This book is an account of the seminal struggle for civil rights in the early 19th century if The Bahamas, principally between 1802 and 1834. At a time when race was the defining feature of the Bahamian political and social order, a cadre of free men of color, led by such persons as Stephen Dillet, John Deane, John Boyd, Joseph Gould Watkins and the Minns brothers, would agitate for the removal of racial barriers that prevented them from testifying against white persons; from serving as jurors; from voting; and from standing as candidates for election to the Gouse of Assembly and parish vestries. In their struggle for racial equality, the free people of color would be supported by the Royal Governor and a cohort of local white liberals. Arrayed against them, however, a powerful elite would seek to crush the aspirations of the movement in order to perpetuate white exclusivity in the body politic. The contest between these opposing forces waged in The Bahamas at a time of great upheaval in the waning days of slavery, is the subject of this work.