Where slaves were hung

Myth becoming history

Myth is often an unavoidable, some may even say an integral part of history. In an attempt to create precedent and to come to terms with what has happened, people at times create myths as a witness of the past and, if there is nothing available to inform their thinking otherwise, myth becomes history and then fact.

“That is the remains of the hanging tree,” said the custodian of Woodford Square. “They cut it down, but people come all the time and pick up pieces, the woodchips.” The great stump of the samaan was cut almost to the level of the walkway in the middle of the Square. It was another one of those historical mistakes - a case of a myth becoming historical fact!

In truth, it was Sir Ralph Woodford, Govenor from 1813 to 1829, who laid out Brunswick Square - later call Woodford after him - with exotic trees imported from various places as was the custom in England at the time. That particular samaan had come all the way from  South America along with several others and would have been a very small sapling at Woodford’s time, becoming the magnificent giant 150 years later in the 20th century. In any event, there were no public executions in Trinidad in the Woodford years. For that sort of display one would have to go back several decades to Govenor Picton’s time.

Another case of myth becoming history concerns the brick stone and iron structure on South Quay opposite to the old Railway Station (City Gate). To the utter amusement of the older heads of Port-of Spain a few years ago, this vault or safe, was declared a slave cell. Candlelight vigils began to take place there, processions of hundreds of people assembled in the vacant lot around this forlorn, abandoned structure.

This vault was never a cell for slaves. It was part of a building constructed in the 1870s on reclaimed land, some 30 years after the  emancipation of the enslaved by a Portuguese family for the purpose of keeping their money and other valuables. After the demolition of the building, the vault proved to be indestructible and remained there for several years.

Yet another claim at identifying another ‘slave site’ was launched some years ago by a clergyman. This time it was King George V park in St. Clair, where it was said the bodies of hundreds of slaves of the St. Clair estate were buried. Again this is not the case. As the original plan of the estate would show, the estate cemetery was not too far from the house where a dozen or so slaves had been interred along with various members of the Grey family, proprietors of the St. Clair estate.

But the most suprising of all the recent cases of myth progressing into history was the one concerning the mythical sea creature that once formed a part of the weather vane atop the rotunda of the Red House. In fact, this was a matter concerning the politicizing of superstition, in truth the institutionalizing of superstition. The so called ‘Dragon on the Red House’ was said to have placed there by a political party that having lost an election was out of power and the newly elected government was seeking to denigrate them. In fact it had been there since 1907 when the building was rebuilt after the fire of 1903. As a sea creature, it matched the Marine Venus in the nearby Woodford Square fountain, and kept verey good company with Port of Spain’s Marine Square and of  course the nearby Dragon’s Mouth. By no stretch of imagination was this unfortunate beast put there in recent years. In fact, as a historical monument, it should be replaced!

Buy "The Book of Trinidad" by clicking here:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Buy "A Rada Community in Trinidad" by clicking here:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Jonas Mohammed Bath

In the Halflight of morning, the tall dark man in Muslimgarb made his way quickly through the dirt-covered streets. Already the clamour of the market could be heard and the bells of the newly built Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception called for five o’clock mass. As he hurried past an open doorway at the bottom of George Street, his elegant features are backlit beneath his loosely wrapped turban. His name: Jonas Mohammed Bath.

Bath quickly crosses the square and enters what would later be called Almond Walk. Now it is merely a long, earthen mound known as ‘the Mole’, which connects the bottom of the town to a small battery of five guns that date from Spanish times, known as Fort St. Andres. In the harbour roads, a slaver swings at anchor in the falling tide. The smell of fish and mangrove also carry with it another odor, the smell of unwashed humanity.

The slaves are shackeled together wrist to wrist, some tall, some short, some stooped, some bent, some gaping about them, some dribbling from toothless mouths, some shivering in the morning chill. Bath approaches the militia sentry and bows somewhat ceremoniously, with just perhaps a touch of irony in the nature of the inclination of his head. What would follow over the next half an hour or so would be unique in these waters. Bath, followed by the sentry, approaches the bedraggled lineup of human misery and an almost inaudible whisper goes from person to person ‘Salaam aleikum’ from incomprehensible ear to incomprehensible ear until towards the end of the line, a wild and tormented eye meets his own calm gaze. ‘Alacuna Salaam’ gasps the tortured one, his knees already giving way. ‘God is merciful.’

Already a small crowd is gathering, impatient men with other business to attend. With practiced eye and probing crop, the chain of human bondage is examined. The auctioneer arrives, and with no ado the business of the sale of human to human begins. The bidding os bad, the cargo is poor - Bath awaits his turn.

“100 dollars for this fine, strong inhabitant of the guinea coast. Who will offer 120 dollars for the quick and willing villain?”

The object of the transaction is thrust forward, his quaking frame and pleading eyes and hands make meaningless gestures at no one in particular.

“150 dollars!”

A couple of faces turn towards him in surprise, disdain, disapproval.

“Going once, going twice, do I hear 175? No, gone at 150 dollars to Mister Bath.”

The morning is now a bowl of light. The guard at the fort is changing as the two men walk out, one tall, reserved, with an old-world dignity, the other whipped and bent, broken, spent, but now, in hope, his step is light, and both hands can swing.

Professor Carl Campbell of the University of the West Indies writes:

“The slave trade was never selective. From time to time, persons of rank and eminence in African communitites were carried away to the New World as slaves.”

There is no doubt that one such personnage was Jonas Mohammed Bath. This remarkable individual claimed to be the Sultan of Yulliallhad Alimant Animan. He swore on the Holy Koran that ‘he is a prince in his own native land.’ The Mandingoes in Trinidad regarded him as ‘chief priest and patriarch’.

Bath arrived in Trinidad just a few years before the abolition of British slavetrade in 1807. He came directly from the African coast and not from one of the other Caribbean islands. Upon his landing here, it was remarked by Henry Fuller, Esq., a long standing resident, that Bath was “discovered to be a person of eminence in his own country”.

Jonas Bath arrived at a time when Britain and France were at war, and Brigadier-General Sir Thomas Hislop, who was Trinidad’s governor from 1804 - 1811, felt that republican France would seize the island. Hislop decided to build Fort George above the town, overlooking the Gulf of Paria’s western approaches. Jonas Bath was amongst those slaves purchased by the government to build Fort George. Hislop, on observing that Bath was a man of rank among the slaves, put him in charge of the slaves - a wise decision.

Bath formed a Mandingo society in Port of Spain and brought together many slaves, Muslims, and free black people - this even before gaining his own emancipation! No one knows when in fact he did obtain his freedom. It is known that from at least 1812m Henry Fuller, the Attorney General for 20 years, considered Bath as having the status of a magistrate over his fellow tribesmen, and accepted the affidavits from Mandingoes which were sworn before Bath.

The purpose of Bath’s Mandingo society was to pool resources to buy the freedom of Mandingo slaves. Professor Campbell maintains that “such an activity demanded a certain level of group trust and confidence. Some of this was assured not only by the fact that all were from the same tribe, but they lived in a particular part of Port of Spain and were bound together by religion. They formed a distinct society of themselves, strictly bound together by their Mohammedan faith, known as the ‘Merchant Traders of Africa’.”

It was largely in the course of their long distance trading, that they came in contact with Moslem societies, and as they scattered in many areas, they became the standard bearers of Islam in the upper Guinea coast. As trader5s and Moslems, the Mandingoes had considerable advantages over the other tribes in West Africa.

The earning of Bath’s Mandingo society went towards the purchasing of the freedom of his fellows. Mandingo slaves who were redeemed by the society had to repay the cost. This they did by working for the society.

The work of Jonas Bath did not end with the buying of freedom for his people. His vision ultimately included repatriation to Africa. This goal, complicated under British law, was achieved to some degree. Several of his followers did make their way back home. A fantastic achievement for that time! Jonas Mohammed Bath was undoubtedly a hero, not just to Africans, but to all people. His example should be made known to our young, reminding us of all that is good and upstanding in the human condition.