Mia McMorris | Emancipation: The battle won, not the war

It has been 185 years since Emancipation was granted in much of the English-speaking Caribbean, not the scam of the Apprenticeship system, but true freedom in 1838 from centuries of chattel enslavement. Around the Caribbean we celebrate during this first week of August the major efforts and sacrifices made in the journey to emancipation from enslavement.

As we acknowledge this moment, we must remember it did not happen in a vacuum, that it is a part of a series of events, before even the 1784-1838 revolutionary wars that often act as the marker for Emancipation. Emancipation is the result of a centuries-long campaign against enslavers, and a successful moment as we continue our struggle for true freedom and repair from the lasting effects of this system of enslaving and dehumanising Africans.

Sir Hilary Beckles accurately points out that this is a long-waged war, hundreds of years during the period of enslavement, then the decades of open and hostile racism which took the form of Jim Crow, Apartheid and other systems of suppression, and then now as many of these legal systems have been dismantled, we fight the miseducation and deeply ingrained racist systems that plague our society. In continuing this campaign for equality, we take up the mantle of the freedom-fighters and advocates, and will be honouring the efforts of freedom-fighters around the Caribbean.

WHITE WASHED

The Emancipation narrative, especially in the 1820s and ‘30s, is often white-washed forgetting to acknowledge the back-breaking work of enslaved Africans and their contributions around the Caribbean. The efforts by white abolitionists are not to be discredited as they made way for the emancipation legislation through their boycotts, petitioning and picketing, however, the life-risking circumstances that enslaved Africans faced to fight for their rights as human beings need to be at the forefront.

Enslaved African’s efforts began as early as the 16th century, however, it took some time for them to be recognised in the same space as Wilberforce, Josiah Wedgewood, Mary Weston Chapman, James Ramsay, Hanna More and the Quakers even though they certainly caused the British to quake! It is necessary to revise the narratives that promote only European/white men and women as the signatories of this new era of ‘freedom’. Africans, women and men, were major players in the campaign for their freedom, and they all deserve the recognition as we celebrate this milestone year.

The women:

• Antigua/Barbuda: Abba, Philda, Queen

• Barbados: Awbo, Nanny Grigg, Yabbo, Harrriet, Phyllis

• Bermuda: Angelica, Mary Prince, Sally Bassett

• Dominica: Charlotte and Angelique

• Guyana: Susanna, Amba, Phati, Lucretia

• Jamaica: Nanny and Mountain Lucy of the Maroons; Mary Ann Reid; women of the 1831/32 Emancipation War (Ann James, Eliza and Jane Whittingham)

• St. Kitts/Nevis: Betto Douglas

• St Vincent and the Grenadines: Nelly, Eliza, Sue, Sally, Phoebe

• Trinidad & Tobago: Abenkina, Luce, Mary Ann, Aliza, Jeannette, Marguerite, Adelaide Disson (Queen of the 1805 plot in Trinidad)

And the men:

• Anguilla: Crippled Hodge

• Antigua: King Court, Tomboy, Hercules

• Bahamas: Pompey

• Barbados: Bussa; Franklyn

• Guyana: Atta, Cuffy/ Kofi, Quamina, Jack Gladstone, Manuel, Seaton, Joseph, Telemachus, Paris

• Jamaica: Takyi, Sam Sharpe, Cudjoe, Quao, Johnny, Accompong

• St Vincent and the Grenadines: Chatoyer

• Trinidad & Tobago: Roo, Bastian

This is but a sample of our freedom-fighters, there are so many other men and women who fought in this struggle, including our indigenous brothers and sisters across the region who were the first to decry the colonising mission of the Europeans. The men and women listed above were leaders of the emancipation campaign, and their actions were all the more significant because they made themselves targets for repercussions of this mission.

FACED THE NOOSE

Many of them faced the noose, died in battle, faced shootings, tortuous lashings, and other gruesome punishments or were transported to far-flung edges of the empire. It was not an easy choice to lead, to push back at the injustice they faced. These men and women might have forced the door open for freedom through their struggles, but we continue to fight for our rights as humans, as the wronged party for centuries of harm. The 20th century also saw some giants in our campaign with Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Walter Rodney, Eric Williams, Dame Eugenia Clarke, Jamaica Kincaid, Claudia Jones, and so many more.

The men and women who lead the movement now, fight not so much on the battle field, though we did see some during the 20th century in the final swing for Independence, but in the courtrooms, the classroom, and the social arena. Emancipation was the first step, we now push to remove the barriers of race that hold our society hostage; systemic racism that permeates all areas of our lives, from the justice system to AI. We must celebrate the achievements of our ancestors, distant and more recent, but we cannot let it lull into a sense of complacency.

We exist in a world where too often our suffering and trauma are made to be minor, and we cannot ignore the centuries of injustice by enslavers all because they saw the error of their way centuries later and ‘granted’ us freedom. Where is this freedom without repair? We left the unjust system of chattel enslavement with barely a shirt on our backs, how could we be expected to reach our full potential?

Mia McMorris is a junior research fellow at the Centre for Reparation Research, The University of the West Indies. Send feedback to reparation.research@uwimona.edu.jm