Peter Espeut
I HAVE taken an interest in history in my old age, and came across this fascinating quote while reading an excellent new analysis of the diaries of Thomas Thistlewood (1721-1786), a planter in 18th century Westmoreland. The context is that in 1788 in nearby Haiti, four slave women died while being 'disciplined' by their master; the master was arrested and tried for murder, and the quote below is from his speech in his defence before a jury of his peers:
"What safety will three or four whites have among one or two hundred men, whose courage will be strengthened by the support you give them? My cause in this matter becomes the cause of every colon(ist) ... the unhappy condition of a negro leads him naturally to detest us. It is only force and violence that restrains him; he is bound to harbour an implacable hatred in his heart, and if he does not visit upon us all the hurt of which he is capable, it is only because his readiness to do so is chained down by terror; so, if we do not make his chains as proportionate to the dangers that we run with him, if we let loose his hatred of the present state in which is stifled, what can prevent him from attempting to break the chains? ... I dare to say that our negroes lack only sufficient courage or resolution to buy their freedom with the blood of their masters. Just one step can enlighten them about what they have the power to undertake. ... It is not the fear and equity of the law that forbids the slave from stabbing his master, it is the consciousness of absolute power that he (the master) has over his person. Remove this bit, he will dare everything."
TERROR AS A WEAPON
The slave master was set free. His peers well knew the desperate wisdom of his words. In a society where the privileged few are overwhelmingly outnumbered by the disadvantaged many, terror is the only weapon to be used to preserve the privileges of the few. Not just terror directly perpetrated by the privileged, but terror perpetrated on their behalf. The disadvantaged must know that if they 'form fool' and try anything, the full weight of the state will come down on them. Hard! The task of the state is to terrorise the masses into submission. The state - executive, legislative, and judicial - must defend and support the violence done by their agents against the disadvantaged.
And when the violence is being done - even while it is being done - the other privileged members of the society will nod their heads, and give their moral support, and even reach into their pockets and give financial support; for they see terror among the masses as being necessary in the overall scheme of things for their well-being.
The Church, itself an institution of privilege - with a material stake in the social order - will find a way to support state terror, even just by keeping its mouth shut.
This, of course, is a good description of a police state, which is what pre-emancipation Jamaica was like. The masses were there to serve the interests of the few, and there was no question of equality before the law; in effect there were two laws: one for the privileged few and another for the disadvantaged many. There was no question of the advancement of the underprivileged; all social institutions were directed towards the advancement of the interests of the few at the expense of the many.
Emancipation, forced upon Jamaica by the British Parliament, was not going to change the local mindset. The education offered to the former slaves was not directed at their advancement but at making them 'governable', keeping them in line. The strategy of terror was not abandoned, and in addition, the privileged used their control of the courts to ensure that their status was preserved. Thirty years after this false freedom, the pot of injustice boiled over in Morant Bay. It was after that, that the real police force was created!
History is a fascinating subject.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
