Crooked Island is an island and

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

, part of a group of Bahamian islands defining a large, shallow lagoon called the

Bight of Acklins The word is derived from Old English ''byht'' (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”). In modern English, bight may refer to: * Bight (geography), recess of a coast, bay, or other curved feature * Bight (knot), a curved section, slack part, or loo ...

, of which the largest are Crooked Island in the north and Acklins in the south-east, and the smaller are Long Cay (once known as Fortune Island) in the north-west, and Castle Island in the south.

History

The islands were settled by American Loyalists in the late 1780s who set

cotton plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s using over 1,000 slaves. After the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

these became uneconomical, and the replacement income from

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

diving has now dwindled as well. The inhabitants now live by fishing and small-scale farming. It is believed that the first Post Office in the Bahamas was at Pitts Town on Crooked Island.

Population

The main town in the group is Colonel Hill (pop. 51) on Crooked Island. The population of Crooked Island was 330 at the 2010 census.CROOKED ISLAND POPULATION BY SETTLEMENT AND TOTAL NUMBER OF OCCUPIED DWELLINGS: 2010 CENSUS
- Bahamas Department of Statistics

Transportation

The island is served by Colonel Hill Airport.

References

Islands of the Bahamas Districts of the Bahamas {{Bahamas-geo-stub