What was ONE immediate effect of the Loyalists’ arrival in The Bahamas?
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downloadAfter the American revolutionary War ended in 1783, an influx of British loyalists migrated to Nassau. Mainly coming from the Southern Colonies, around two thousand loyalists and their enslaved servants moved to the Bahamas between 1783 and 1789. The new immigrants largely centered themselves in Nassau [1]. Despite arriving at an English colony, their transition into Nassauvian life was by no means peaceful. The 1784 decision of then-Governor John Maxwell to make Nassau a free port sparked immense ire among the loyalists, who largely held that the decision would increase American influence in the city [2]. This immediately provoked an uprising on the part of the loyalist population in Nassau. That summer, conditions in the city turned into what one historian describes as a scene of ” disloyalty, licentiousness, and anarchy” [3]. Tensions were palpable on New Providence, so much so that the overthrow of the municipal government seemed a distinct possibility. Therefore, the Bahaman colonial administration gave successions to the loyalists that vastly increased their presence in the local government [4]. Their desires met, Nassau’s loyalist population then set out to carve out a place on New Providence