Peter Espeut

A lot is being made of the bicentennial of the abolition of the British slave trade. For the life of me, I don't understand the moral gymnastics which could result in a decision that international trading in slaves is wrong but domestic trading is not.

The trading of slaves in Jamaica did not end in 1807; planters continued to buy and sell slaves among themselves for another 20-odd years. Slavery itself did not officially end in Jamaica until 1834/1838, and until then there was some smuggling of new slaves into the country.

In fact, new African labourers continued to come into Jamaica until at least the 1860s. Slavery was still in effect in the U.S.A. and Brazil, and British warships regularly captured slavers off the African coast heading there; rather than return them to freedom in their homeland, their occupants were carried across the Atlantic and 'liberated' in Jamaica, but not as fully free persons; some sort of indenture was involved.

Big business

Sugar was big business, and slave trading was big business. The demands of investors and the lure of big profits dulled moralsensibilities then as it is dulling them now. There are those today who would despoil the natural environment in the name of economic growth in the same way that humanity then was despoiled in the name of profit. And in the same way that the church then supported the institution of slavery, there are churchmen today who support the despoiling of God's environment.

The plantation system adjusted to the abolition of the slave trade by encouraging slaves to reproduce prolifically. This itself became a business, and stud farms were established where the sturdiest men were brought into contact with the most substantial women, who were rewarded with freedom if they had seven children in seven years. The legacy lives on.

The slave trade may have been abolished 200 years ago, and emancipation may have done away with legal slavery 173 years ago, but their legacy lives on. The racism which underpinned slavery is still with us, at home and abroad. Our world-class inequality - the 11th largest gap between the rich and the poor in the world - has its origin there. The former slave masters who remained in political control of the House of Assembly, made sure their former slaves were governable and got as little education as possible; today's low educational standards and our poor literacy rate did not come out of the blue. Not even political independence has made much of a difference, because those in the House today are the mental heirs of those who went before.

The former slave masters got their 'justice'; they were financially compensated for the human property they lost at emancipation; the formerly enslaved got nothing but a new set of worries. This sort of talk is not popular among some in today's Jamaica who want to forget the whole sorry episode; but it cannot be put aside just like that. Most Jamaicans still suffer from the legacy of slavery; it is festering like an open wound; there is no moving ahead without coming to grips with it.

Funded industrial revolution

And this brings me to thesubject of reparations. The slave trade and the slave plantation produced great wealth for private and public interests in Britain and Jamaica. The profits were invested in land and other property in Jamaica and Britain; and it funded Britain's industrial revolution which made Britain the most powerful country in the world - economically and militarily.

Ultimately, the Jamaica project became unprofitable, and Jamaica was cast adrift; Britain finessed it so well that the locals were able to make it look like they had 'won' Independence. Under local management Jamaica has received billions in financial aid from our former colonial masters and from others; we do not have a lot to show for it. Should the Jamaican Government get reparations? What can we expect them to do with it?

Today the descendants of Jamaican slaves are disadvantaged because of the ravages of slavery, because of the bias of the colonial state, and because of the corruption of the political system of independent Jamaica. From whom must the Jamaican poor expect reparations?