August 1, 1834 Marks the end of enslavement by the British in various Caribbean countries.
National Holiday Observance by Country
Bahamas Aug 5
Belize Aug 1
Bermuda Aug 1
Dominica Aug 5
Grenada Aug 5
Guyana Aug 1
Jamaica Aug 1
Montserrat Aug 5
Saint Kitts and Nevis Aug 5
Saint Lucia Aug 1
Turks and Caicos Islands Aug 1
Day by Day Guide to Emancipation shows the dates for all countries.
Emancipation in the Caribbean
Emancipation Day exists due to the MAAFA, the centuries-long enslavement and murder of millions of Africans by white Europeans and European Americans. European countries i.e The British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish created and unabashedly practiced de-humanizing, chattel enslavement of African people to exploit their wisdom, bodies and strength during the time they became aware of other western countries. In their inability and unwillingness to integrate with the existing population, they collectively decided to force indigenous populations into enslavement physically, sexually, mentally and (attempted) spiritually.
The transatlantic trade of enchained, enslaved Africans was the greatest crime against humanity committed in what is now defined as the modern era. In terms of its scale and its social, psychological, spiritual and physical brutality, specifically inflicted upon Africans as a targeted ethnicity, this vastly profitable business, and the considerable subsequent suppression of the inhumanity and criminal nature of slavery, was ubiquitous and usurping of moral values. - United Nations Ambassador A. Missouri Sherman-Peters
Of the ten to sixteen million Africans who survived the voyage to the New World, more than one-third landed in Brazil and between 60% - 70% ended up in Brazil or the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. In the West Indies, 80% - 90%of the population was enslaved. While nearly 6% arrived in the United States. Yet by 1860, due to massive rape practices and racial classification by Europeans that tied children to enslavement by way of the freedom status of their mother, approximately two-thirds of all enslaved men, women, and children in the Western Hemisphere lived in the American South.
In the Caribbean, Dutch Guiana, and Brazil, the death rate was so high and the birthrate so low that the enslaved population had to be maintained through the slave trade from Africa. The average number of children born to an early nineteenth-century southern enslaved woman was 9.2—twice as many as in the West Indies.
History of Emancipation Day
In 1772, the ruling in the case of Somerset v Stewart determined that chattel slavery was unsupported by the common law in England and Wales. "The court held that 'a master could not seize a slave in England and detain him preparatory to sending him out of the realm to be sold'. " While the ruling was not clear on the situation in other parts of the Empire, this case was seen as a key turning point in the change towards emancipation. Europeans had found new agricultural and technological innovations which made it possible for European elites to find profitable alternatives to the plantation system.
Slavery was finally abolished throughout the British Empire by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which came into effect on August 1st 1834. The territories controlled at that time by the East India Company, Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) and St. Helen's were excluded; slavery was not abolished in these regions until 1843. And, in true European fashion, although the British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act, it also compensated 46,000 British slave owners for losing their property, spending £20 million (about £16 billion today). The money borrowed for the act wasn't paid off until 2015.
While Emancipation Day was officially declared on August 1st 1834, it took nearly five more years for people in the Caribbean to be truly be 'free'. Enslaved Africans in the Caribbean that were newly freed after emancipation were forced into apprenticeships, where they had to continue to work uncompensated for their former enslavers.
Four years after 'emancipation', in 1838 apprenticeships ended thanks to petitions by the Anti-Slavery Society, leading to Parliament voting for full emancipation to begin from August 1, 1838. *In Antigua and Bermuda, the colonial governments abolished apprenticeship and fully emancipated the enslaved in 1834.
Former soldiers and enslaved Africans from the American south that served in the British army in 1812 aka the Merikins lived as freedmen in the Caribbean prior to Emancipation Day. The Merikins were rewarded for their service with freedom and land in the Princes Town and Moruga area in Trinidad. African-born soldiers who also served in the West India Regiment also gained their freedom and land as rewards. The Mandingo people, who also owned their own land and crops and bought the freedom of their fellow Mandingo people with the money they attained, lived freely in the Caribbean.
Did you know?The first country in the world to observe a public holiday for Emancipation Day was Trinidad and Tobago, when Emancipation Day replaced Discovery Day in 1985.
LEARN MORE ABOUT EMANCIPATION IN THE AMERICAS HERE
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