National Spiritual Baptists Day

ON WEDNESDAY the country celebrated its first National Spiritual Baptists Day, the holiday having been declared last year. This Day commemorates and celebrates the fact that the Faith was able to preserve itself and to grow despite the many prosecutions and persecutions its followers

suffered for over 52 years. Theirs was a part of the punishment inflicted by the Colonial Government over those years. The fact that its practitioners were poor and black was fundamental to the move to ban the religion in 1912. The emergence of the original group on the Calder estate around 1846 was a critical factor. Many of the formerly enslaved were then moving off the estates and into villages that they were creating. In fact, by 1846 there were over 3,660 residents living in about 49 villages formed since 1838 when full emancipation of the enslaved took place.

The followers of that group that we later called Shakers called themselves the Wilderness people.

When Africans were brought here to be enslaved, they were unable to bring any material things, but they brought their culture- their music, songs, dances, religion and culinary arts. These they continued to practise within the confines of the slave compounds. Many of them began to worship with the Methodists who came into St. Vincent in 1787. One of the Weslyan (Methodist) missionaries Reverend William Fiddler, who worked here left a Diary dealing with his period of service in St. Vincent between 18251827. He was quite moved by the enslaved at their meetings, stating that they spoke with much feeling and propriety. They did not interpret the messages of the missionaries in the way the missionaries expected.

He was impressed with the way they worshipped. They brought a different dimension to worship by the Methodists. They continued to frequent the Methodist Church. They wanted to have their children educated at a time when the established churches controlled education.

To register their children, information about their place of worship was noted. Shakers would not have qualified. They also would not have had Marriage Officers. Reverend Fidler tolerated them despite his concerns about their use of convulsions and noisy prayers. His replacement, after he left, Reverend Hudson expelled 100 of them. He gave his reasons.

They “insisted on holding meetings independent of and separate from our own in which they indulged in the wildest enthusiasms .

. .,” and they condemned those who would not join in their excesses. In 1851, 200 were banned from the Biabou Circuit. The Methodists admitted a loss in finances and membership.

As they spread to different villages criticisms of the religion grew. Some of the rioters involved in the 1862 riots that rocked estates on the windward coast and in the Mesopotamia Valley were alleged to be members of the Wilderness People (Shakers). One of the leaders of the Riots was George Bascombe an immigrant from Barbados, who was also a member. According to the Chief of Police the religion had its roots in one of the few distinct hereditary traits of African barbarism. The so-called respectable population as the Administrator described them, was concerned about the declining role of the established churches, and of the clergy of those churches.

The Media, the two existing newspapers, the SENTRY and TIMES were strong critics of the Shakers and called for government to suppress it. The established churches too led the charges with Dr McPhail of the Church of Scotland preaching two sermons critical of the religion. They were carried in at least one of the newspapers. At the beginning of the 20th century efforts at introducing an Ordinance to ban the religion was already in progress, although there was some concern about how banning a religion would have been accepted in England. But to some of the authorities including Governor Llewellyn, Shakerism was nothing but a practice allied to African fetish worship. Eventually by 1912, spearheaded by Administrator Giden Murray, their strategies about finalising the Ordinance to be taken to the Legislative Council were complete and on July 8, he sought permission to introduce the bill which eventually was tabled on September 3, 1912, finalised on that day and slipped past the Governor and gazetted even before it was sent to England.

Despite the fact that he had by-passed the Governor it was decided to allow it to run for a year before getting final approval but providing a report on its workings be sent before the end of the year.

It was the 52-year struggle against the 1912 Ordinance that was recognised with the granting of a National Holiday on May 21. For a religion that had been scoffed at for such a long time the holiday would have been very much welcomed.

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian