The fourth article concludes the series by discussing the 1950s by highlighting events of 1959. By the 1950s, holding ordinary men and women in debt, exploiting their labour, and dismissing their dignity had long formed the foundation of how profit was made, and legislative and political pincers had long been applied to reinforce that economic coercion even though the hammer of formal enslavement no longer lay readily available. The authors and beneficiaries of that continuing subordination of ordinary men and women had been a small group of local players whom Britain had allowed, for the most part, to hoard economic leverage, social privilege, ideological authority, and political power. Ordinary people had answered the pressure of that grouping in various ways. Many of them left the islands. Others stayed and went about their tightly circumscribed daily lives. Still others, while staying, had pressed for change: for more opportunity for education, more fairness in voting, bigger paychecks for workers. Their efforts had left a mark but had not altered root attitudes, ideas and relationships. Mid-century still found Bahamian society structured such that whiteness had value and blackness did not, money had value and merit not enough, in public affairs men mattered and women did not, and being foreign in addition to being white carried special advantage.
After the Progressive Liberal Party gained a foothold in the legislature in 1956, for example, right away the ruling group worked without apology to frustrate the voice of the new player. In addition, in view how consistent had been their record of tenacity and selfishness, actions that they took during 1958 and 1959 in the turbulent wake of the general strike could well raise questions as to whether they would tolerate any real degree of change. Inside the legislature, through two Quieting of Titles Acts and a Bahamas National Trust Act, they fashioned tools that gave legal cover to private interests which sought to seize land long in the possession of other people, and that authorised broad foreign participation in decisions affecting the natural resources of the community.
Outside the legislature, through forming the United Bahamian Party and establishing the Bahamas Historical Society, they signalled an interest in strengthening their political force and in mapping the story of the community.
A Girl Called Nettie by 
My Story ... His Glory by