Vendue House was built of cut limestone blocks around 1769. The property served as the island's commodity market, where palm and coconut oil, lumber, dried fish, hardware, and slaves were bartered and sold. The slavery aspect of the place continued until 1834, when an act of Parliament outlawed the practice throughout the British Empire. Full emancipation was activated in 1838. Named after the leader of a 19th-century slave revolt in the Exumas, the museum houses an exhibition on Bahamian life and culture, including many mementos on what the museum refers to as "the enslavement experience," 19th-century agriculture and sea trading, and 19th-century Bahamian culture.