Emancipation Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano Day

The citizens of Trinidad and Tobago celebrate Emancipation day a national holiday proclaimed on August 01, 1985. To be free from restraint and control by another person is worth celebrating. Some black men recognized what freedom meant to all peoples. African descendants celebrated freedom in Trinidad from as early as 1793. Emancipation was delivered when the economic and political environment in England was in an economic transformation. The legality of slavery was tested in the court of the British law Lords. When judgment was delivered it began to shake the very institution of slavery. The legal vibrations in England began to open the independent ideals of the British colonist in America. To recognize yourself as being black in the western diaspora you have made a commitment to regain the freedom that you once had and lost.

It is the duty of every human to make an effort to obtain economic, political rights and eventually social equality. This is specifically true for disenfranchised black people. This is a painfully slow process, it is the peaceful way but this road widens as technology changes. When freedom is felt the sensation is like liberating a child from an abusive parental authority or to be free from someone with strong hands. In the countries that exploited the spoils from slavery their citizens enjoy equal status. They have equality before the law, regardless of religion, property or other private characteristics that may reside within them. In societies such as these it is difficult for that race, to see others who look different, as equals. When an era of suppression ends the many variations of freedom can suddenly be shared, this is the understanding of what emancipation can bring to humans.

Thirteen current and former British colonies commemorate Emancipation Day including Canada and South Africa. Two groups of black warriors who fought on the side of the British during the American war for independence were settled in Trinidad between 1793 and 1815. They were Muslim soldiers born in Africa and the Merikins from the southern states in America. The Merikins settled in Princess Town and Moruga, the Muslims in Comuto, Manzanilla and Valencia. Antigua and Barbuda freed their slaves upon the declaration of emancipation in 1834. The other territories had to endure a period of apprenticeship before full emancipation in 1838. Their lobbyist in Britain argued that the slaves had to be trained to be free. Whilst black people agitated for a shorter period of apprenticeship, their white masters were negotiating compensation for his property. The British government agreed to purchase the slaves from the white planters.

To seal the deal they borrowed £20 million pounds to recompense their slave owners. The loan amounted to 40 percent of the treasury’s annual income and was paid out in1835. The debt was finally paid off in 2015, about a hundred and eighty years later, by the British tax payers. The loan was the largest in British history. Not a penny was awarded to those who were enslaved and brutalized.  The conditions that continued after slavery were now one of marginalization and racial segregation. Today the black man in the western world is for the most part penniless, as the elitist continue to extract his sweat and blood. It is time for some form of compensation to be forwarded to the patient black man. It is never too late we must push on with our demands.

One hundred and fifty years later, on August 01, 1985 the government of Trinidad and Tobago was the first country to declare Emancipation Day as a national holiday. This activity has blossomed into celebrating African culture in the colonies, many with weeklong celebrations. This freedom quest had begun centuries ago, the light of emancipation always burned; it began with the first abduction in Africa. When the opportunity for freedom presented itself, the African, against all odds always grabbed at the opportunity. In 1771 the course of slavery was triggered by events far from North America. It took place in Great Britain when a very brave black man, Olaudah Equiano ran away from his master Charles Stewart. The master had returned to England in 1769, accompanied with him was his black slave Olaudah Equiano also called James Somerset.

Having a black slave in England represented high status and was generally accepted in English society. Equiano was born in the Eboe province in southern Nigeria. He was kidnapped at the age of eleven and sold in Barbados and then to Virginia. He loved the name Equiano. His story is extraordinary. Although he was in the company of the abolitionist he was a black man in a strange land. This was eighteenth century England, where the black needy would freeze or starve to death on the streets. These wretched black souls were reduced to begging or stealing. To steal was not a good idea because in the eighteen hundreds it was a hanging offense. If you escaped the gallows, you were thrown into a private overcrowded prison with no bed, no heat, little food, and less sanitation.

It was within this existing situation for black people in London that Equiano decided to escape from his master. Equiano was recaptured and Stewart had him imprisoned on a ship bound for Jamaica and to be sold as slave labour. Equiano courageously submitted his life to his godparents and Granville Sharp, the abolitionists who took charge of his quest for freedom. Sharp decided to make a test case of Equiano’s plight. He used the writ of habeas corpus to have Equiano removed from the ship. On December 09, 1771 Equiano appeared before the Court of King’s Bench. The case revolved around his presence in England. Sharp contended that once Equiano was on English soil he was a free man. The case took many months before Chief Justice Lord Mansfield and drags into 1772.

After many months no legal precedence could be found to decide the case either way. Finally Mansfield frees Equiano on the grounds that slavery is so odious that the benefit of doubt must prevail on Equiano’s behalf. The newspaper response in America was hostile in response to the judgment delivered by Mansfield. Equiano willingness to sacrifice his life for freedom triggered the American War of Independence against the Kingdom of Great Britain.  This great African sowed the seed of obtaining legal freedom at a dark and almost hopeless time.  His struggle for equality must be seen as a beacon of hope for black people around this earth. He must be honoured and remembered by his people. Thanks to Olaudah Equiano the light of equality burns brightly, he is the absolute sole of emancipation.  Happy Olaudah Equiano day to all peoples.  2020 emd.