Peter Espeut | You can’t cancel history

Hamilton Brown (1775-1843) was a despicable fellow. He came to Jamaica in 1796 to work as a bookkeeper on Queenhythe Estate in St Ann, and rose to become a large landowner and slaveowner. He represented St Ann in the Jamaica House of Assembly for 22 years, and was a pillar of Jamaican slave society. As colonel of the St Ann militia he helped to maintain Jamaica’s slave system by force of arms.

He subdivided one of his estates into a settlement which in his lifetime was known as Brown’s Town, named after him; he built the original St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Brown’s Town.

He was an executive member of the infamous Colonial Church Union which destroyed non-conformist churches in the aftermath of Sam Sharpe’s 1831-1832 Rebellion. Believing the Baptist Church to be fomenting discontent and revolt among the slaves, Hamilton Brown personally led a crowd which used ropes and horses to tear down the Baptist Church in Brown’s Town on St Valentine’s Day (14 February, 1832).

The mob then travelled to the coast and destroyed the Methodist and Baptist chapels in St Ann’s Bay and Ocho Rios, hanging in effigy the Baptist (Nichols and Wood) and Methodist (Isaac Whitehouse) missionaries, all of whom were in hiding.

Brown was cashiered on 15 February 1833 on Huntly Common (the regular parade ground of the St Ann militia), by Constantine Henry Phipps, the 2nd Earl of Mulgrave, 1st Marquess of Normanby, Governor of Jamaica (1832-1834), for his role in destroying the non-conformist churches.

He is buried in the yard of St Mark’s Anglican Church, in Brown’s Town.

A despicable man by any standard.

CRITICISED

Jamaica’s woke activists have criticised the Anglican Church for having his grave in their churchyard. I suppose they would wish his headstone destroyed, his grave dug up, and his remains ground into dust and trampled underfoot.

And they would wish the name “Brown’s Town” to be cancelled, and the community renamed Finlayson Town, or some such.

Thomas Thistlewood (1721-1786) was a despicable fellow. Aside from being a slaveowner who abused and tortured his slaves, he was a sexual predator of no mean order, and he kept a diary of his UK and Jamaican exploits. Staying with a friend in England, he had sex with both the friend’s wife and her maidservant. His diary records 3,582 acts of sexual intercourse with 138 enslaved women and girls in Jamaica, often with violent resistance.

He is buried at the yard of the St John’s Anglican Church, Black River.

A despicable man by any standard. As recent as this week Jamaica’s woke activists have criticised the Anglican Church for having Thistlewood’s grave in their churchyard. They want every gravestone, every plaque, every statue, every street name obliterated so that the names of slaveowners will not be remembered.

Thousands of slaveowners are buried in graveyards across Jamaica. Not one grave of the many millions in Jamaica holds the remains of a saint; buried here are thieves. adulterers, those who exploited their employees, and workers who malingered and did not do a fair day’s work. Does not every sinner have a right to a decent burial?

STILL STANDS

The building which housed the Jamaica House of Assembly – which for centuries passed laws to enable slavery – still stands. Should it be demolished out of respect for our ancestors?

Hibbert House on Duke Street in Kingston, built by a filthy rich slave trader – still stands. In that house in 1865 Governor Eyre arrested George William Gordon. Should it not be demolished out if respect to Gordon? Who has a house named after him across the street?

St Thomas is named after slave governor Thomas Modyford; St Elizabeth is named after his wife; Trelawny is named after a governor who supported slavery; Hanover is named after the Royal family invested in the slave trade. Kingston and King Street are named after William III who supported slavery; Barry Street, Beckford Street, Beeston Street, Sutton Street, Lawes Street (to name a few) are named after enslavers. Catherine’s Peak is named after Catherine Long who owned slaves. Mandeville, May Pen, Petersfield and Stokes Hall are named after enslavers.

The woke activists want all these names changed.

The woke activists want to tear down the statue of Christopher Columbus for his sins. But both Dr Bowerbank and Edward Jordon were involved in the murder of Paul Bogle and George William Gordon. Bustamante was a usurer, and Norman Manley prosecuted Marcus Garvey in court. Shouldn’t their statues all be toppled into the sea?

Jamaica has hundreds of Great Houses, built by slaves with money earned through slavery: Rose Hall, Good Hope, Wales, Marlborough, Windsor, Prospect, just to name a few. How do we deal with our unpleasant history? Can we cancel our history?

Do we want to eradicate every artefact that might remind us of slavery? The next thing they will want is to remove history from the high school curriculum.

Or do we want these artefacts to remain in place, to remind us of our evil past – where we are coming from – and that we have not yet put adequate measures in place to rise above it?

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and antiquarian. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com