On Freedom and Symbols of Liberation
By John Thomas III, Editor
On August 1, I received a text message from my mother. It said, “Happy Emancipation Day.” Slavery was abolished on August 1, 1833, in the colonies of the former British Empire, after decades of agitation led by William Wilberforce (he died only two days before the final Act of Parliament was approved). In my mother’s homeland of Barbados and all the former British colonies and current colonial dependencies in the Caribbean, this is a festive time filled not only with celebrations but also with somber remembrances of countless ancestors who suffered through the horrors of chattel slavery. Celebrations of emancipation are also observed in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. The emancipation text reminded me of the therapeutic character and the importance of remembering.
It is not an accident that next to the Independence Day of these countries, the most sacred day held by descendants of enslaved Africans is the day of emancipation. In the United States, there has been a longstanding trend of celebrating key days of emancipation; however, without a defined celebration, several dates have emerged. The most popular commemoration is Juneteenth, which is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 45 states. Juneteenth occurred on June 19, 1865, with the announcement to the slaves in Texas that slavery had ended even though the Civil War had ended months prior after the surrender of the Confederate Army.
In the early 1900s, Philadelphia banker Major Richard Robert Wright, Sr. (father of Bishop R.R. Wright, Jr., the 10theditor of this paper) campaigned to make February 1 “National Freedom Day” to celebrate the signing of the 13thAmendment that formally ended slavery. One year after Wright’s death, in 1947, a federal law was approved by Congress and signed by President Harry Truman establishing provisions to celebrate “National Freedom Day.” Yet, the celebration has largely been subsumed by Black History Month. Another trend is to celebrate the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Finally, some argue for the celebration of December 18, 1865, the day that the 13thAmendment was proclaimed ratified. With all these possible dates, there is still no nationally mandated holiday to recognize the end of slavery. In addition, although the National Museum of African-American History and Culture exists, there are few public markers to commemorate the struggle against slavery and its enduring legacy.
In Barbados, the island’s major slave revolt occurred in 1811 and was led by a man named Bussa. Now known as the Right Excellent General Bussa, he has been proclaimed as a “national hero” and there is a larger than life statue of him in one of the island’s major roundabouts (traffic circle). For several years, a pilgrim walk is held on August 1 from Bussa’s statue to the national stadium to pay homage to him. Imagine if in the United States there were prominent statues of Nat Turner or of Denmark Vesey erected or if they were posthumously recognized as army generals? What about the attempt to place Harriet Tubman on the currency which has been stalled under the current U.S. Administration?
Nevertheless, slaveholders are still on United States currency and statues of persons who fought to maintain slavery and tear apart the country are still prominently displayed in various cities, with desperate advocates fighting to keep them in public places. What do these actions say to the descendants of the oppressors and the oppressed?
When my mother took me to see the statue of Bussa as a child, she was teaching me to remember that I, too, was free. This was the liberating impact of seeing a publicly-acknowledged symbol of liberation. In the absence of national symbols in the United States, we must continue to tell our own stories and fight to make sure that they continue to be taught everywhere. The attempt by some U.S. high school textbooks to sanitize slavery as a form of immigration is not only alarming but has dangerous consequences as a generation is being raised to not have an understanding or appreciation for how the sins of this nation’s past continue to impact it. As members of a denomination created by and imbued with the hopes of the enslaved Africans trafficked to various parts of the world, we must ensure that we uplift and remember the sacrifices and continue to tell the stories of freedom.
