Tracking the Legacy of Enslavement and Emancipation in the Covid-19 Century

Jul 31, 2021

“There is some small logic in placing the issue of Emancipation between two of the most deadly plagues which have assaulted our Caribbean peoples.” Presenting the virtual Emancipation Lecture on July 25, 2021, retired deputy principal, UWI, Professor Pedro L V Welch indicated that the choice of the title for his lecture is not accidental, as the first of these he noted, is the long sojourn of chattel enslavement on the socio-economic and cultural landscape of this region, the second, he indicated is the unwelcome visitor who, if we personify its existence, has long exceeded our expectations of the length of his stay. He refers of course to the pernicious presence of a virus whose name belies its deadly presence, Covid 19.

In his presentation, he traced the arrival of the first enemy to include the evolving slave laws and the attending atrocities; the Act of the abolition of slavery and its legacy; the post-emancipation realities; the psychological legacy of slavery; as well as the legacy of our spiritual journey and projecting towards a brief tracing of the effects of the second enemy – the impact and legacy of COVID-19. 

Tracing the legacy of enslavement and emancipation, Professor Welch looked at issues involving the introduction of chattel enslavement in the region. He commented on the previous slave laws of the Caribbean referred to as “many good laws” governing and regulating the enslaved. These laws had been described as ‘in many clauses imperfect’, thus the need for a complete overhaul of the existing statute. One of the main issues in relation to this were legal precedents that legitimized the holding of property in human beings.

Subsequently, there was the formulation of the slave law in Barbados in 1661 and then in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, in addition to English North American colonies. Professor Welch gave graphic and traumatic accounts of the inhumane acts meted out to enslaved Africans. One example he presented in relation to the enslaved worker was: “The Slaves their Negroes [were] an heathenish brutish and an uncertain dangerous kind of people... any Violence to any Christian shall be severely whipped, his Nose Slit and be burned in face...“

Turning to the abolition Act, Professor Welch noted that while the Act declares that the enslaved will be “free” at the specified time it was clear that this freedom was restricted. He asserted that while Emancipation was a welcome action from the point of view of the enslaved, its various clauses ensured that the misery of the enslaved labourers continued much longer. The authorities denied the expectations of the formerly enslaved.

In the immediate post-emancipation period, Professor Welch charged that planters and their supporters throughout the British Caribbean installed reactionary legal and other barriers to restrict the formerly-enslaved people in realizing their expectations of what emancipation would bring. Those expectations, included: equality before the law, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, consolidation of family, just and equitable wages, negotiated labour arrangements, and easy access to provision grounds. However, contracts between employers and labourers were prescribed. Once a labourer continued in estate employment after the ending of the Apprenticeship system in 1838, even in the absence of a written contract, the law assumed that he/she was under an “implied” obligation to so continue. The sanction for such breach of this implied contract was a fine, or imprisonment, or both. In addition to the constraints they faced, labourers found themselves forced to cultivate staples such as yams and sweet potatoes on the estates and having to purchase this fruit of their own labour from the very estates that employed them.

Highlighting the psychological legacy of slavery the retired university professor turned to the words of Bob Marley along with the Wailers whom he noted has given the world a special gift in the lyrics of Redemption Song, of which the first two lines of the refrain states: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.” Professor Welch declared that the words of the refrain speak to the severe psychological legacy that has been bequeathed by the history of our enslavement. In that context, he shared some comments on the path-breaking research presented by Professor Joy DeGruy. She coined the term Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) to describe her theorizing of the residual impact of generations of enslavement on the current Afro-American population. Some examples of PTSS presented were the marked propensity for anger and violence; distorted self-concept; resorting to skin bleaching as a symbol of their own self- hatred, noting times of local strife, it is not uncommon for some of us to hurl insults at each other in which the shade of complexion is used as a weapon.

Examining the legacy of our spiritual journey, Professor Welch put forward the following questions: Were our ancestors brainwashed by the church? Is spiritual brainwashing a legacy of the period of enslavement and emancipation? He noted that many of our intellectuals have posited the view that Christianity played a major role in furthering the oppression of people of African descent. He referenced the Books of Philemon and Leviticus, among others to dismiss the views that scripture supports the practice of enslavement, in addition to the freed slaves who adapted Christianity.

In the home stretch of his presentation, Professor Welch explored the impact and legacy of COVID-19. He stated that the arrival of Covid-19 in Caribbean and Latin countries tends to show up the inequalities that have been created over centuries of deprivation and racial discrimination. He affirmed that most, if not all of our Caribbean countries are still struggling to redress the imbalances of resource distribution that have been present since the colonial period. He turned to a UNESCO report suggesting that in Jamaica, Covid -19 disproportionately affected women from low-income
groups. In households where these women were often the sole income earners, many of them, in addition to their completion of domestic chores had to support children in their educational programmes. These women are not often able to help their children adequately as they themselves have not had access to quality education in the past.

Concluding, Professor Welch offered that the application of these issues to our Caribbean situation can largely be understood by applying a historiographic lens. He suggested that we need to apply that lens as a great reparationist tool in addressing the inequities bequeathed as a legacy of the past of enslavement and pseudo-emancipation.

Sophia Williams