Part Three: Africans in America Influenced by Haitian Rebellion

Brotherly Love, the third chapter in the documentary series, Africans in America, illustrates a period of triumph and fear for white Americans, and despair and revolt for those of African descent. But only some comments and questions in the post-screening discussion reflected the issues presented. And as it was in the two previous chapters, the information was presented through the familiar media of voice-overs and interviews with historians, along with quotations from newspaper articles.

Hosted by the United States Embassy in Jamaica in celebration of Black History Month, Brotherly Love also changes the central character of the previous chapters to that of Africans Richard Allen, Gabriel, Charles Ball, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner. It covers the late 18th century to the early 19th century.

Fight back

The fight of the Africans for freedom in this chapter is presented against the backdrop of an America created upon Thomas Jefferson's penned declaration of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", but liberty was exclusive to those who were white. And where free blacks began to show prosperity, they were encouraged to migrate to Sierra Leone, as well as ridiculed in cartoons. And so they decided to fight back through resurgence, preaching spirituality, and forming organisations.

Richard Allen's story was about a slave who became a Christian and bought his freedom from his newly converted Christian owner. After preaching in a number of states, he finally settled in Philadelphia, the birthplace of America's Independence. Guided by the principles of a new America that stated in part "work real hard", he began his church called Bethel House of God. He lived to an old age. He founded organisations that fought to end slavery.

However, Gabriel, Charles Ball, Vesey, and Turner chose to be insurgents. They, too, were converted Christians. And except for Gabriel, they were all influenced by the successful revolt of the slaves against their French owners in St Domingue (Haiti). The first three were unsuccessful in executing their plans and were subsequently hanged. As a result of Vesey's insurgency, the whites in Georgia destroyed his African Methodist Episcopal Church brick by brick.

As the whites used Christianity to enslave Africans, the slaves used it to rise up against them. No where was this more evident than in the intriguing story of Nat Turner.

After a period of living as a free man, Turner, who was also a preacher, returned to enslavement in Jerusalem, Virginia. He was instructed by God to do so. Turner believed that God wanted slaves to be free. So he plotted with four other slaves to kill the white masters and their families. And unlike the others before him, there was no betrayal. He was eventually hanged and then skinned, but not before his plan ended the lives of 55 whites.

As was observed by a member of the audience, while Jamaica's Sam Sharpe revolt took place three months after Turner's, it was three years after Sharpe's rebellion that slavery was abolished in Jamaica. It took a longer period for Africans in America to experience emancipation.

Like a triangular trade

Dr Jermaine McCalpin, moderator for the evening, in response to a question by a member of the audience, stated that Jamaicans participated in a number of the revolts in the region around that period. "It was like a triangular trade," he said.

Other questions on the third night at the Jamaica College-based venue addressed philosophy, contradictions in Christianity, and the role of tertiary institutions in documenting such aspects of Jamaica's history. Yolandoa Kerney, public affairs officer at the US Embassy, pointed out that Jamaica's history is well documented, and encouraged the audience to go to the National Archives located in Spanish Town to view the information.

The documentary series will conclude on Wednesday at the same venue, Jamaica College.

- Marcia Rowe