On Wednesday, The Bahamas conferred the Order of National Hero to former slave Kate Moss, as the nation celebrated its 51st anniversary of political independence from Britain.
A statement from the Office of the Governor General announced that Kate Moss received the Order of National Hero posthumously. The National Honours Committee recognized her for her “timely and determined courage demonstrated against racism and slavery.”
In the 1820s, Henry and Helen Moss, plantation owners on Crooked Island, accused Kate Moss, a young house slave, of theft, insubordination, and insolence.
“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.”
Moss’ impact on slavery in The Bahamas
Kate’s death and her defiance against slavery gained significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1820s and 1830s, bolstering the growing abolitionist movement in England, led primarily by William Wilberforce.
“Kate’s actions to stand up for herself would become an act of defiance that was strong enough to make an impact on slavery worldwide and impacted the history of The Bahamas and the world and must never be forgotten,” the statement said.
The Order of the National Hero is the highest honor bestowed by the government of The Bahamas. Established in 2016, the first recipients included Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, Sir Roland Theodore Symonette, Sir Milo Boughton Butler, and Sir Cecil Vincent Wallace-Whitfield, all posthumously awarded on July 10, 2018.
