That 1834 Emancipation Proclamation

AT MIDNIGHT on August 1, 1838, Governor Sir Lionel Smith read the Emancipation Proclamation on the steps of the portico of the governor’s mansion in Spanish Town, St Catherine. Yet, that was not the beginning of full freedom. The people were still tied to the plantations under the Apprenticeship System, which was slated to end August 1840.

Until then, only enslaved children below the age of six were freed immediately. Every able-bodied person was designated an apprentice, and the period of apprenticeship was to be gradually abolished in two stages: after four years (August 1, 1838) for domestic apprentices, and after six years (August 1, 1840) for field apprentices.

Apprentices were to work three-quarters of the working week (40½ hours) for their current employers for which they were not to be paid. For the remaining quarter of the working week (13 ½ hours) they were to work for themselves. They were to be paid for work done in excess of 40½ hours.

The proclamation describes Smith thus, “His Excellency Sir Lionel Smith, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Order, a Lieutenant-General in Her Majesty’s Land Forces, and Colonel of the Fortieth Regiment of Foot, Captain-General, Governor in Chief, and Commander of the Forces in and over Her Majesty’s Island Jamaica, and the other territories thereon depending in America, chancellor, and vice admiral of the same”.

The document was actually signed by Smith and sealed on the 9th of July, to be read on August 1 “in the second year of her majesty’s reign”.

To the praedial (field) apprentices he reads, “In a few days more you will all become free labourers – the legislature of the island having relinquished the remaining two years of your apprenticeship. The 1st of August next is the happy day when you will become free – under the same laws as other free men, whether white, black, or coloured. I, as your governor, give you joy of this great blessing.”

Slavery-day evils persisted

Well, this “great blessing” certainly did not manifest for black people and some coloureds. For them, equity for all was like a carrot held before a sweating mule, and slavery-day evils persisted. Social injustices were systemic, and 27 years later, the Morant Bay Uprising came burning along in St Thomas.

After decades of working for free under inhuman and inhumane conditions in the most wretched system in the history of mankind, this is what Sir Lionel says to apprentices: “Remember that in freedom you will have to depend on your own exertions for your livelihood, and to maintain and bring up your families. You will work for such wages as you can agree upon with your employers. It is their interest to treat you fairly. It is your interest to be civil, respectful, and industrious.”

He continues, “Where you can agree and continue happy with your own masters, I strongly recommend you to remain on those properties on which you have been born, and where your parents are buried. But you must not mistake in supposing that your present houses, gardens, or provision grounds, are your own property. They belong to the proprietors of the estates, and you will have to pay rent for them in money or labour, according as you and your employers may agree together.”

After his strong recommendation, so that they could stay and provide cheap labour for their former masters, he was again putting them in their place, eradicating any delusion that they might have harboured.

“Idle people who will not take employment, but go wandering about the country, will be taken up as vagrants, and punished in the same manner, as they are in England,” he also says.

But with freedom, didn’t people have the options to be idle or not? And in what manner were idle people in England punished?

“The ministers of religion have been kind friends to you – listen to them – they will keep you out of troubles and difficulties,” Smith jokes.

The ministers of religion? Many of whom were: complicit with slavery; holders of enslaved people; anti-abolitionists? “Kind friends”?

Price of enslavement

From the ridiculous to the ridiculous, Smith descends with, “Recollect what is expected of you by the people of England, who have paid such a large price for your liberty.” Balderdash! Who are these people in England? But what about the price of enslavement, whipping, maiming, injustice and death?

He continues: “They not only expect that you will behave yourselves as The Queen’s good subjects, by obeying the laws, as I am happy to say you always have done as apprentices; but that the prosperity of the island will be increased by your willing labour, greater beyond what it ever was in slavery.” But, whose prosperity is he talking about?

His ‘benevolence’ is betrayed with “Be honest towards all men – be kind to your wives and children – spare your wives from heavy field work, as much as you can – make them attend to their duties at home, in bringing up your children, and in taking care of your stock – above all, make your children attend divine service and school. If you follow this advice, you will, under God’s blessing, be happy and prosperous.”

Suddenly, His Excellency, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath was concerned about the well-being of women and children, their spirituality and education, and their happiness and prosperity. And, it turned out that the ‘free’ people spent the rest of their life living with trauma and in poverty.

That proclamation was not well thought out, was condescending (not surprisingly), vacuous, insensitive, and should be thrown into a historical bonfire along with Sir Lionel Smith and the others who helped to craft it.