Long Island, Bahamas: History
Some writers identify Long Island as the site of one of Christopher Columbus' landfalls during his 1492 voyage. For example, Joseph Judge and Samuel Eliot Morison identify Long Island as corresponding to the third island visited by Columbus, which he called Fernandina and which the indigenous Lucayan people called Yuma, meaning "middle high land". However, a variety of other historians, geographers, and other writers identify Fernandina as corresponding to different islands in the Bahamas, including Little Inagua, Great Exuma, and Andros Island. Archaeological evidence, including ceremonial stools called duhos, shows that the Lucayan Taíno tribe settled on Long Island, probably in the island's cave system. After the demise of the Lucayans, who were taken as slaves to Hispaniola and Cuba, there was no large settlement until the arrival of the Simms family in 1720 who originally arrived in The Bahamas in the 1640s.
The original Loyalists were mainly from New England and New Jersey and arrived on Long Island after fleeing the American Revolution. These families started the first farms, primarily raising cattle and sheep. By the 1790s, settlers began to arrive from the Carolinas and proceeded to set up cotton plantations. The plantations flourished for only a few years and, by the time of the abolition of slavery in 1834, most had collapsed and been abandoned. There are many ruins from this era today, the majority of which are overgrown by bush. There are also remains of some of the houses built after slavery, which are usually small and built of stone. Originally, they had thatched roofs; today, most are shingled. The descendants of these families continue to be widespread on the island.