Hope Town, New Plymouth, Spanish Wells and Rock Sound have small museums run by volunteers, but most Bahamian communities pay scant attention to heritage matters, and historic preservation is not on their agenda.

Yet according to Carr, there is much more interest in history and heritage than in playing on the beach: "In Florida, heritage is a very important part of our tourism sector that generates more money from visitors."

Preachers Cave is the perfect example of a heritage site that can form part of a world class educational tour if properly preserved and presented. The 1836-vintage Hole-in-the Wall lighthouse in South Abaco is another good example. And before going to Hope Town I attended a town meeting at Sandy Point where this very subject came up.

At the meeting, engineers from American Bridge were discussing more dredging at Disney's Castaway Cay just offshore. Formerly known as Gorda Cay, this tiny island within sight of the relatively unprosperous village of Sandy Point is a destination for three Disney cruise ships a week, each loaded with 2300 passengers. The improvements that are expected to begin in May will allow the cay to service larger ships bringing 4,000 passengers each. Yet none of these visitors ever sets foot on Abaco.

But just a short drive from Sandy Point is the Abaco National Park, a natural wonderland surrounding a spectacular bluff that is the site of the historic Hole-in-the-Wall lighthouse. At the town meeting, Bernadette Hall of Abaco Friends of the Environment announced a project to clean up and restore the lighthouse property. Although functioning now on solar power the lighthouse and its associated Victorian-era buildings are all in an embarrassing state of disrepair and the entire stunning site is littered with trash and rusting relics.

Heritage tourism is officially defined as “traveling to experience the places, artifacts, and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present." And with more people than ever seeking to combine their recreational experiences with educational growth, heritage tourism can be a powerful economic engine for creating jobs and producing higher tax revenues.

But as South Abaco's chief councillor, Preston Roberts, told me, "if we want to benefit from the tourists that Disney brings we have to go to them with a product, and we don't have one yet."

Macaroni and cheese is fine as far as it goes, but you can only eat so much of it. Heritage tourism involves a lot more than that, and it can be so much more fulfilling to those who provide it - by protecting the environmental and historical features that form the basis for our tourist economy.

Comments

[Kif Btown]

Great article, Larry. (Harbour Island)

[Gordon Core]

As a student at St. Andrew's School I participated in a Spring 1964 outing of it's "Scientific Society" to Preacher's Cave. Perhaps not the earliest such exploration, but bone, pottery shards and other items were located and studied further. Carbon dating was performed on some of the more promising bone. Were we early 'heritage tourists' or merely wannabe archeologists?

[Erasmus Folly]

Great article Larry and only too true. More importantly, Abaco is only the tip of the iceberg. New Providence has so much history to offer that we should be nothing short of extremely ashamed of ourselves for not tapping into that. Briland and Eleuthera have a lot to offer as well.

We are selling Las Vegas in the sun right now and we live on a Jesus-Junkanoo culture, but we could be selling SUCH A CULTURALLY RICHER EXPERIENCE and, in selling it, protecting it for our future as well, ironically. Bahamians need to open up their minds and open up their horizons.

[Grace Yototodo]

Super article!

I would like to visit the Hole-in-the-wall Lighthouse next month during the Homer Lowe Regatta.

[mt]

Amazing stuff. There is so much history in these Islands to enjoy... the Indians, the Discoverer, the
New Settlers, the Slaves, the Pirates. What an amazing country!
Pity so few of us are interested!

[Larry Towning]

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your recent "Tough Call" article in the Abaconian. I especially enjoyed the DNA research info and agree with your observations regarding the importance of promoting heritage tourism.

I am an American who has been travelling to South Abaco to bonefish for 10 years. I also own some land on Lubbers Quarters Cay and we plan to build a second home in a couple of years when we have the time and money.

When we are describing our trips to Abaco to our local friends in Ohio, we are often asked about non-fishing tourism attractions and events by those thinking of traveling to Abaco. I think there is a real and financially lucrative opportunity for Abaco in this regard.