Latest update May 12th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 09, 2018 Letters
Dear Editor
In a letter in today’s Kaieteur News in support of the preservation of the statue of Queen Victoria, Mr Rooplall Dudnath stated: “It was during her reign as Queen of England that she abolished slavery and put an end to the undignified slave trade that some European governments and Monarchs had started and enriched themselves with the exploits.
“She also abolished the inhuman indignities of slavery to her credit.”
There is so much historical inaccuracy in this statement that it is difficult to know where to begin.
1. First of all the slave trade in the British Empire was abolished in 1806, during the reign of Victoria’s grandfather George III. She became Queen of the United Kingdom in 1830. Having abolished their slave trade, British naval squadrons then searched for and intercepted slave ships of other nations. But (a) that also began before Victoria became Queen, and (b) despite the activity of the British navy, the trade in slaves to the United States and Brazil continued until slavery was abolished in those countries
2. Secondly, the slave trade was started as much by the English as by European governments, and the English were major slave traders. What was described as the “triangular” trade route consisted of ships leaving major ports like London and Bristol with trade goods (guns and ammunition, trinkets, knives etc.) traveling to trading ports in West Africa where such goods were exchanged in payment for slaves, shipping the slaves to the West Indies and the southern states of North America, collecting sugar, tobacco, cotton and shipping these commodities back to the UK. The UK was enriched by the slave trade far more than other European traders.
3. Queen Victoria did not abolish slavery. Slaves were emancipated in British colonies in the early years of her reign it is true. But she neither instigated the move to emancipate the slaves, nor did she specifically promote that Emancipation.
Emancipation was first proposed by the anti-slavery movement; the Emancipation Bill was introduced in Parliament and was passed into law not because Queen Victoria supported it, but because British investors in other regions of the growing empire were opposed to what was seen as advantages enjoyed by West Indian proprietors.
And also because Parliament gave in to these West Indian interests to the extent that the Exchequer raised funds through a loan from commercial banks in order to compensate the slave owners for the loss of their “property” i.e., the ownership of human beings.
That loan was not finally repaid until the 20th century. Once the Emancipation Bill was passed by Parliament the Queen signed it, as she was required to do; by the 19th century the British monarch no longer had the right to veto an Act passed by Parliament. And that is the sum total of her contribution to the Emancipation of slaves.
But this Act abolished slavery in British territories only; and it was not the first abolition of slavery. The French abolished slavery after their Revolution and the establishment of a Republic in 1794, but Napoleon re-introduced it in 1803; it was finally abolished in all French territories in 1828 (all of this was before Victoria became Queen of the United Kingdom). Slavery continued and even increased in the United States until 1865. And in Brazil it continued until 1888 (Brazil is estimated to have received 40% of all slaves brought to the Americas).
4. That Queen Victoria abolished the inhumane indignities of slavery is another inaccuracy. After slavery was abolished the plantation owners in the newly acquired British colonies of Demerara, Berbice and Trinidad pressed for the right to import indentured workers.
These indentured workers came to conditions that closely mirrored the conditions of slavery, with the sole exception that it was for a limited time, not a life sentence. But these new workers were housed in conditions similar to those of the former slaves, the work was as onerous as it had been during slavery, and their freedom was as curtailed – an indentured servant could not leave his/her assigned estate without the written permission of the estate owner or manager.
If he/she were found away from the estate without such permission, the worker could be jailed. Any such term of imprisonment was then added to the period of indenture. And yes, estate agents and overseers established relationships with female indentured workers just as they had done with female slaves. In what way can such conditions be described as an abolition of inhuman indignities?
I personally have no objection to keeping that statue in its original place in front of the law courts. Colonialism is part of our history and we cannot erase that. We need to learn about the nature of colonialism, what our ancestors endured, and how that history has marked the colony that emerged into an independent country just over 50 years ago.
If we do not understand how we came to be as we are, how do we begin to change and improve? If the statue of Queen Victoria can remind us to re-examine that past in order to understand our present, then by all means keep it there. But do not credit Queen Victoria with deeds that were not hers.
Pat Robinson Commissiong
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May 12, 2024
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