‘Emancipation from above or Emancipation from below. But Emancipation.’ – Reflections on Emancipation.

For a long time during the period of colonisation and in the immediate post-independence period, our history written largely by Europeans informed us that our ancestors owed their freedom from Slavery to William Wilberforce and the ‘Saints’/humanitarians. Then came Eric Williams, later Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago with his classic work CAPITALISM AND SLAVERY, published in 1944. He turned this up sided down by highlighting the role of the enslaved in their own liberation and the transformation of the British economy from its agricultural base to one fed by Industry. A new Age had begun for Britain. Adam Smith’s WEALTH OF NATIONS, written in 1776 heralded that change. Smith stated that under the new Industrial economy Slavery was more expensive than Free Labour. Eric Williams argued that slavery and the slave trade played a prominent role in the emergence of that Industrial economy and society. He, however, acknowledged the important role played by Wilberforce and the humanitarians.

The Revolution in Haiti led by Toussaint L’Ouverture that destroyed slavery was always on the minds of planters and colonial officials. During the debate in England over ending slavery, those favouring emancipation argued that failure to bring that about could result in a Haitian situation. Those, on the other side, the defenders argued otherwise, being critical of the debate and the message it would send to the enslaved, saw the need to stand firm. The freedom of the enslaved which came from ‘Above’ owed much to the advocacy of Wilberforce and the Saints, including John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who argued as early as 1774 in his “Thoughts on Slavery” declared “I absolutely deny all slave holding to be consistent with any degree of national Justice.” This group brought the matter to the Houses of Commons and Lords in Britain that eventually passed legislation to end slavery.

Riots in the Caribbean- Barbados 1816, Demerara (BG) 1823 and Jamaica 1831 were warning signs. While the anti-slavery bill was being discussed in the House of Commons, Ralph Bernard, an absentee proprietor who owned estates and slaves in some of the colonies and was a defender of Slavery, told the House that a letter from St Vincent told of agitation on the ‘Carib Country’ estates, Orange Hill, Rabacca, Lot 14, Tourama and at Grove, Colonaire and Mt. Bentinck. The enslaved were reporting sick en masse, getting to work late and doing less work than they normally did within a specified time. Domestic workers in the household of the proprietors had often been accused of betraying their fellow enslaved field workers. They were however the ones conveying information on what was happening during the debates in London; information they got from talk in the households where they worked and in cases of those who could read from newspapers that were always around.

The Emancipation Act was passed in Britain on 26 August 1833 and became law, after which it was sent to the colonies. It was brought before the St. Vincent Assembly on October 15, 1833. There were a series of objections to a number of the issues, and a great deal of disquiet from the planters who occupied the Local Assembly, to the extent that they had to be reminded that their delay was jeopardising the handing over of compensation money. The local Assembly eventually passed the Act on April 2, 1834.

The Vincentian planters and persons who owned slaves but not estates received £592,509 whose real cost in 2022 was EC$ 183, 804, 912. The number of estates in existence then was 152. At midnight on 31 July 1834, a Friday, 15, 309 enslaved field workers, 2,793 domestic workers although declared free by the Emancipation Act were to experience a period where they were to undergo a system of Apprenticeship, having to continue to work for a period of the week free for their ‘former’ masters but able to be paid for any work outside of that period. In a sense as Hilary Beckles, in his book BRITAIN’S BLACK DEBT, argues that this period of unpaid work constituted a period of compensation paid by the formerly enslaved. Children under 6 were freed immediately as were 1,189 aged or incapacitated enslaved persons.

Ebenezer Duncan in his book A BRIEF HISTORY OF St. VINCENT stated that apart from those who went to the Anglican Church the Methodist Church was “overcrowded with the black folk who had begun to assemble in the evening of July 31, sometime before midnight”; “a whole congregation of newly freed people leaped to their feet and sang with joy and thankfulness Charles Wesley’s hymn “Blow Ye the trumpet blow, The gladly solemn sound. Let all the nations know To earth’ remotest bound; the Year of Jubilee is come.”

What happened in 1834 was partial freedom, since the only really free persons were children under 6 and the sick and incapacitated. The others had to undergo that period of Apprenticeship where at times it mirrored the slavery they had previously gone through. So, the real period of Emancipation was August 1, 1838 when the freed persons began the process of fashioning a life of their own.

Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian