Conch ( /ˈkɒŋk/),[1] was originally a slang term for native Bahamians of European descent.[2]
Several theories have been proposed for the origin of the term:
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By extension, the term "Conch" has also been applied to the descendants of Bahamian immigrants in Florida. Bahamians began visiting the Florida Keys in the Eighteenth Century to catch turtles, cut timber and salvage wrecks. During the Nineteenth Century and the first half of the Twentieth Century most of the permanent residents in the Florida Keys outside of Key West, and many in Key West, were Bahamian in origin. "Conch" was reported to be a term of "distinction" for Bahamians in Key West in the 1880s.[4]
The white Bahamians in the keys continued to be known as "conchs". Other residents of the Florida Keys, especially in Key West, began applying the term "Conch" to themselves, and it is now applied generally to all residents of Key West. See: Conch Republic.[5][2] To distinguish between natives and non-natives, the terms "Salt Water Conch" (native) and "Fresh Water Conch" (non-native) have been used.[1] Newcomers become "Fresh Water Conchs" after seven years.[2]
Riviera Beach, Florida, was known as "Conchtown" in the first half of the Twentieth Century because of the number of Bahamian immigrants who settled there. Unlike the situation in Key West and the rest of the Florida Keys, where being "Conch" became a matter of pride and community identification, "Conch" was used by outsiders (in particular the residents of West Palm Beach) in a pejorative manner to describe the Bahamian community in Riviera Beach. The usage there also carried the connotation that at least some of the "Conchs" were of mixed racial heritage. As a result, some of the Bahamians in Riviera Beach denied being "Conchs" when interviewed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Florida Writers Project in the late 1930s.[3] WPA worker Veronica Huss (with assistance from Stetson Kennedy) and photographer Charles Foster wrote a book on the Conchs and their culture entitled Conch Town, but the WPA chose not to publish (Foster eventually published a version of it in 1991). Also, many white Bahamian immigrants settled in the Coconut Grove area of Miami, Florida.
The term "Conchy Joe" is also sometimes used (derogatorily) to refer to a native Bahamian of European descent or a person of non-European or mixed descent who "acts white".[6]