The Bahamas on Wednesday conferred the Order of National Hero to a former slave as the country celebrated its 51st anniversary of political independence from Britain.
A statement issued by the Office of the Governor General said that former slave, Kate Moss, had received the Order of National Hero posthumously and that the National Honours Committee recognises her for her “timely and determined courage demonstrated against racism and slavery.”.
In the 1820s, Henry and Helen Moss were plantation owners in Crooked Island. Kate Moss was a young house slave there. She was accused of theft, insubordination and insolence by the plantation owners.
“During her early service, Kate refused to mend clothes as instructed by her owners, and consistently refused to carry out negative orders from her “owners”. Her refusals in the era of slavery, caused her repeatedly severe punishment from which she eventually died,” the statement from the Governor General’s office noted.
“Abolitionists in England learned about the plight of Kate and called Kate -“Poor Black Kate” and when the authorities in Nassau heard about her death, they charged Henry and Helen Moss with murder. They were found guilty, and the magistrate sentenced them to pay fines totaling £300 or spend five months in Nassau’s common jail.”
It said that Kate’s death and her action against slavery became big news on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1820s and 1830s, and it was used to strengthen the growing demand for the abolition of slavery, a movement in England led principally by William Wilberforce.
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