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Please visit http://virgilstorr.org/ to access Dr. Virgil Storr's research and CV.
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Enterprising Slaves and Master Pirates
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Understanding Economic Life in the Bahamas
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Doctoral Dissertation (Defended December 10, 2002).
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Abstract
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.
Not a typical economics’ monograph, this dissertation embraces the economist’s role as storyteller and presents an analytical narrative of economic life in the Bahamas that focuses primarily on the way that culture affects the behavior and attitudes of entrepreneurs in that context. As such, I spend a great deal of time discussing the cultural characteristics (particularly the attitudes toward business dealings) encouraged by the way Bahamians teach and understand their history, celebrated by Bahamian folklore particularly the B’ Rabbi tales and transmitted through Bahamian cultural festivals like the Ol’ Bounce ritual in Abaco and the annual Junkanoo celebrations.
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virgil storr, ph.d.
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
3301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 450, Arlington, VA 22201
(703)993-8127; fax: (703) 993-4935
vstorr@gmu.edu
Last Updated: June 2010
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