Freedom from slavery - at a price

Even after emancipation, the lives of former slaves in BDA were heavily policed
The Bermuda Archives has extended its “groundbreaking” exhibit, ‘A Very Manifest Alteration’ to December 31.

Pilot James ‘Jemmy’ Darrell is the basis from which 17 display items examine the limitations on the rights of ‘freed people of colour’ during Bermuda’s transitional period from 1793 to 1816.

The pilot-slave was ‘manumitted’ (freed) in 1796 on the recommendation of British Rear Admiral George Murray for safely manoeuvring Admiral Murray’s flagship, HMS Resolution through Bermuda’s northern reefs and into the deep waters of what became Murray’s Anchorage.

“We wanted not to focus so much on that particular feat, but what it meant to be a free person of colour in the age of slavery,” Bermuda Archives director, Karla Hayward said.

The ‘narrative,’ according to Ms Hayward, focuses on legal status. Freedom hardly differed from the earlier servitude, except that freed non-whites could benefit from their earnings.

When Pilot Darrell was manumitted, the document requested that all persons “treat him, as a Man actually and bona fide Free.” But the later-appointed King’s Pilot could not serve on a jury, or testify in a court.

The 1806 passage of three Acts further curtailed that freedom.

Acts one and two were intended to level the opportunities for young white men, who were being surpassed in the mechanics’ trades by successful and enterprising freed non-whites.

Parents of white apprentices and the tradesmen who taught their sons sail-making, tailoring, masonry, ship and house carpentry split a bounty, while ‘Freed Negroes and Persons of Colour’ practising the mechanics trades were subject to duties.

The third Act regulated emancipation.

Fear of insurrection

Fear in the white population of slave insurrection that might be instigated by the growing population of freed non-whites led to the stipulation that such slaves manumitted at 40-years or younger would have to leave the island within three months.

An emancipated slave not following the law was subject to imprisonment and deportation. If they returned, they could be re-enslaved.

The third Act also prevented freed non-whites from willing an estate. Pilot Darrell could therefore not leave the small parcel of land he acquired in 1800 to his wife and family.

The Act additionally stopped ‘Freed Blacks and Persons of Colour’ from renting a property for longer than seven years.

The petition by King’s Pilots Darrell and Jacob Pitcairn to the Naval Commissioners in London regarding the deprivation of property posterity would suffer under this latter Act is exhibited, as is Mr. Darrell’s Will. The Will was probated in 1823, eight years after his death and eight months prior to his wife Eusebia’s death.

No birth certificate exists, but Mr. Darrell was born into slavery about 1749. A 1795 receipt for his purchase for £150 by Governor James Crawford, and his Manumission a year later stating his age as 47 do exist and are part of the exhibit.

The three Acts, pilotage returns from Bermuda, census figures and the rights of a child of an interracial couple - which Mr. Darrell himself is suspected to have been - are among the items also displayed and explained.

“This is our history, and it’s a history of what slavery meant in Bermuda. It’s specific. It’s not slavery as it appeared in the American South or the Caribbean. It is Bermudian history, and it’s groundbreaking,” Ms. Hayward said. “The details that we have uncovered in this exhibition have not been examined or reported elsewhere.”

School groups, residents and visitors are invited to view this free exhibit until December 31.

A printed version of the documents on display is available upon request.

Other duplications may be made, depending upon donor permission and copyright, for a fee.

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