Appleton Estate pays homage to former slaves
Published:Tuesday | February 28, 2023 | 1:16 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
J. Wray & Nephew Limited (JWN), a member of the Campari Group, has paid tribute to the enslaved people who worked on the Appleton Estate plantation during slavery with the unveiling of a monument titled ‘Lest We Forget’.
The 12-foot monument was designed and built by 26-year-old Jamaican artist Trishaunna Henry, a teacher at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon.
The tribute by the rum makers has been described as “revolutionary” by Professor Verene Shepherd, vice-chair for the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Addressing the audience at the unveiling ceremony at the Appleton Estate in St Elizabeth on Monday, Shepherd said that the monument was the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, having been erected on a former slave plantation. She noted that it was a significant step in acknowledging the impact of slavery on fundamental freedoms and human rights.
“Colonialism, then, was not gender or race neutral. The gendered political economy of slavery was manifested in the ways in which enslaved men and women and their societies expropriated the labour of the enslaved and extracted value from them. This understanding is crucial to present-day discussions around reparation,” she stated.
A former director of the Centre for Reparation Research at The University of the West Indies, Shepherd further indicated that finally some companies, financial institutions and other former investors in slavery have been owning up to their past, especially against the background that there has been very little positive response to the call for reparations.
“Slavery was used as a powerful tool of human resource exploitation. Slavery aided the colonial masters in their bid to colonise Africa and in subsequent resource exploitation, which they institutionalised under their imperial governance,” she argued.
“The erection of this monument will become a part of our history as it seeks to set the record straight that will give our enslaved ancestors the recognition they earned and deserved,” she added.
Her comments were bolstered by Culture Minister Olivia Grange, who noted that many modern-day challenges faced by countries in the Caribbean stem from region’s history of enslavement.
“The reality of the persistent and even chronic poverty in our society, the social and cultural scars, bear their mark on the psyche of the country,” said Grange.
She said that the monument pays homage to the island’s enslaved ancestors whose unpaid labour was at the root of the Appleton Estate success story.
“Some might say it is long in coming, but let us acknowledge this as a demonstration to the world that the company is aware of the contributions of our enslaved ancestors to its success and is commemorating the efforts of those enslaved ancestors,” Grange said.
The monument shows the relationship between sugar cane and the sociocultural and economic development of Jamaica. The names of slaves who worked on the plantation during the ownership of the then slave-owning Dickinson family have been incorporated in the monument. Some 128 names are on the piece, which took Henry six months to complete.
The tribute to the slaves has been a while in the making, with JWN Managing Director Jean-Phillipe Beyer revealing that following the research and the publication of the Appleton History Book, the company knew it needed to go further to acknowledge the contribution of the enslaved people to the history of the brand.
“We are incorporating this monument into the heart of the tour at the Joy Spence Appleton Estate Rum Experience. The monument is placed on a pedestal bearing the name of the enslaved people identified and allow us to recognise and pay tribute to those who laid the foundation for the Appleton Estate brand,” Beyer said.
In the meantime, Henry was the toast of the event, receiving a standing ovation not only for her work, but the emotions evoked by her speech.
Henry spoke about how her ancestors were telling her a story during the period she worked on the piece. She even became scared, owing to the impact it had on her senses.
The project was made possible through research commissioned by JWN and conducted by a team from the Centre for Reparation Research led by Shepherd and supported by Ahmed Reid, Gabrielle Hemmings, and John Shorter.
Miriam Hinds and Susan Lee Quee of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts also provided support in the production of the monument.