One hundred and Eighty-Five Years of Freedom

Last Monday marked one hundred and eighty five years since our ancestors were freed through their own struggles and through circumstances that made the system of slavery untenable. It had reached a stage where, as Eric Williams stated in his classic work

CAPITALISM AND SLAVERY, it was either emancipation from above, that is through the king and parliament or from below as the people in Haiti did. Riots in Barbados in 1816, Demerara in 1823, Jamaica in 1831 and during the debate on slavery in parliament word that there was unrest in St. Vincent, on the ‘Carib Country’ estates, presented serious challenges. The traditional story about Emancipation as told by the Europeans, gave all the credit to William Wilberforce and the humanitarians. So those who studied history in school accepted this as given. In recent years emphasis has been put on the role the enslaved played in bringing about their own emancipation. Eric Williams had written a chapter focusing on this issue, then we had people like Richard Hart from Jamaica who had written about the SLAVES WHO ABOLISHED SLAVERY.

We, as descendants of ancestors who were enslaved, tried to stay away from learning about slavery out of embarrassment and a sense of inferiority. But we were exposed to the writings of Europeans who told the story of the hunters. Here I refer to the African proverb, “Until Lions have their own historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter.” I notice that recently as we approached August 1 persons were quoting Marcus Garvey, to the effect, that “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” And there is so much that is positive about the way our fore parents responded to slavery, that could instil pride in us, their descendants, and teach us that we must resist oppression, but in doing so understand the realities and devise strategies to overcome them.

This year’s Emancipation Day was, by the state, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of CARICOM. It was to a large extent song and dance. There were other smaller activities that were dedicated to reflecting on emancipation and continuing to spread new ideas based on the latest research on slavery and emancipation. I suspect it was convenient to use the August 1 holiday to push the gospel of CARICOM, about which many of us do not have many positive views, still seeing it as a work in progress which has been stalled along the way despite the rhetoric of our leaders. It is not clear to me that any major effort was made to link CARICOM to Emancipation.

A few things to note about St. Vincent as we reflect on slavery and emancipation. The period of slavery lasted for about 72 years, starting in 1766 when we had our first export of sugar, to 1838 when full freedom was declared. Let us remember too, that by the 1640s and 1650s Barbados and the Leewards were fully into sugar production that was based on a trade that brought African people to the Caribbean to be enslaved. Despite its late start in the production and export of sugar, St. Vincent for the period 1805-1829 was the second largest exporter in the Caribbean after Jamaica. This was made possible by the seizure of the lands taken from the indigenous people and parcelled into eight estates. This was virgin land that became a significant producer of sugar. Africans would have been brought into the island to be enslaved for about 42 years until the abolition of the trade in 1807.

The Emancipation Act was passed in 1833, August 28. The Vincentian planters through the Assembly protested strongly, arguing that the Act was putting their property which they valued at £ 4 million at risk. By their property they meant the Africans whom they enslaved. As the debate on ending slavery continued in England the value the planters put on their property was € 47 million pounds. The British government was prepared to provide them with £ 20 million pounds with a period of apprenticeship built in to force the people who were supposed to be emancipated to provide the planters with free labour for three quarters of the working week. Of the compensation money given, planters in St. Vincent received € 592, 509, equivalent today to between £ 86-90 million pounds.

On August 1, 1834, there were 18,102 apprentices made up of field slaves 15, 309, and 2,793 domestic workers. Children under 6 totalled 2, 959. They were freed from August 1, 1834, along with 1,189 persons declared to be aged or incapacitated.

Like other enslaved people, Vincentians never accepted slavery. They went through the period of slavery with much of their humanity remaining intact. There were no riots because like elsewhere they understood the realities. There was always a militia on the ground and military forces nearby, ready to respond to any calls for their help. They found ways to resist and disrupt the sugar economy. They pretended to be stupid and unable to understand instructions, they stole and lied, set fires to machinery and factories, damaged tools, and machinery, burnt canes ‘accidentally’, pretended to be sick. They used songs to lampoon their masters who did not realise that they were targets of their songs. Planter Alison Carmichael mocked their dialect and spoke about them putting impromptu words to their songs. The enslaved found a way of accommodating themselves to a life of enslavement, recreating in their communities, aspects of the lives they knew, practising their religion, singing their songs, and socialising with other enslaved on market days. August 1, 1838, was the dawn of a new day for them. Their struggles however continued, as they began to move away from the estates and establish villages and create a new life.

Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian