We’ve
had our big party, our celebration of the second time we obtained our
independence from Great Britain.
But
another party, this time at the farthest corner of the Caribbean, will take
place in the not-too-distant future to mark the first time black Americans obtained
their independence from us.
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| A descendant of the Merikins, refugees from the Chesapeake region, celebrates almost 200 years of freedom in Trinidad.The Trinidad Express. |
It’s
a little-known but dramatic story about slaves who, during the War of 1812,
stole away from plantations all up and down the Chesapeake Bay. Many of them fought
for the British against their former masters, and then, with their families,
were relocated to distant British territories.
A
history-minded reader after last week’s story about the so-called Corps of Colonial
Marines, wondered how they could have fared in places where brutal slave conditions
still existed. After all, Britain didn’t abolish slavery for two more decades.
Well,
they fared quite well, apparently, despite the odds.
The escapees
were trained at the south end of Tangier Island and proved themselves in
numerous engagements, including the sacking of Washington.
After
the war, the British refused to let them fall back into slave-owner hands. They
transported the men and their families to Bermuda and then to Nova Scotia,
where the climate, as well as the local reception, was more than a bit chilly.
Some
wanted to go home, despite the consequences. But more than 700 of these “Merikens,”
as they called themselves, clambered on board six British ships and set sail
for Trinidad, a journey of over 2,000 nautical miles. This flight of blacks 50
years before the Emancipation Proclamation is unparalleled in history – and all
but ignored.
The
reader was right. Trinidad was still in the depths of slavery. Of 17,000 people
living on the island in 1797, 10,000 were African slaves, toiling, and surely
dying, in unspeakable conditions on sugar plantations.
What
I’ve gleaned from excellent histories published online by Trinidad Express was
that British knew this, and knew there was no way these people, led by trained
freedom fighters, were going to fit in with that culture.
“The last thing the planters wanted was for these proud
African-Americans, with a military past, to be in close contact with the enslaved
people on the plantations.,” one of the stories says.
They landed on Aug. 15, 1816 at
the remote south end of the island in an area now know as Princes Town, and
formed separately named Company Villages. Each family unit was granted 16
acres, and they immediately began planting and harvesting basic foods – corn,
cassava, bananas, rice and other small crops – for survival.
Some worked as blacksmiths, carpenters
and masons. They labored as woodmen, felling trees for the new settlements, and
built access roads. And they stayed away from the slave plantations.
“The Company Villages developed
as self-contained communities of families, who were very proud of their
American origins, their army history, and the fact that they had come to
Trinidad as free people,” the newspaper adds.
Today
there are thousands of descendents of the Merikens on the island. They recently
mounted a first-ever exhibit at the National Museum in Port of Spain. Last year
they celebrated the 195th year of their arrival.
Just
think what the 200th will be like in August 2016.
Some
of the Merikens have long since left the island. Tina Dunkley, director of the
Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery, is a descendent of some who migrated back
to America.
“We in America are most familiar with Harriet Tubman and the
Underground Railroad,” she wrote. “But to excavate yet another epic saga of
people who chose to relieve their souls on fire by escaping during a war, and
taking up arms against their oppressor is just a story that must be shared.”
It’s a long way from Tangier Island to Trinidad, but it seems to
me that telling the story might shorten the distance somewhat.
