Enterprising slaves and master pirates: Understanding economic life in the Bahamas

Since the settling of the Bahamas (almost simultaneously) by pirates and puritan farmers in the 17th century, two protagonists have dominated economic life in the Bahamas. This dissertation thus tells the Bahamas' economic story as a tale of enterprising slaves and master pirates.; Throughout its history the Bahamas has proven to be a paradise for those who would engage in illegal and extra-legal enterprises. Pirates and privateers, wreckers, blockade runners, rum runners, drug dealers and money launderers have all (at one time or another) made camp in the Bahamas. Additionally, Bahamian culture celebrates the pirate and his cunning, his ruthlessness, his orientation toward profiteering opportunities, his fervor for getting around the rules and bending the law. It is out of this cultural milieu that the master pirate with his particular orientation to profiteering opportunities, his narrow radius of trust and his high time preference emerged as an ideal typical entrepreneur.; The second figure, the enterprising slave, is a similarly colorful character. Bahamian slaves, to an even greater degree than slaves elsewhere in the region, managed to transform themselves into a proto-peasantry. Although giving slaves use-rights over portions of the plantation in lieu of rations and allowing them to trade surplus produce in Saturday and Sunday markets was not unique to the Bahamas, Bahamian slaves because of the collapse of the cotton industry had more free time to devote to their market and subsistence activities. Additionally, many Bahamian slaves were allowed to self-hire. Arguably, the experiences they gained negotiating wages, developing and marketing their skills created the enterprising slave, an entrepreneur who believes that success is possible through hard work even in the face of unimaginable obstacles.; Both the enterprising slave and the master pirate dominate the Bahamian economic narrative, affecting both past and present entrepreneurs, with each individual businessman perhaps favoring one of these ideal types more than the other but undoubtedly affected by both forebears. The enterprising slave encouraging them to work hard, to be creative, to be productive and the master pirate teaching them that success is more easily attained through cunning and deceptiveness.