First let me express my thanks to our Bishop Errol for this high honour of bringing the message to the oldest Christian community in Anguilla on this historic Sunday. I suspect that I have been asked to speak because of my interest in matters historical but as there are others equally qualified, it is indeed an honour to have been selected.
If the walls of this venerable Church could talk we would hear a history of our island and people that would amaze us, for this ground is not only holy but has witnessed the passage and many cycles of our past. Indeed you the members of St. Mary’s are in many ways not only a family of believers, but also are the custodians of a historic place that has endured most of the vicissitudes and triumphs of our island home. In that regard you are burdened and blessed all at once to keep this special flame of Christian witness alight and burning.
It was on Friday August 1st 1834 that the Emancipation Act which passed through The British House of Commons one year earlier in 1833 came into force freeing slaves across the then far flung British empire which included our tiny corner here in Anguilla.
But as historic as that August1st may have been and the fact that that date has been celebrated and commemorated every year on the first Monday in August for 180 years, it is also true that that day was just the first step in trying to right a historic wrong which was perhaps one of the most egregious errors in human history.
Slavery as an official institution of the state had been a fixture in human society up until 1834. Although it officially ended in the British Empire on that date it persisted for many years even after that in much of the Americas. In the U.S. it took a bloody and brutal civil war to end it in 1865 and It was not until 1882 that it ended in Brazil which was perhaps the most densely slave populated plantation colony in the Americas and one of the most brutal. Every nation state and empire in antiquity from ancient China, Greece, Rome and all others exploited and defended slavery as an institution. It is estimated in the city of Rome alone during the time of Jesus there were over 400,000 slaves, more than two thirds of the entire population of the OECS combined. To think of a slave as a human being was not considered, necessary of practical. Even our own Bible in both testaments and written of course over 1500 years before the modern era recognized slavery as an institution. indeed 19th century plantation owners who claimed to be Christians, often quoted out of context many passages from the Bible as proof of God’s permission to hold and keep slaves.
But although slavery may have been normal in human history for centuries, the Atlantic slave trade and plantation slavery raised this evil to another level. Slavery in West Africa like the rest of the world existed long before the Europeans arrived. But after they did the extent and intensity of the trade was ratcheted up to a degree that was terrible. There really is no other way to describe it and it is impossible for us today to even imagine it. But let us try at my own expense.
When I was 12 years old and living in St. Kitts my late father put my brother and I on a small tug boat enroute from St. Kitts to Anguilla for our August holiday. We left St. Kitts at sunset and anchored here just before dawn. I can say without any fear of contradiction that it was the worst night of my entire young life. We were “packed” into the forepeak of the tug in a tiny cabin smelling of diesel. When the tug hit the Statia channel it bucked, weaved, rolled and did a bump and grind that was unbelievable. I have never felt so seasick in all my life and hope never to again. I retched all night long while an older companion cradled and held me as I heaved over a filthy basin with nothing more to vomit. When we climbed out onto the deck after dawn and I beheld the crystal clear, clam and turquoise waters of Road Bay and the shining white beach of Sandy Ground, I felt I had just died and was now in heaven. Contrast my experience with this.
A Slave ship in 18th century had a hold from deck to ceiling of about 5’ 8” in height. I am 5’ 10 ½ “ so you can imagine the height from floor to ceiling. Slaves were packed in and made to lie flat on the floor or deck. But then another removable floor or platform was inserted between the deck and the ceiling on which another layer of slaves could be packed. This meant that the space between floor and ceiling in which a slave had to lie in chains was about 2’ 7” high. The only fresh air came from the main hatch on the deck which was shut down during bad weather and of course there was no bathroom for them to use. The passage across the Atlantic from West Africa to the Caribbean took about 8 weeks, and a slave ship could take between 2 to 3 months off the coast of Africa just loading its cargo of slaves and picking up provisions before it set sail across the Atlantic.
My ordeal lasted 12 hours. A slave’s could last 5 months in infinitely worse conditions.
But the inhumanity of it all is further illustrated when we look at it from the perspective of the slave traders who owned and managed the slave trade.
The captain of the “Hannibal” a slave ship in the late 1700’s was not a brutal or ignorant man. While loading slaves off West Africa he refused to punish rebellious slaves as an example to the rest and wrote in his log (or diary) about the poor creatures, who “excepting their want of Christianity and true religion, are as much the works of God’s hands an no doubt. As dear to him as ourselves: nor can I imagine why they should be despised for their colour, being what they cannot help and the effect of the climate it has pleased God to appoint them” he wrote this at the beginning of the voyage but bear in mind he was a slaver out for profit first and foremost. On this trip he had bad luck. Of the 700 slaves he loaded 320died and had to be dumped over board. As he watched his profit dwindle, his humanity likewise disappeared and by the end of the same voyage he wrote in the same log. “After all our pains and care to give them food in order and in season, keeping their lodges as clean and sweet as possible and enduring so much misery and stench so long among a parcel of creatures nastier than swine, I now must be defeated by their mortality.”
Those two small snippets of history should indicate clearly to us, the ugliness and brutality of slavery. It dehumanized both slave and slave owner and in the process debased humanity as a whole. But by the end of the slave trade which ended in 1807, British slave ships had brought 5.5 million Africans to the Caribbean. Another 15 million it is estimated were brought to the U.S., the former Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and C.A. and to Brazil.
If we fast forward to today there is a growing call both in the Caribbean and the U.S. for what is now termed as “reparations”. Or to put it another way a call or demand to the former slave owning states to work towards “repairing” the damage done by slavery to the descendants of slaves. As you might expect this call is somewhat controversial. On one side there are those who feel that way too many years have gone by for this to be repaired especially as we have all moved on to a new and different era in which the past must be left in the past. On the other side there those who feel that it is never too late for justice to be done and that those states that profited from this system for centuries should be called to account and made to compensate. After all, they argue, Germany paid reparations to Israel for what Hitler did to the Jews in the 1940s, and Japan paid Korea reparations for forcing thousands of Korean women into sex slavery during World War 2. So there is precedent.
In our case here in the Caribbean and as recently as July 16th, Sir Hillary Beckles, chairman of the CARICOM reparations commission made an address to a committee of The House of Commons in London at which he said in part;
“I am honoured to be asked to speak in this historic parliament of the people of Great Britain. Like you, I am aware that this Parliament prepared the official political basis of the crimes that define the colonial past. It is here in this House, that the evil system of slavery, and genocide, were established. This House passed laws, framed fiscal policies and enforced the crimes that have produced harmful legacies and persistent suffering now in need of repair. This House also made emancipation from slavery and independence from colonialism an empowering reality. It is in here, we believe, that the terrible wrongs of the past can be corrected, and humanity finally and truthfully liberated from the shame and guilt that have followed these historical crimes.
And indeed there was shame in the Emancipation Act that freed our ancestors 180 years ago and it is this. In much the same way that we value our lands and homes today if we want to sell them or get a loan by going to the department of lands and survey or to a private survey to get a valuation, the same was done in 1833 for the slaves. Since slaves were considered property a value was calculated for the 800,000 slaves existing on Caribbean plantations at £47 million. In today’s dollars that would be around 1.1 billion. Parliament agreed to pay the planters £20 million or 500 million in today’s dollars and then implemented the apprenticeship programme whereby the slaves themselves would pay through their free labour over 4 years the remaining balance of 27 million pounds. This is one of the shameful aspects of the emancipation act long hidden from public view and you will no doubt note that none of this compensation was paid to a slave.
So what are we, the descendants of slaves and followers of Jesus Christ to make all of this? Is the demand for justice compatible with the commandment to forgive? Can we let go of the past and learn from it as well? Can we turn the other cheek and move on to the future? Can we recognize the brutality that is with us today in youth violence and the growing lack of empathy and not be fixated on the brutality that of the past? I wish I could answer those questions easily and succinctly, but I cannot. What I can do is look at our own humble history and look for clues which demonstrate the truth of the Master’s teachings.
Contrary to what some Tourism literature may imply, slavery did exist on Anguilla. That should seem obvious to most, but evidently not to all. In 1774 there were 300 white settlers and 2000 slaves barely 15% of what the population is today. We know that these slaves our ancestors came primarily from what is today Senegal, Gambia, Central Africa, Biafra in today’s Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. The dominant nations or tribes were the Mandingo, Tenme, Kongo and Igbo. By 1785 that population had actually declined and by 1792 Anguilla was the poorest and most destitute of colonies in the Leeward Islands. While it is not true that slavery did not exist on Anguilla, it is true that it was not as intense or as brutal as it was in other islands. This had nothing to do with the supposed kindness or Christian feelings of former planters and everything to do with our geology and climate. The simple fact was that Anguilla’s aridity and propensity for drought which we all know well, along with the limited areas of fertile and arable soils did not suit the development of large and profitable plantations. By 1785 we were described as “a very small poor colony….depending chiefly on mixed farming and salt raking”. And when the British Government banned any trade between its colonies and the new United States after 1776 and prohibited American vessels from coming to Anguilla for salt, this caused, in the words of Governor Shirley of Antigua, “great distress”.
And then of course in 1796 all hell broke loose with the French invasion of that year. Many settlers and slaves were killed by gunshot and bayonet. Women were raped and the original St. Mary’s which stood on this very spot was burnt to the ground. After the invasion had been repelled and the invaders killed or run off our society was a total shambles and remained that way for decades. If you read the 1825 House of Commons report on Anguilla you read a most depressing history and I believe you are aware that on two occasions in 1846 and in 18—colonial authorities in Antigua attempted to remove all our ancestors to Guyana and Trinidad and depopulate Anguilla.
And yet we are here today in a changed St. Mary’s yes but still in St. Mary’s. An Anguillian whose ancestors may have been Mandingo or Igbo or tenme is our Bishop and by the grace of God we can still give thanks that we are free and at peace. I have always believed that the poverty we endured throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries was in fact a blessing in disguise. It allowed us at least to dodge some of the worst aspects of slavery, colonialism and racism that so bedeviled most other islands, and allowed us to forge a simple and humble community forged out of poverty where class distinctions were blurred and everyone had to rely in some way on everyone else, to either plant a ground via jollification or launch a schooner or a sloop or a fishing boat to help eke a living from the sea. A community where the family was the village, and circumstance made us all our brother’s keeper. All, everyone was involved. There was no aya there was only we. In the words of my most favourite West Indian poet Miss lou “Everyone meant…
Chimney sweep an money lender
Sore foot beggar man an chief,
Dacta, lawyer, ex fish venda
Parson, obeah man an tief.
In the book of Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 10 it reads “do not despise these small beginnings for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin”. August 1st 1834 was a small beginning on the long road to freedom. In many ways we are still not there yet. Today young men turn guns on each other for little or no reason and many are chained to drugs and alcohol. Young women are used and abused as sex objects, and are pimped for profit. Domestic workers are still exploited in far too many countries and unbelievably there are still according to the anti-slavery society which is still in existence, some 12 million slaves across the planet. Is slavery an evil of the past or is it still with us. Is it still with us in some forms even in Anguilla?
Despite the difficulties of the past and the challenges of the present; despite the injustice that was heavy upon us; despite the legacies of slavery which still at times rear their ugly heads in the form of racism, bigotry and distrust; the teachings of our faith must still ring in our ears and remind us,– that there is a deeper truth than the facts of our history, there is a more profound reality than the bitterness of the past. And it is this. We are our brother’s keeper and we are children of God. That truth alone can set us free, and that truth should always encourage us that “Weeping may endure through the night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
Our faith is a faith of hope. Our faith is a faith of transformation. Our faith is a faith of renewal and boundless grace. And most powerfully of all, our faith is a faith of resurrection. If we have come this far, we can and must by the grace of God go further and follow the teachings of our master to “heal the broken hearted, preach deliverance to those in chains and to set at liberty those that are oppressed.
I still believe that descendants of slaves and followers of Jesus Christ can make a difference in our world and in this place. And if where we are is a small village called Anguilla, we must simply brighten that corner where we are. Emancipation day can be a day of rememberance but it must also be a day of hope. Hope in ourselves, our children and in our future. Hope anchored securely by the tenets of our faith. “For if the son sets you free, You will be free indeed.”
