Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians

Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians

Between 1943 and 1965 an estimated 30,000 Bahamian men and women migrated temporarily to the United States on short-term contracts to work in the agricultural sector. The programme, known as the British West Indies Labor Program, was created to fill labour shortages caused when Americans left the f...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tracey L. Thompson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of the Bahamas 2012-06-01
Series:International Journal of Bahamian Studies
Subjects:
the contract
migration
labor
Online Access:https://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/article/view/169
id doaj-83f703371b4944b589121a78f720c46b
record_format Article
spelling doaj-83f703371b4944b589121a78f720c46b2021-05-27T20:11:12ZengUniversity of the BahamasInternational Journal of Bahamian Studies2220-57722012-06-0118061210.15362/ijbs.v18i0.169144Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of BahamiansTracey L. Thompson0The College of The BahamasBetween 1943 and 1965 an estimated 30,000 Bahamian men and women migrated temporarily to the United States on short-term contracts to work in the agricultural sector. The programme, known as the British West Indies Labor Program, was created to fill labour shortages caused when Americans left the farms to work in more profitable war industries or to serve in the armed forces during World War II. In the Bahamas the programme was sometimes referred to as “The Contract” because each worker signed a contractual agreement to work in the United States. Drawing upon oral histories collected in the early 1990s, this paper uses the recollections of former Contract workers to explore the personal, economic and social ramifications of their experiences working on the Contract.https://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/article/view/169the contractmigrationlabor
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Tracey L. Thompson
spellingShingle Tracey L. Thompson
Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians
International Journal of Bahamian Studies
the contract
migration
labor
author_facet Tracey L. Thompson
author_sort Tracey L. Thompson
title Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians
title_short Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians
title_full Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians
title_fullStr Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians
title_full_unstemmed Remembering “The Contract”: Recollections of Bahamians
title_sort remembering “the contract”: recollections of bahamians
publisher University of the Bahamas
series International Journal of Bahamian Studies
issn 2220-5772
publishDate 2012-06-01
description Between 1943 and 1965 an estimated 30,000 Bahamian men and women migrated temporarily to the United States on short-term contracts to work in the agricultural sector. The programme, known as the British West Indies Labor Program, was created to fill labour shortages caused when Americans left the farms to work in more profitable war industries or to serve in the armed forces during World War II. In the Bahamas the programme was sometimes referred to as “The Contract” because each worker signed a contractual agreement to work in the United States. Drawing upon oral histories collected in the early 1990s, this paper uses the recollections of former Contract workers to explore the personal, economic and social ramifications of their experiences working on the Contract.
topic the contract
migration
labor
url https://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/article/view/169
work_keys_str_mv AT traceylthompson rememberingthecontractrecollectionsofbahamians
_version_ 1721425326012104704

Similar Items