Freedom better than slavery

By Peter Espeut

This week, we celebrated the 178th anniversary of Emancipation and the 174th anniversary of full freedom. The Kingston celebration of Emancipation Day (August 1, 1834) took place at the Kingston Race Course (the real Emancipation Park), as did the 1838 celebration of full freedom, although Kingston's mayor postponed it to August 2 because he feared "licentiousness and riot".

At 6 p.m., there were at the Kingston Race Course not fewer than 10,000 persons of all classes, who participated in the general joy which prevailed; there was a bonfire and fireworks, bullocks were roasted and "nineteen cannon were discharged, agreeing in number with the age of our sovereign"; Kingston was partly illuminated, and some residences were decorated with flags, evergreens and bouquets of roses; the churches held tea parties, bazaars and processions of schoolchildren.

Next year will be the 175th anniversary of full freedom; I trust we will celebrate it appropriately.

As we celebrate 50 years of political Independence next week, almost everyone is asking the question whether we are better off, not because there is any suggestion that we should return to being a British colony, but because it is appropriate to evaluate our national performance.

We know that freedom is objectively better than slavery, and so if we ask whether there is any sense that we were better off as slaves, it is not because we want to go back there, but because the comparison may be instructive.

I went back and looked up the Jamaica Consolidated Slave Act, passed on March 3, 1792, which specifies the legal obligations masters had towards their slaves.

Section II states: "Every master, owner, or possessor, of any plantation or plantations, pens, or other lands whatsoever, shall allot and appoint a sufficient quantity of land for every slave he shall have in possession ... as and for the proper ground of every such slave, and allow such slave sufficient time to work the same, in order to provide him, her, or themselves, with sufficient provisions for his, her, or their maintenance." No need for Project Land Lease or Operation Grow.

Have things changed enough?

Section III requires that the slaves be provided with adequate food. Section V requires that the slaves be provided with adequate clothing. Section IV requires that slaves unable to work because of "sickness, age, or infirmity" be provided for, and not be allowed to "wander about, or become burthensome to others for sustenance". No street people, or vagrants.

Section X: "If any master, mistress, owner, possessor, or other person whatsoever, shall, at his, her, or their own will and pleasure, or by his, her, or their direction, or with his, her, or their knowledge, sufferance, privity, or consent, mutilate or dismember any slave or slaves, he, she, or they, shall be liable to be indicted for each offence in the supreme court of judicature." No firing into taxis or minibuses with impunity to maim and cripple, or shooting carelessly with impunity so as to catch innocent people in a crossfire.

Section XII: "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person hereafter shall wantonly, willingly, or bloody-mindedly kill, or cause to be killed, any negro or other slave, such person so offending shall, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy, and shall suffer death accordingly for the said offence." No kicking down of doors with impunity, and shooting people dead. And no exemption from the death penalty for the slave owners (Jamaican security forces found guilty of murder are exempt by law from facing the death penalty).

Section XIII: "Any person or persons that shall wantonly or cruelly whip, maltreat, beat, bruise, wound, or shall imprison or keep in confinement, without sufficient support, any slave or slaves, shall be subject to be indicted for the same in the supreme court of judicature ... ; and, upon being thereof legally convicted, he, she, or they, shall suffer such punishment, by fine or imprisonment, or both, as the judges or justices of such courts shall think proper to inflict." No beatings in the back of police stations with impunity, or rounding up people in the backs of trucks and with impunity detaining them in tiny cells without charge.

Well, we know that the slave master government ignored the Consolidated Slave Act of 1792, and gave the slaves a hard time; very few slave masters were convicted for abusing their slaves; just as the government of free and independent Jamaica ignores the human rights of the descendants of those slaves. The more things change ... .

Happy Emancipendence!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and Roman Catholic deacon. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.