TIME's new cover: Inside Barbados' historic push for slavery reparations
hen we reach the dirt road leading to Drax Hall plantation, Esther Phillips suggests we stop the car. Phillips, 73, gets out and draws in a deep breath. There’s a faint, sweet smell of something akin to rum out here, about eight miles from the capital city. The dried remains of sugarcane, burned then harvested, flank the road.
In operation since the 1640s, Drax Hall was central to the perfection of slave-plantation efficiency and exporting that system to other islands as well as the American south.On Barbados, reparations have moved from a fringe idea to a thing everyone is talking about. And this island, long regarded—some would say intentionally misconstrued—as so compliant with the colonial project that it is sometimes called Little Britain, has moved into a regional leadership position.
When British settlers came to Barbados in February 1627, James Drax, one of about 50 colonists and 10 enslaved Africans who arrived on the first settler ship, decided on an inland property. Drax, Parker tells me, was the second or third son of a not rich but not poor clergyman in England, where inheritance traditions so favored firstborn sons that he needed to make his own way. He arrived in Barbados at 18 determined to try.
She had read an article in which Richard Drax said slavery was regrettable but he didn’t see himself as culpable. “That really got me very, very upset,” Phillips tells me as we sit in her back garden. “This man has profited and still profits by the largesse, the wealth, all that was poured out for him through the sacrifice of my ancestors.
About seven years ago, however, she attended a history lecture at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados. About 450,000 enslaved people were trafficked to Barbados. Of these about 375,000 arrived alive. When emancipation came in 1838, only about 83,000 of them and their descendants survived. As many as 30,000 enslaved people are believed to have died on Drax plantations here and on Jamaica alone, Beckles found in his research.
A dogtooth necklace excavated from the Newton Slave Burial Ground, at the Barbados Historical Society. Mottley is one of several people on this island who make me think of one of my father’s favorite films,In it, a young African American man presents as an educated defender of the establishment, joins the CIA’s training program, then quits and uses what he learned to foment revolution.
I ask about headlines describing plans to seek reparations from British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose family owned St. Nicholas Abbey, a sugar and rum plantation, for about 200 years. Comissiong says that reporting is wrong. The action Barbados takes now will be limited to the CARICOM plan, he says. But given that Richard Drax has a sugar operation here, a business directly connected to what James Drax began around 1640, the national task force believes he should engage on the issue.
This is an island where private businesses remain overwhelmingly owned by white Bajans, as residents of Barbados are sometimes known. The pandemic has delayed assessments, but in 2016, Barbados’ Gini coefficient, a measure of income distribution, represented the largest gap in the Eastern Caribbean and sat almost 7 points higher than inequality in the U.S. and nearly 14 points higher than in the U.K.
He’s simply raised questions—why should this slave trade merit recompense and not the Roman campaign to subjugate much of Europe and North Africa? White people suffered as indentured servants, so what are they owed?—and he opposes anything like a “witch hunt” making demands on individuals. Then he shares some ideas that will sound familiar in other parts of the Americas where white objections to reparations for enslavement are prevalent.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Remembering a historic Watford victory over Everton at Vicarage RoadWatford celebrated their first ever game in the top flight of English football with a 2-0 victory over Everton at Vicarage Road on August 28, 1982.
Lire la suite »
House of Fraser: Howell's renovation reveals historic ChapelThe chapel was hidden inside the department store and can now can be seen from the streets.
Lire la suite »
NASCAR celebrates 'remarkable' and 'historic' Chicago raceNASCARChicago was the most-watched Cup race on NBC in six years, and despite record rainfall, the sanctioning body managed to get the event in on Sunday. NASCAR reflects on a 'historic' weekend & the challenges they faced throughout it.
Lire la suite »
Next chapter for historic Ribble Valley pub as new landlords take overEd and Laura Ashton have taken on the least at the Lower Buck in Waddington
Lire la suite »
Inside one of Britain's 'biggest' windmills you can live in for £650kInside one of Britain's 'biggest' windmills you can now live in that's on market for £650,000
Lire la suite »
Inside Scottish beach mansion for sale just stone's throw away from yellow sandsA charming six-bedroom property right on a stunning Scottish beach has recently gone on the market, offering stunning views of Elie Beach and the Firth of Forth.
Lire la suite »