by Yves Ephraim
DO ANTIGUANS and BARBUDANS HAVE MORE ECONOMIC FREEDOM TODAY SINCE EMANCIPATION?
I want to challenge each Antiguan and Barbudan to ask yourself the following question and to give an honest answer.
Can we say that the descendants of Antiguan slaves are more in control of this economy and own more than 50% of the lands since Emancipation?
On the 1st August, 1834, slaves in Antigua were given bodily freedom but not complete economic freedom. And this was by design.
On day one, the now freedmen had no access to vast tracts of land of their own to occupy or even to cultivate to feed themselves. In fact, on the day of the emancipation proclamation, these former slaves found themselves as law breakers, being trespassers on Massa’s land.
The colonial government eventually convinced some of the planters to grant a few acres of land so that the freemen could leave the plantations to enjoy their bodily freedom. The Methodist and Moravian churches granted lands for the said purpose as well.
These granted lands formed what we now know as villages. Consequently, the land a freeman “owned” was limited to the area he squatted on for his hut.
You cannot ignore from the lesson above that freedom and land ownership are inextricably linked. All around the world other ethnic groups understand this linkage and often die defending their land. They know that they will never be free without land ownership.
It amazes me how eager this country is to give “investors” who just happen to be descendants of former colonialists, hundreds of acres of land for a mere pittance in exchange for so called economic development, while relegating the descendants of slaves to mortgaged, rented and leased lands.
Antigua and Bermuda were the only two islands to reject the Apprenticeship notion and to free the slaves immediately. That decision was not necessarily for humanitarian reasons.
Since all of the land was owned by the planters of these islands, the planters knew that the freedmen had no choice but to seek employment on the plantations in order to feed themselves. The planters also knew too, that due to the size of the population there would be competition for the available jobs and that in itself would push down wages.
The planters calculated that it would cost them more to house and feed the freed slaves during an Apprenticeship period than to set the slaves free to work for a low wage and simultaneously fend for themselves.
In the aftermath of Emancipation, the freedmen tried their best to avoid working on the plantations and attempted to produce for themselves, but the tax measures and laws that were subsequently introduced made working outside of the plantation near impossible at first.
Laws like “watching and besetting” were aimed at supposed idle freedmen who, when found guilty would serve time with “hard labour” on a plantation. I am sure many of you can remember that “hard labour” was a common sentence at one time. Also remember that the prisoners once had their own “ground” near Yorks.
In spite of the impediments put in the way of these freedmen just after Emancipation, over time, they were able to use their small backyards to cultivate crops and then sell their excess to one another. This caused the development of the fish, meat and vegetable markets. Other freedmen used their skills as blacksmiths to create utensils for sale.
By sheer determination these freedmen started to become economically independent. There was now an economy that was controlled by the freedmen. In spite of all efforts by the planters and the colonial powers to get these freedmen back onto the plantation, they both had to accept failure which lead, in part, to the demise of the sugar industry.
Fast forward to 1964, just 130 years later when I was born, there was a significant number of indigenous Antiguan-owned businesses occupying market street and the environs of St. John’s.
We even had two libraries!
In my youth, I recall the bustling business activity that was indicative of the weekend vegetable and meat markets. I recall the various village shops and milk deliveries. I even recall the various agricultural plots where Woods Malls stands, that many Antiguan’s “worked” for themselves.
Many of my contemporaries received higher education as a result their self-sufficient parents, who achieved such feats with their savings and little debt.
As we look around today can we honestly say that the future of the descendants of slaves in this country appears bright?
Are we not back to where we were on the first day of Emancipation?
Namely:
- The vast majority of the land that was purchased from the Syndicate has once again been given back to the descendants of the former colonialists;
- Locals can hardly get land to buy that they can afford.
- With hardly any available land for agriculture are we all not forced to go back and serve on the neo-plantation (i.e. tourism) for low paying “jabs”?
- Does our tax measures and business laws not make it more feasible to avoid business ownership and to go and work on the neo-plantation?
To get a sense of how we have thwarted our own economic freedom by favouring less, the descendants of slaves, we will compare recent GDP figures for current and former British colonies:
COUNTRY GDP (2022 US$) RANKING
Antigua and Barbuda $19,920.00 6
Cayman Islands $99,625.00 2
Bermuda $118,775.00 1
Turks and Caicos $24,918.00 4
St. Kitts and Nevis $20,262.00 5
British Virgin Islands $48,511.00 3
At the cursory level, it would appear that former British West Indian colonies are performing worst, Antigua and Barbuda included.
I would posit that this is so because, the descendants of slaves are made to carry a higher tax burden and to experience more difficulty to start a business compared to the descendants of the colonialist who are now seen as investors.
When will our leaders truly empower the descendants of slaves to flourish and dominate the world economically and not just be mere members of the third world?
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Totally agree. There are some other islands where the locals were allowed to purchase a decent amount of land for $1 for agriculture. People in those islands are more comfortable today. They were able to grow food, build homes etc. They live rent-free on their own properties. They depended less on tourism, and when they do tourism it’s mostly their own people building and profiting from the accomodations. Definitely would have helped if Antiguans were given a bit of land each instead of selling it all to foreign investors. Unfortunately, the young people in those other islands didn’t always realize how good they had it. They looked at countries like ours and started to copy us. Many left their agricultural lands and backyard gardens for white collar city jobs and their governments are seeking foreign investors for more tourism. The people are starting to suffer. A lot of things are starting to fall apart now.
All commendations to you, but we’re you there when the late Tim Hector shouted these ideological drums in our ears hoping it would be inculcated, the fragmentation of ideology and people whose brain has been harvested by the neocolinial agenda at government level and academic also, have you notice on our E.C.D currency that man who there is so much fanaticism about for bringing tourism, and the thing about it it’s not our thing, it’s an extractive economy that just relegate us as producers of wealth for white global corporation as cotton and sugar did, to comment now on these matter as an arrivalist is the reason I asked ” were you there” the system of Westminster politics and democracy is anti-black, and will never allow us to take the commanding height over our resources, all the aide given to our government by western powers is to infantillised and immasculate us, when racist Israel donate to agriculture what they are doing is bringing Monsanto GMO crop and pesticide to kill our soil and force us to buy from Monsanto forever because the seeds can’t reproduce. And you must take into consideration that we deifying a Caucasian race as the god and savior name Jesus and not yashua , therefore they are savior of our economy, big full grown elected men waiting at our pink sand beach begging the white man to take our lands and command us once more to use our hands and create wealth for the white monopoly capital once more like cotton and cane, brain so harvested by these meeting put in place by our colonial masters who elongated their stay through commonwealth system and OAS and all these functions that our minister attend which are set up as handlers by the large global corporation of white hegemony, just say you wish you had paid more attention to Tim Hector who paid the ultimate price of been ostracized for saying these things back then when we were rudderless youths.
Wow! Amazing article and comments, very educational in a lot of senses. Congratulations and thankful to the author and commentators. There are very important points herein, hopefully will not be taken lightly. Some review and seriously addressing the points that largely affect sectors of the country’s wellbeing would be productive and beneficial for all, without disrupting the daily business of governance. This beautiful island could become a jewell; first – for the benefit of the citizens (by filling economic gaps that will allow pensioners and willing citizens to receive their proper dues and opportunities to advance as fair land owners, food cultivators, and other basics required meeds to continue building-up the country; going back not allowed). Second – plan, budget and implement an orderly roll-out to solve once and for all, the water and electricity supply issues so much needed by the community, along with the paving of roads and the likes. Where is the money coming from? No need to increase taxes that are higher than Canada’s already, but to find the way to produce the revenue from the island’s resources, new investments, and all the other resourceful avenues etc.. but important is to establish priorities in the spending. If there is a focus in solving the pressing issues (including the healthcare area and hospital conditions) “polishing” and upgrading the island to become lucrative and really beautiful should be a “goal”. It takes a lot, and doesn’t happen overnight. But if planned as an achievable goal with commitment, willingness and focus….it can happen (yes! right here in Antigua). These comments, from the eyes and mind not political nor partisan; just from the hearth. ♥️
I want to ask the writer one question, if you could live in 2024 or 1834 which year would you choose?
Which year I would prefer to live in? It is hard to really say. In 1834 the conditions were hard, yes, but there was hope of a better future; In 2024 the current conditions are comparatively better but the outlook appears a bit hopeless if there is no immediate intervention.
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