Today In History: March 25

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – On this day in Bahamian history on 25th March 1807 – the British Parliament passed the abolition of the Slave Trade Act which made the trafficking of persons from Africa illegal within the British Empire.

This was one of the first steps in abolishing slavery completely within Britain’s colonies including The Bahamas.

The Act empowered the British Navy to stop vessels on the high seas that it suspected of engaging in the kidnapping, transportation and selling of enslaved Africans.

When vessels were captured the kidnapped persons would sometimes be brought to the Bahama Islands. Some of them would settle on land provided by the government and start the liberated African settlements such as Carmichael, gambier, Adelaide, and Fox Hill.

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In 2012 – a plane crash occurred at the airport on Treasure Cay, Abaco, Bahamas.

The airplane was a six-seat, single-engine Piper Saratoga, bound for Jacksonville, Florida.

On board were four passengers: two couples – they were Dennis and Janie Sartoris who were planning their wedding in The Bahamas. Also killed were Gregory and Janice Schwarzenegger.

The tragic death of two American couples in a plane crash ripped through the small community of Treasure cay.

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Then in 2017, South Abaco MP and member of the Free National Movement Edison Key hit out at then-Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis.

He insisted the FNM should have removed him as leader after he was unseated and leader of the official opposition in the House of Assembly and was replaced by Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner.