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Heroes and villains
Published: Friday | October 23, 2009
National Heritage Week is "Feel-Good Week" when we lionise our national heroes and revel in our unique cultural heritage and its contribution to the world. We revisit the valiant moments of our history - slave uprisings such as Tacky's Easter Revolt, and Sam Sharpe's Christmas Rebellion, and the great Morant Bay peasant insurrection of October 1865 - when some of our ancestors fought for their rights, many losing their lives in the process.
As a people, we need these moments, for often there is little to distinguish us as a people in a blasé world of KFC and blue jeans; some even discount Jamaican culture as dark and backward in a world of iPods and BlackBerrys.
We need to be in touch with our history, not just to romanticise, but to learn about ourselves! Yes, some of our ancestors fought against slavery and died, but others compromised and supported the system, and some fought to maintain it. There is no way a few thousand white people could have subjugated several hundred thousand black slaves without traitors in the mix. One of the reasons no slave revolt was ever successful in Jamaica was because most of the conspiracies were betrayed by "loyal" slaves.
The location of Nanny Town was betrayed to British soldiers in 1728 by an African slave named Sambo. In May 1730, a party of soldiers consisting of 95 black shots (armed black slaves) and 22 baggage negroes under Captain Samuel Soaper found the town and attacked it.
Ballard Beckford, owner of Frontier estate (St Mary), sent two loyal slaves on horseback to Spanish Town to warn the Governor of Tacky's 1760 rebellion, who immediately dispatched soldiers and militia to put down the rebellion along with the Scotts Hall Maroons. The Maroons put down not only Tacky's rebellion, but Sam Sharpe's and Paul Bogle's as well. Does that make them heroes, or what?
In October 1765, 45 Coromantyn slaves led by Quaco rose in revolt at Cross Path and Cornwall Estate, Westmoreland and killed four Britons and 11 black slaves in one night. Four militia and 10 black shots pursued them and engaged them at Dean's Valley, killing two of them.
Rebel attack
In April 1795 four slave-owners, Henry Paulett, Alexander Steel, Joseph Biggs and Thomas Kew were relaxing on the piazza of a house in Ventura, Trelawny, when a loyal slave named Rebecca Pleasure Wilton ran up and told them that the house was surrounded by rebels. They jumped up, ran for their guns, and took up defensive positions at the windows and doors. Shots rang out. A bullet went through Kew's head, killing him on the spot. Another bullet grazed Paulett and a third passed through Bigg's right shoulder. Just then Billy, a loyal slave, ran into the house, picked up the gun which Kew had dropped, and began shooting at the attackers. The four held off the insurgents for hours.
RUN FOR SAFETY
Five times the rebels tried to set the house on fire, and each time Billy risked his life to put out the flames. The rebels called him a "damn Chambo, cut-faced son-of-a-bitch". At sunrise some of Paulett's loyal slaves approached the house, but were shot at and driven off by the rebels. When things were quiet, Paulett and Steel threw their valuables through a window for their slaves to carry and hurried through the woods to Duanvale Estate for safety.
In 1805, the Trelawny Vestry paid for the freedom of William Reid, a slave, for his services in heading a party of black shots who apprehended a number of notorious "runaways".
The headman of Roehampton, St James, a slave named John Baillie, had a stone house with a mahogany sideboard in which wine was kept. He had as much provision grounds as he wanted, extra allowances of rum, sugar, pork and clothing; he kept cattle, hogs and poultry, and had the use of an estate mule and boy; he had a wife, and kept two other women; his wife was washerwoman at the Great House, and his daughter was "housekeeper" (euphemism for "mistress") for the slavemaster. When offered his freedom, he said, laughing: "Massa, I know better".
Several slaves were offered their freedom for their "good conduct" during Sam Sharpe's 1831-32 rebellion.
Our history is replete with heroes and villains, definitely more of the latter than the former. Future historians writing about today may say the same about us. Are the creators and maintainers of today's garrison constituencies (and their funders) heroes or villains? Should we shower them with national honours, or vilify them?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
Published: Friday | October 23, 2009
National Heritage Week is "Feel-Good Week" when we lionise our national heroes and revel in our unique cultural heritage and its contribution to the world. We revisit the valiant moments of our history - slave uprisings such as Tacky's Easter Revolt, and Sam Sharpe's Christmas Rebellion, and the great Morant Bay peasant insurrection of October 1865 - when some of our ancestors fought for their rights, many losing their lives in the process.
As a people, we need these moments, for often there is little to distinguish us as a people in a blasé world of KFC and blue jeans; some even discount Jamaican culture as dark and backward in a world of iPods and BlackBerrys.
We need to be in touch with our history, not just to romanticise, but to learn about ourselves! Yes, some of our ancestors fought against slavery and died, but others compromised and supported the system, and some fought to maintain it. There is no way a few thousand white people could have subjugated several hundred thousand black slaves without traitors in the mix. One of the reasons no slave revolt was ever successful in Jamaica was because most of the conspiracies were betrayed by "loyal" slaves.
The location of Nanny Town was betrayed to British soldiers in 1728 by an African slave named Sambo. In May 1730, a party of soldiers consisting of 95 black shots (armed black slaves) and 22 baggage negroes under Captain Samuel Soaper found the town and attacked it.
Ballard Beckford, owner of Frontier estate (St Mary), sent two loyal slaves on horseback to Spanish Town to warn the Governor of Tacky's 1760 rebellion, who immediately dispatched soldiers and militia to put down the rebellion along with the Scotts Hall Maroons. The Maroons put down not only Tacky's rebellion, but Sam Sharpe's and Paul Bogle's as well. Does that make them heroes, or what?
In October 1765, 45 Coromantyn slaves led by Quaco rose in revolt at Cross Path and Cornwall Estate, Westmoreland and killed four Britons and 11 black slaves in one night. Four militia and 10 black shots pursued them and engaged them at Dean's Valley, killing two of them.
Rebel attack
In April 1795 four slave-owners, Henry Paulett, Alexander Steel, Joseph Biggs and Thomas Kew were relaxing on the piazza of a house in Ventura, Trelawny, when a loyal slave named Rebecca Pleasure Wilton ran up and told them that the house was surrounded by rebels. They jumped up, ran for their guns, and took up defensive positions at the windows and doors. Shots rang out. A bullet went through Kew's head, killing him on the spot. Another bullet grazed Paulett and a third passed through Bigg's right shoulder. Just then Billy, a loyal slave, ran into the house, picked up the gun which Kew had dropped, and began shooting at the attackers. The four held off the insurgents for hours.
RUN FOR SAFETY
Five times the rebels tried to set the house on fire, and each time Billy risked his life to put out the flames. The rebels called him a "damn Chambo, cut-faced son-of-a-bitch". At sunrise some of Paulett's loyal slaves approached the house, but were shot at and driven off by the rebels. When things were quiet, Paulett and Steel threw their valuables through a window for their slaves to carry and hurried through the woods to Duanvale Estate for safety.
In 1805, the Trelawny Vestry paid for the freedom of William Reid, a slave, for his services in heading a party of black shots who apprehended a number of notorious "runaways".
The headman of Roehampton, St James, a slave named John Baillie, had a stone house with a mahogany sideboard in which wine was kept. He had as much provision grounds as he wanted, extra allowances of rum, sugar, pork and clothing; he kept cattle, hogs and poultry, and had the use of an estate mule and boy; he had a wife, and kept two other women; his wife was washerwoman at the Great House, and his daughter was "housekeeper" (euphemism for "mistress") for the slavemaster. When offered his freedom, he said, laughing: "Massa, I know better".
Several slaves were offered their freedom for their "good conduct" during Sam Sharpe's 1831-32 rebellion.
Our history is replete with heroes and villains, definitely more of the latter than the former. Future historians writing about today may say the same about us. Are the creators and maintainers of today's garrison constituencies (and their funders) heroes or villains? Should we shower them with national honours, or vilify them?
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.