Gibbet Island is an
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
of
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest.
Bermuda is an ...
. It is located at the mouth of Flatt's Inlet which leads to Harrington Sound.
Its name arises from the fact that criminals were
gibbet
Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet () was also used as a method of public ex ...
ted, or hung here. Flatt's inlet was not a major shipping route so the reason for hanging the slaves here was not for the benefit of incoming vessels but instead because locals did not want to have hangings on the mainland due to superstition. Witches were also burned here.
[
Today, the property is owned by a private family.]
References
Afro-Caribbean history
History of slavery
Islands of Bermuda
Smith's Parish
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