Crooked Island – Loyalist plantations and the Bahamas' first post office
Crooked Island's modern history began in the late 1780s, when American Loyalists settled here and established cotton plantations worked by more than 1,000 enslaved people. After slavery was abolished in the British Empire the plantations became unprofitable, and islanders turned to sponge diving, an income that has since declined. Pitts Town on Crooked Island is believed to have been home to the first post office in the Bahamas. Together with Acklins, Long Cay and Castle Island, the island frames the shallow lagoon of the Bight of Acklins. Today residents live mainly from fishing and small-scale farming. Do you have memories or family stories from Crooked Island? Add them here and help keep local history alive!