BGCSE History case studies
BGCSE History · Put your knowledge to work in context.
BGCSE History is a secondary-school subject examination in The Bahamas, normally taken by students near the end of the senior school years and used as evidence of historical competence for further study, teacher training, and some entry-level employment. Independent learners, private candidates, and school candidates all prepare for the same broad syllabus content, though entry routes differ, so check eligibility with the Bahamas Examinations Council before registering. The BGCSE History case studies are 5 cases and about 3,288 words.
1Reading the 1789 Census: Loyalist Planters and the Slave Population of Cat Island
A student is given a transcription of a 1789 colonial return for a Bahamian island settled mainly by American Loyalists. The return lists 41 white inhabitants, of whom 12 are adult men, and 168 enslaved people of African descent.
685 words, about 3 min2Apprenticeship on a Bahamian Estate: Was the 1834 Transition Real Freedom?
A planter's journal from a Bahamian out-island estate records that in August 1834 his 60 formerly enslaved workers became 'apprentices'. He notes that they still work 'from sun to sun' six days a week, receive no money, and owe 'half their time' to him as compensation for freedom.
628 words, about 3 min3Wrecking, Sponges, and a Dying Port: Explaining Economic Change in a Bahamian Settlement
A settlement on a Bahamian island had, by the 1870s, a harbour used by wreckers who salvaged cargo from vessels grounded on nearby reefs. A local customs abstract shows 46 wrecks salved in 1872, 31 in 1880, and 9 in 1895.
663 words, about 3 min4The 1942 Nassau General Strike: Labour, War, and the Limits of the Record
A student is comparing two accounts of a wartime labour dispute in Nassau. Account A is a colonial despatch from 1942 stating that 'a body of labourers, misled by agitators, unlawfully ceased work; order was restored by the police and the ringleaders detained'.
668 words, about 3 min5Was the Bahamas' Twentieth-Century Constitution Democratic? A Structured Judgement
A student is asked to judge the extent to which the Bahamas was a democratic state by 1973, using a set of facts: the 1964 constitution introduced internal self-government with a ministerial system and an elected House of Assembly; the 1967 election produced the colony's first government led by a majority party with a clear electoral mandate; the 1969 constitution entrenched a bill of rights and an independent judiciary; the 1973 constitution made the country independent with a bicameral parliament; and the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1973. The student also knows that until the 1960s women's political participation had been restricted and that constituency boundaries were uneven.
644 words, about 3 min