Saturday, January 9, 2010

History lessons

New Plymouth is home to some historical sites in the Abaco chain of islands in the Bahamas.

One day we walked to the Memorial Sculpture Garden in town. It was fun to visit with the MacLeans, as the kids were playing "tag" amongst the statues and the adults were learning more about the history of the area.





Most of the towns on the Abaco islands were founded by American "Loyalists" who fled North America during the Revolution wanting to remain loyal to the British Crown. Others were freed slaves mostly from New York City. All arrived in the British owned islands here and tried to make a life for themselves. Many of the settlements failed because of lack of growth of crops, illness, or skirmishes amongst the settlers. There are both white and black Bahamians today whose families have lived here for a few hundred years.

I find it interesting that I do not remember hearing much about the "Loyalists" in school history classes. Mostly the US history books seemed to take pride in the minutemen "rebels" who founded the USA as we know it now.










Here is one of the typical New Plymouth houses on the same street as the Sculpture Park.

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