AUGUST 1-2021 EMANCIPATION DAY IN CANADA

EMANCIPATION DAY IN CANADA 2021 

 

Murphy Browne © July 31-2021 

 

 

The Canadian Members of Parliament earlier this year voted unanimously in the House of Commons to designate August 1 as Emancipation Day across Canada. One hundred and eighty-seven years ago on Friday, August 1, 1834, enslaved Africans in Canada and elsewhere in the British Empire were freed from chattel slavery. While the enslaved Africans in Canada, Antigua and Barbuda were immediately freed on August 1, 1834, the enslaved Africans in the other British colonized Caribbean islands, British Honduras in Central America and British Guiana in South America were informed that they had to endure up to a further six years (domestic workers 4 years and field workers 6) of semi-slavery before they would finally be free. A six year “apprenticeship period” began where Africans were forced to continue providing unpaid labour that enriched White people. The “apprentices” were compelled to remain on the plantations of their former “owners” and provide free labour for 40 hours a week. This was a different form of slavery. The plantation owners, compensated for the loss of their “property,” continued to gain from the unpaid labour of the Africans on their plantations during this “apprenticeship” period. The white overseers and the plantation owners continued to abuse the “emancipated” Africans.  

The enslavement of Africans for more than four hundred years has been recognized by the United Nations as a crime against humanity. This was a crime against Africans because they were the people kidnapped and forcibly taken away from their homeland, their families, to provide unpaid labour that enriched Europeans. In 1834, with the anticipated freedom not becoming a reality, the Africans in the “British dominions” did not hesitate to express their dissatisfaction. 

On Friday, August 1, 1834, a group of angry Africans entered Port-of-Spain and gathered in front of Government House which was housed on the upper floor of the Treasury and Rum Bond building. Governor George Fitzgerald Hill sent the militia out to intimidate the group, but the furious Africans stood their ground determined to be heard. Despite the presence of the militia, the protest continued until night when the protesters strategically withdrew because they were not allowed to be in the town during the night. The following day, Saturday August 2, the group of protesters was back at Government House in Port-of-Spain. Governor Hill sent the militia to arrest the protesters who refused to return to the plantations. The furious Africans scuffled with the militia, resisting arrest. Some of the protesting Africans were arrested, tried, sentenced to hard labour and flogging then taken to the Royal Jail. Their incensed compatriots were forced to flee but returned on the Monday to continue the protest. The numbers had swollen by Monday and there were more clashes with the militia. Some of the people who were arrested on the Monday were publicly flogged in Marine Square. These protests continued the entire week. 

 

Similar scenarios were enacted in other British colonies. On Saturday, August 9, 1834, several Africans on plantations in Essequibo, (Guyana) between Richmond and Devonshire Castle, went on strike. Led by Damon, an “apprentice” from Richmond, they gathered in the Holy Trinity churchyard at La Belle Alliance where they flew a red flag to symbolize their freedom. There was no violence involved in this demonstration. However, this show of independence was swiftly and brutally suppressed. The governor ordered Damon arrested and on Monday, August 11, he was taken to Georgetown where he was later tried on a charge of rebellion and found guilty. Damon was hanged on October 13, 1834, on special gallows facing what is now the Parliament Building. Several of the other striking “apprentices” were transported to New South Wales, while others were flogged and imprisoned. Today a monument in Damon’s honour stands at Damon Park in Anna Regina, Essequibo. 

 

On August 11th, 1834, Lord Rolle an absentee plantation owner, with plantations in the Bahamas, wrote a letter of complaint to the colonial secretary from his home in Devonshire, Britain. He had received information from his lawyer that the “apprentices” on his plantation, even though “severely beaten and bruised” were refusing to work unless compelled to do so by the presence of soldiers. On September 13, 1834, acting Governor Blayney Balfour wrote to London that he had to send troops to Exuma three times that year because of “insubordination” of the “apprentices” on Lord Rolle’s estate. He had to eventually have a detachment permanently stationed on the island. 

The plantation owners received reparations for the loss of their property due to emancipation. The British government paid the plantation owners 20 million pounds an amount which is estimated to be the equivalent of 200 billion pounds today. The British government has resisted calls for reparations to be made to the descendants of enslaved Africans whose ancestors’ blood, sweat, tears and coerced unpaid labour enriched generations of White people who continue to enjoy those riches into the 21st century. There is evidence that the British and other European tribes benefited financially from the slave trade. Although the British did not begin the trade in Africans (the Portuguese began this barbaric trade, quickly followed by the Spanish and other European tribes) it was the British who almost monopolized this dreadful system for centuries supported by the British monarchy. In his 1973 published book, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” Guyanese historian, Dr. Walter Rodney wrote: “Some attempts have been made to try and quantify the actual monetary profits made by Europeans from engaging in the slave trade. The actual dimensions are not easy to fix, but the profits were fabulous. John Hawkins made three trips to West Africa in the 1560s and stole Africans whom he sold to the Spanish in America. On returning to England after the first trip, his profit was so handsome that Queen Elizabeth I became interested in directly participating in his next venture and she provided for that purpose a ship named the Jesus. Hawkins left with the Jesus to steal some more Africans, and he returned to England with such dividends that Queen Elizabeth made him a knight. Hawkins chose as his coat of arms the representation of an African in chains.” 

 

In Canada where slavery was abolished on August 1, 1834, there is a lack of recognition that Africans were enslaved here. Many Canadians do not know that Africans were enslaved in Canada beginning in 1628 with the sale of a 6-year-old African child who was given the name Olivier LeJeune by his enslavers. He was kidnapped from the African continent and sold by English pirate David Kirke to French colonizers in Quebec. The lives of enslaved Africans are not well documented, except for a few like Peggy Pompadour and her children Amy, Jupiter and Milly who were owned by Peter Russell (acting Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada 1796–1799) and his sister Elizabeth. Marie Joseph Angelique who was hanged in Montreal on June 21, 1734, is probably the most well-known because of Dr. Afua Cooper’s 2006 published book “The Hanging of Angelique.” Africans were enslaved throughout Canada and the many advertisements for buying and selling Africans as well as for their capture and return to their enslavers are documented in the Canadian publications of the time. 

 

Usually when we hear about slavery in Canada it is about enslaved Africans running to Canada from the USA. However, many enslaved Africans in Canada fled to Vermont in the USA where slavery had been abolished on July 2, 1777, fifty-seven years before slavery was abolished in Canada. That was the Underground railroad going south. 

The transatlantic slave trade caused the deaths of millions of African people and their descendants. Many lost their lives as resistance fighters, during long treks to slave ships, or from savage and inhumane abuse during the journey across the Atlantic. It is estimated that over 2 million Africans died during that journey.  

Enslaved Africans and their descendants were forced to work in fields, do manual labour and domestic work in the homes of enslavers without pay. They were forced to change their names, abandon their faiths and their cultures, stop speaking their languages and other indignities. The enslaved Africans were exposed to the most brutal forms of torture and abuse, all enforced by law. Family members were sold away from each other. 

August 1, Emancipation Day was the end of chattel slavery for Africans in Canada and the day has been celebrated for more than a century in Canada as well as in other former British colonies. African Canadian communities have commemorated Emancipation Day since the 1800s including African Canadian communities in the towns of Windsor, Owen Sound, Amherstburg, Sandwich in Ontario and provinces including New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. 

One of the few books on that subject, “Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada” was published in 2010 by Natasha Henry, educator and President of the “Ontario Black History Society.”  

On August 1, Canadians are invited to reflect, educate, learn and engage in the ongoing fight against anti-Black racism and discrimination. Emancipation Day celebrates the strength and perseverance of African Canadian communities in Canada. 

 

Murphy Browne © July 31-2021