Towards emancipation, travelling by sea

My article, below, was recently published in Bermuda Maritime Museum's member's magazine Maritimes Vol. 21, No. 2 under the title 'Bermuda's Long Voyage to Freedom'

In this bicentenary year Bermuda joins much of the Atlantic world in observing the British abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Acts of remembrance and activism are happening island-wide. These include race relations dialogues, an apology by the Anglican church, anti-slavery campaigns, targeted historical research, African Diaspora Heritage Trail tours, root seeking lectures, and a Commissioner's House event with exhibits, poetry, music, dance and symbolic silence.

My fieldwork on Bermuda's maritime heritage (MariTimes Vol.19, No.2 & Vol.20, No.1) happens to take place at this stimulating and solemn moment. Both the bicentenary and my research are set at a time when new relationships with slavery are emerging in Bermuda. These connections span an enduring history—from the genocide and degradation of the slave trade with Bermuda playing a part...to the island's inhumane systems of chattel slavery and indentured servitude...to the towering and later toppled barriers of official segregation...onto today's engrained legacies of racism, polarity and inequity...not forgetting the plight of modern day slavery beyond our shores.

Relationships to slavery would no doubt be prominent in any Bermuda heritage study, but they're undeniable in work on maritime heritage. This is very much owed to the nature of Bermuda's history, where slavery and seafaring are deeply linked. Yet, heritage is as much about constructing the present and imagining the future, as it is about looking into the past. Trawling through my fieldnotes I find examples of Bermudians mixing slavery and maritime links and generating different meanings, memories and identities from this combination. Here I'll discuss how, to my mind, these different uses of heritage revolve around issues of reconnection and reconciliation.

One fragment at a time, scholars, community researchers and museums enrich the detail of Bermuda's past, illuminating hidden histories. But with respect to the narratives of slavery and black history, there is a profound sense of loss and scepticism. At a 'Mosaic' performance during Black History Month, players emphasised slavery's toll in terms of the absence of black names, identities and voices. Similarly, interviewees express melancholy for the lack of surviving material culture associated with slavery in addition to the loss of traditional knowledge and skill and the mentoring culture that supports it. The erosion of neighbourhoods and familiar landscapes or seascapes—sometimes due to past injustices associated with slavery and segregation—are also lamented.

Alongside this sense of loss and longing is a mistrust of Bermuda's history as distorted and sanitised. This is attributed to the bias of much historic material having been written by or belonging to one segment of slave society, and to the leanings of those constructing or controlling historical interpretation and curation. As one Africalogist in Bermuda argues, more 'truth-telling' is needed.
The flip side of this is a desire and determination to reclaim histories lost to slavery. Maritime links are often used to fill the void and reconnect. The absence of black names, identities and voices in that 'Mosaic' performance were restored by the players' tales of skilled and talented black mariners whose abundant knowledge, innovation and connection to the environment have successfully transmitted down through the generations.

Another important maritime slavery reconnection are the links many Bermudians—especially those of African descent—are forging with the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora. This journey to commune with lost ancestors, living kin, and memory places is symbolised well by 'Figurehead'. This piece of public art by Bermudian artist and ex-seaman Bill 'Mussey' Ming is a memorial to Bermudians lost at sea and 'African slaves who perished during that long arduous Middle Passage'. Standing at the peaceful precipice of St. David's Head, this bronze beacon is both upturned working boat pointing to the sky and proud African mask gazing out to sea and guiding mariners home.

These dynamic reconnections promote an expanded sense of community and well-being for some Bermudians. The lingering effects of slavery and the dominance of victim-centric narratives are countered by empowering maritime associations and language. The pride associated with Bermuda's maritime heritage is harnessed and connected to slavery.

This is especially the case for boatbuilding, sailing, and piloting—in all of which slaves and free blacks were heavily involved and relied upon. Bermudians extoll the design and construction of Bermuda vessels and the use of native materials in building them, cedar wood especially. The high esteem for local boatbuilding dovetails with that for sailing, which continues to expose Bermudian innovation, skill and endurance to the world. Demonstrating the inspiration and imagining found in the heritage of piloting was the April commemoration of Pilot James 'Jemmy' Darrell (1749-1815) who was manumitted for his navigational expertise and skill and one of Bermuda's first free black home and landowners plus a prominent community activist. In his honour, a large public gathering including living descendents and current and retired pilots, attended a special St. Peter's Church service, the dedication of his newly restored headstone in the segregated slave and free black cemetary, the christening of a new tender boat for 'Spirit of Bermuda', and a festive ferry cruise.

In my interviews with practising mariners, they express feeling strongly connected to past mariners in terms of what they do and their relationship with the sea. This embodiment of history relates to Bermuda Sloop Foundation's sail training vessel 'Spirit of Bermuda', where local teens develop their sense of maritime heritage through the physicality and emotion of an ocean voyage. Though few have been on a boat before, students are thrust into an 'authentic' situation where everyone plays a vital role and teamwork and self-reliance are essential. Hoisting sails, tying knots, splicing rope, mapping landscape, journal writing, even being seasick are all in day's experiential learning for a young crew. The aim is to foster confidence, character, citizenship, and a connection to a proud maritime heritage among young adults facing steep educational and social challenges.

While the fundamentals of sailing are absorbed in practice, an added pinch of maritime history kindles students' connection with past mariners. The young sailors are encouraged to transcend time, to relate to the environment as earlier sailors might have. They relive an era when black and white Bermudians alike—beyond the enormous gulf of their respective enslavement and freedom—went to sea and faced risk and hardship side by side. It is through such shared and embodied maritime experience that some Bermudians are attempting to bridge slavery's enduring social and racial divides.

It seems increasing numbers of Bermudians are seeing themselves entwined with the legacies of slavery being commemorated this year. Maritime heritage occassionally provides an empowering and imaginative tool to engage with this history. This engagement, and the expanded social responsibilities that come with it, are part of an important and ongoing process of reconciliation here in Bermuda. One potent demonstration of this engagement was a tour of Tucker's Town by participants of the Bermuda Race Relations Initiative in May. Members of the Tucker's Town Historical Society and other area descendents led us through a landscape injustly appropriated from Bermudians in the 1920s, the vast majority of whom were black Bermudians and slave descendents. Frustration, resentment, empathy and regret were expressed by some participants, particularly at remembered or sacred sites such as the Marsden gravesite. Maritime heritage entered this emotive scene as historian LeYoni Junos read a Letter to the Gazette Editor dated 18XX aloud to the group. This letter highlighted the strong maritime activities and associations of the original Tucker's Town community, particularly piloting and fishing.

Yet, in the current social climate, barely fifty years from breaching segregation, it can be difficult and uncomfortable for everyone to genuinely get onboard. There are strong forces of resistance, forgetting and unconsciousness at work in many of us. We have indeed only just set sail on this voyage of rememberance, reconnection and reconciliation that needs the participation of all Bermudians. In 27 years time we'll commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of slavery. One wonders how much further we will have travelled by then in this 'long, arduous' but meaningful journey towards a full emancipation from slavery?