The fight for Emancipation Day holiday in Jamaica

When the clock struck midnight on August 1, 1838, Reverend William Knibb declared “The negro is free”. In a letter to a confidant, Knibb recalls: “Never did I hear such a sound. The winds of freedom appeared to have been let loose. The very building shook at the strange yet sacred joy”.

In Jamaica, like other British colonies, black persons would gather at town squares and other public areas to celebrate the end of one of the most brutal acts of mankind. This celebration of the end of enslavement, on paper anyway, continued throughout the years.

According to Falmouth Post, from as early as 1860, August 1 saw many Jamaicans march through the streets, playing music and waving flags with biblical scriptures written on them. Led by clergymen who called themselves ‘Apostles of Liberty’, children were given cake and lemonade in decorated classrooms. In the afternoon, persons would gather at public meetings where sums of money were collected and used for charitable causes.

Still, after the Morant Bay Rebellion, there came rumours that another black uprising would take place on Emancipation Day in 1866. With these fears, many missionaries did not organise around the event anniversary, and due to this, public observance dwindled in the decade. However, come the 1870s, persons started to commemorate the day once more. This effort was led by black persons of lighter complexion.

According to the historians Brian L. Moore and Michele A. Johnson in the book They Do As They Please: The Jamaica Struggle for Cultural Freedom After Morant Bay, these lighter-skinned black Jamaicans wanted to forget the shame of their ancestral enslavement while some among them hoped that by supporting the celebration of freedom, they would call attention to how much progress had been made by them as a class. Many had been elevated in society, both in terms of their class and complexion and saw themselves as advocates for those not in the same position. Thus, throughout the 1870s, tradesmen would march through the streets – beginning in Parade and eventually find themselves in Spanish Town for a picnic. This effort kickstarted other remembrance activities in other parts of the island.

UNOFFICIALLY RESTORED

By the 1880s, August 1 was unofficially restored as a public holiday. Popular stores in Kingston would close on that day, while church services, lectures, and picnics were happening throughout the island. In 1893, the holiday was added to the list of mandatory public holidays when C. S. Farquharson introduced the Public General Holidays bill. The bill increased the number of public holidays from nine to 10 and to include the new addition, Emancipation Day. From then onwards, other events such as athletic competitions, cricket matches, concerts, etc, were added to Emancipation Day celebratory activities. Throughout the years to come, the holiday would have special events held on that day. The Jamaica Patriotic League held their annual meetings on the day. In 1894, the People’s Convention, organised by the black journalist and politician Dr Robert Love was held on August 1. A July 27, 1901, article published in his newspaper Jamaica Advocate stated: “It is the intention of the People’s Convention to celebrate the day in a manner befitting the event and the obligation of the children of the emancipated ... . It is a day on which to recall the history of our Fathers, and to contemplate the destinies of our children”.

Still, the holiday faced opposition throughout the rest of the decade and the 1900s. Some were of the view that labourers would lose 10 working days each year while others argued that the remembrance of Emancipation would revive old animosity and hate between white and black people in Jamaica. Others were of the view that the celebration of Emancipation did nothing for the Black people. The Daily Gleaner, in an August 14, 1918 editorial, titled ‘Observe Or Not’, stated that the holiday was not celebrated in any other country where slavery existed, so why should it be a holiday in Jamaica. This was untrue as, by this time, Emancipation Day was celebrated in other British colonies in the region. Nevertheless, the editorial piece sums up their argument with: “But as we have said, August 1st has no sort of religious significance today, and after eighty years can have none. There is therefore no reason in the world why anyone should endeavour to observe it as of special and of particular significance.” During the 300th Celebrations in 1955, which saw Jamaica commemorate 300 years of English colonisation, many supported that celebration and called for an end to the Emancipation holiday. In her scholastic paper, ‘Commemorations in Jamaica: A Brief History of Conflicts’, Veronica M. Gregg states, “Emancipation Day, it was asserted, was racial and included only black people, the celebration of the English conquest of Jamaica was multiracial or nonracial and inclusive and therefore more national and more representative of Jamaica.”

Despite the opposition, though, there was no amendment to the Public General Holidays and Jamaicans continue to observe Emancipation Day as an official holiday. Organisations would also have their own celebrations. In 1934, the Universal Negro Improvement Association organised one of the largest events to acknowledge Emancipation Day. In 1959, the African Reformed Church celebrated the Emancipation Jubilee with their own organised event. However, by the early 1960s with Jamaican Independence Day being August 6, many in government had concerns over the two holidays being so close to each other. As such, in 1962, the commemoration of Emancipation Day was suspended and replaced with Independence Day - to be celebrated on the first Monday of August.

NETTLEFORD’S. PATTERSON’S EFFORTS

Emancipation Day would return on the Jamaica national calendar in the 1990s, thanks in part to the late Professor Rex Nettleford and former prime minister P.J. Patterson. Nettleford, in numerous of his publications and speeches on the black race in Jamaica, saw Emancipation not as a singular event but an ongoing struggle focus on black people liberating themselves from the past and contemporary bondage of colonisation. As Patterson shared in a 2021 interview with The Jamaica Observer, he shared a committee (the National Symbols Committee), headed by Nettleford, to look at how the “country’s national symbol and observance could contribute to sustaining our cultural unity”. The report produced, stated that there was a vast confusion of the momentous events among young persons in Jamaica, and as such, Jamaica, “deserves, in the case of Emancipation Day, a commemoration, and in the case of Independence Day, a celebration”.

As such, in 1997, a bill for a double holiday where Emancipation Day would be August 1 and Independence Day, August 6, was introduced in Parliament. However, amendments to the Public Holiday Act faced opposition. Opposition Leader Edward Seaga was of the view that the double holiday would lessen the importance of the country’s Independence and questioned if the commemoration of Emancipation would achieve anything important in the country. Bruce Golding, then president of the National Democratic Movement, proposed that the two days be merged into one.

Despite the blowback, Patterson stood his ground and defended the recommendation of the double holiday. Thus, the act was successfully amended, and Emancipation Day was reinstituted as a national holiday in 1997. Ever since, Jamaica has been celebrating both Emancipation Day and Independence Day as two public holidays.

In recent years, there have been calls by those in the private sector that the double holiday lessens productivity in the workplace. In 2020, news came out that the Government was considering merging both Emancipation and Independence Day. Also in that year, was the Don Anderson Poll where 62 per cent of those surveyed were in favour of the Government merging both holidays. Still, as of today, there seems to be no move by the Government to suspend Emancipation Day celebrations or merge both holidays.

With 2023 marking the 185th anniversary of the full emancipation of black enslaved people in British colonies, the national commemoration of Emancipation in Jamaica continues to survive ... for now.

J.T. Davy is a member of the historical and political content collective, Tenement Yaad Media, where she co-produces their popular historical podcast, Lest We Forget. She is also a writer at the regional collective, Our Caribbean Figures. Send feedback to jordpilot@hotmail.com and entertainment@gleanerjm.com.