EP 05 - Money not Morality ended British Enslavement

Money not Morality ended British Enslavement

- Episode 05 -

The crimes of the Rector George Wilson Bridges

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#59 The crimes of the Rector George Wilson Bridges

Thurs 29 September 2022

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The insurrection that forced the retreat of British Lt Brady, John Carter Brown Library

Slave rebellion on Guyana was wrongly blamed on attempts to improve conditions

On Monday 18 August 1823 a major rebellion broke out in Guyana centred on the estates of Liverpool merchant and planter John Gladstone. The air filled with the sound of conch shells – usually used to summon the workforce to the fields - but now calling them to rebel.

Gladstone had advised the Tory government that conditions for the enslaved after 1807 were now so good there was no need to proceed to emancipation. In reality however his estates in Guiana were amongst the worst.

The rebellion was later said to have been plotted by a black deacon at a local Methodist chapel – one Quamina Gladstone, along with his son, Jack Gladstone, a skilled carpenter on the Gladstone estates. Like many enslaved, they had been given the surnames of their owner.

The previous October Quamina and Jack Gladstone had been forced out to work 13-hour days while Quamina’s wife Peggy lay ill. She had died alone. No wonder they had had enough.

The revolt quickly spread along the coast, taking 40 plantations, one after another, seizing guns, but almost everywhere sparing planters and their managers any harm.

The British army offered to parley with the rebels at their headquarters at Batchelor’s Adventure plantation. The rebels agreed.

They were not demanding their freedom, nor shorter working days, nor an end to physical punishment. All they asked for was three days off a week to work on their own plots and the right to attend church on Sunday.

While they were talking, Leahy’s men quietly surrounded the building. At his signal they opened fire. Between 100 and 150 of the rebels were killed. Now the soldiers visited systematic retribution.

The other planters blamed Gladstone's boasts that he had ameliorated slaves’ conditions. Now they would double down on the harsh conditions they imposed.

#58 The crimes of the Rector George Wilson Bridges
Ep 5 Money not Morality ended British Enslavement
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Painting by John Constable of Bridges in 1804. In 1829 he almost beat a servant, Kitty Hylton, to death for killing a turkey for supper at his request - he had then changed his mind about what to eat

It took till 2005 to buy off the planters after emancipation of 1833

By January 1832, the House of Commons Select Committee heard evidence that British West Indies sugar production was simply becoming unviable.

Jamaica was heading towards civil war as the white supremacist rector on Jamaica, George William Bridges, lynched missionaries and set fire to their chapels.

(Rector Bridges had arrived in the Caribbean penniless. He soon became rich charging to baptise the children of the enslaved whilst heading the violent persecution of missionaries).

It was now obvious in Britain that the whole enslavement scandal would have to be brought to an end as quickly as possible.

The planters would have to be bought out. Their debts would have to be paid off before their businesses collapsed. This must happen soon before bringing down the whole financial structure of the City of London, and many in Britain’s other ports too.

The Act to end enslavement passed its second reading on 22 July 1833 and had royal assent on 28 August.

The loans the British government took to buy out the planters in 1835 took until 2015 to pay off. Many of us therefore have had our taxes used to pay the slave owners.

Scandalously, descendants of the enslaved who settled in Britain had their taxes taken to pay for compensation to the slave owners. And there are still people who want to claim that Britain has a moral record over slavery to be proud of.

The Australian Walk Free Foundation reckoned in 2013 that there were 30 million people still living in conditions that are equivalent to enslavement, especially in Pakistan, India, China and Russia.

#Resouvenir #wilberforce #enslavement #margaretmiddleton #Zong #granvillesharp #trafficking

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