The celebration of Emancipation Day as a public holiday is the first public holiday established by St. Maarten’s Parliament since becoming a Country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The majority of public holidays on St. Maarten calendar of activities are religious based.
Emancipation Day however, is rooted in the culture of resilience overcoming all odds under the worst circumstances. Emancipation Day having become a public national holiday marks an important milestone in breaking the silence surrounding the slave trade and slavery. It affords the opportunity to dismantle the ideology of racism. It encourages an on-going dialogue with ethics, human rights and social justice.
Tara Innis a lecturer and historian at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus eloquent expressed her feelings on this matter in the following way which is paraphrased to fit the St. Maarten context "We are in the best place to tell the story through the Slave Route from the encounter, enslavement, to plantation slavery to emancipation. Emancipation is an evolving process. It is our story to tell to the World. Nobody else is as prepared to tell this story as we are in (St. Maarten). It permeates all aspects of our heritage and it is and must be part of our national identity. We are simply duty-bound to share this story with our citizens and the rest of the World and most importantly the youth".
A number of activities are scheduled for the day. The day will start off with an Ecumenical Church Service that will be held at the St. Martin of Tours Roman Catholic Church organized by the St. Maarten Council of Churches, St. Maarten United Ministerial Foundation and the Adventist Church. The Honorable Prime Minister Sarah Wescott- Williams will address the nation during the service followed by Father Terrance Rawlings who will be delivering the homily that will fill our spirits with hope and encouragement to continue evolving as a God fearing nation. The Honorable Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Affairs will give the vote of thanks to all people of St. Maarten .After the service the focal points of attractions will shift to the monuments created by artists Ikemba that reminds us on a daily basis of our historical development depicted in our national statues such as One Tete Lohkay, Salt Pickers and the Freedom Fighter. Wreaths will be laid at these sites in remembrance of the brave men and women who paid the ultimate price of their lives in order that the generations after them will be free men and women making positive contributions to the community of nations by the Prime Minister, Governor, President of Parliament and the Minister of Culture.
His Excellency Drs. Eugene. B. Holiday later in the afternoon will deliver a speech on the occasion of the inaugural celebration symbolically proclaiming from hence forward July 1st as a national public holiday.
Once the day has been symbolically proclaimed a national public holiday the streets will overflow with cultural groups making their way through the streets of Philipsburg in dance and song celebrating their freedom and again making stops at the Freedom Fighter Round About and the Salt Picker Round About paying homage to our ancestors with enactments by prominent cultural groups. It has to be re-emphasized that our ancestors came out of a culture of resilience. Mr. Camile Baly the father of Smartin Negritude will be honored for his tireless work in upholding and fighting for the dignity of St. Maarten people. The food and drinks that are traditional St. Maarten dishes will be on display and for sale for all who does not know or have forgotten the taste, to reacquaint themselves to the traditional flavors of St. Maarten.
The Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs hereby cordially invites the general public to the Ecumenical Service, The Governor’s Speech and the Street parades. Re-enactments of events that are specific to the Emancipation period at the Freedom Fighter and Salt Pickers Roundabout will take place to reflect on what our forefathers endured.
It is of paramount importance to remember that "Emancipation" is a continuous process of individual and communal development.
"I am slave to no man, but a servant to all" quote by Martin Luther King Jr.
Emancipation Day, July 1
Considerations for a National Public Holiday
Historical Background
Slavery was introduced in St. Martin in the 17th Century as a means of providing free labor for the plantations and the booming salt industry, which was established on the island for the benefit of the European powers that controlled the island, especially, The Netherlands and France. The Dutch West Indies Company operated the largest salt production enterprise on the island, The Great Salt Pond, which produced huge profits for it.
The slaves, brought mainly from Africa against their will and in such inhumane conditions that are unimaginable for us today, never accepted their enslavement, but did everything possible to free themselves. Such was their persistent attempts to be free that the authorities on the island were forced to enact an anti-maroon law as early as 1790, which was intended to curb the incidence of the enslaved people escaping to the hills and other inhospitable terrain, including off-island, where they established their own or joined other independent maroon colonies.
When Britain abolished slavery in the British-held colonies in 1834, many slaves from both halves of St. Martin escaped to their freedom in territories like Anguilla and even further south to Trinidad. This trend became even more intensified when France finally abolished slavery in its own territories in 1848. This resulted in an exodus of slaves from the Dutch-held south to the French-controlled North.
The disruption this caused on the plantations and salt farms or pans in the South was so great that the slave-owners implored the Dutch government to free their slaves as well. The Dutch government apparently was not disposed to this because of the precedent it would set for the other Dutch territories and the fact that, financially, it was not in a position to offer the required compensation at the time to the slave owners.
However, within weeks of knowledge of the 1848 Emancipation in the North the incident of runaways to the North "looking for work" increased and so did the sabotage on the plantations and strike action by Blacks in the South. Before the Dutch authorities in Willemstad could respond with the requested increase in soldiers to repress the outbreak of freedom, the authorities in Philipsburg were forced to declare a "process verbal" to treat the Blacks "as if they were free."
Several slave-owners in the Dutch part of St. Martin decided to set their slaves free and pay them for their work rather than let them escape to the North and therefore be left with an acute manpower shortage.
The Martinique-born Francois Auguste Perrinon, son of a freed slave mother, and a major investor in the salt industry in St. Martin, was an abolitionist who hired enslaved Blacks, freed people, and white workers and paid them the same wages. He was therefore able to demonstrate that the enslaved, once freed, would not be a burden on society as those who opposed abolition argued.
Compensation to the slave owners for losing their slaves to the freedom decreed by Emancipation was a sticky issue which was resolved with heavy lobbying by the white plantocracy, merchants and businessmen in the Caribbean with their respective home governments in Europe. The British government allocated some 20 million pounds to compensate slave-owners in the Emancipation Act of 1833 for the loss of their "property" (as slaves were referred too).
In the case of the Dutch, slave-owners in Suriname, where there was an estimated 33,000 slaves, received some 300 guilders per slave, whereas they were paid 200 guilders for each slave on the other territories in the Dutch West Indies (Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius). The Dutch part of St. Martin was treated as a special case because most slaves had become free since 1848, 15 years before the Dutch abolished slavery in 1863.
Slave owners here were paid only 100 guilders per slave because the Government Commission established in 1853 to prepare for the emancipation considered that they had not been dispossessed of their "property" (the slaves) by the State, hence, they did not qualify for "compensation." The 100 guilders they were paid for each slave was viewed as some sort of "relief" or "consideration" for people who had suffered a major misfortune.
When Emancipation was proclaimed on July 1, 1863 in all Dutch territories, there were about 12,000 slaves on the six islands that made up the Netherlands colonial holdings in the Caribbean.
The Emancipation Proclamation
On July 1, 1863, the Governor of Curacao, J. C. Crol, proclaimed the Emancipation of slaves for all the territories of the Dutch kingdom in the Caribbean, at the time known as "Curacao and its Dependencies." This was exactly six months after President Abraham Lincoln issued a similar Emancipation Proclamation for a limited number of states of the United States of America.
The official Proclamation of the Governor of Curacao reads as follows:
Proclamation
___________________The Governor___________________
To the affranchised population of Curacao and dependencies.
In the month October of last year has been proclaimed in your island the law by which it pleased His Majesty, our most gracious King, to decree that on the 1st of July 1863 slavery should ever be abolished in Curaçao and its dependant Islands
That happy day is here now there.
From this moment you are free persons and enter society as inhabitants of the colony.
Most heartily do I congratulate you with the blessing bestowed on you by the paternal care of the King; sincerely may rejoice in the same, but you must also make yourself worthy of this benefit.
In your previous state, you have always distinguished yourself by quite, orderly behaviour and obedience to your former masters: now as free persons, I am fully confident of it, you will orderly and subordinate to the government perform your duty as inhabitants of the colony, working regularly for fair wages, which you may dispose of at your pleasure, to provide for yourself and your family.
The government will attend to your interest and promote the same as much as possible.
If you require advice address yourself to the District – commissary of your district or to the other competent authorities; they shall assist you in everything which may tend to promote your well being
Curaçao, the 1st of July 1863.
Historical data show that indeed, the official Proclamation of Emancipation was celebrated with pomp and pageantry, with the freed people dancing the Ponum under the flamboyant tree, which was already known as the Emancipation or "July Tree" on the island.
It goes without saying that July 1, 1863 was a Public Holiday on "Dutch St. Martin." The celebration, according to historical records, however, went on for about a week.
Emancipation Day in some other Caribbean countries
Rather than July 1, Curacao settled for July 2, to mark what is called the "Dia di Himno i Bandera" ("Flag and Anthem Day"). July 2 is a Public Holiday in Curacao.
In Suriname, National Union Day is observed annually on July 1. It is also known as Emancipation Day, to celebrate the freedom of the enslaved in Suriname, which was a Dutch territory until 1975.
In Anguilla, the first Monday in August, known as "August Monday" signals the start of a festive carnival period which is built around the territory’s Emancipation Day, August 1.
In St. Christopher and Nevis, the first Monday and Tuesday are celebrated as "Emancipation Day" and also Carnival in Nevis.
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico celebrates Emancipation Day, as an official holiday, on March 22.
All in all, many Caribbean countries and territories celebrate Emancipation Day as a Public Holiday. These include Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, to name some.
Political and Popular Support
The cries for Emancipation Day, July 1 to be declared a Public Holiday on St. Martin intensified in the 1980s and received widespread popular support, including backing from several political leaders. However, the drawback seemed to be at the time the fact that the Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles, based in Willemstad, Curacao, would reportedly not look favorably on adding another public holiday solely for St. Martin. That would no longer be the case, apparently, given the new constitutional status of the southern part of St. Martin within the Dutch kingdom since October 10, 2010.
Several cultural organizations, NGOs, trade unions, and media editorials have lent their unconditional support for July 1 to be declared a Public Holiday in St. Martin in commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery on the island.
The Today Newspaper in its edition of July 3, 2009 reported that the island’s labor unions "want Emancipation Day as official holiday for the workers." The report added that "they want this as early as next year."
In its editorial of the same date, Today stated that "Emancipation Day is a very symbolic occasion in the Caribbean region and should never be taken lightly." It added: "We should use the emancipation of slavery as a means to accomplish our true purpose as a people and represent what our forefathers fought for and in many cases were killed for. It is for this very reason why we hope that St. Maarten will one day soon observe Emancipation Day as a national holiday."
In 2005, for example, the Conscious Lyrics Foundation, organized a "Run for Freedom" in collaboration with the House of Nehesi Publishers Foundation and Imbali Center for Creative Movement as a re-enactment of the escape of the enslaved from the Diamond Estate in Cole Bay.
Unofficial celebrations of Emancipation Day have been organized every year by various groups on the island, often with the attendance of elected officials.
As a matter of fact, Democratic Party Leader and the Prime Minister of St. Martin, the Honorable Mrs. Sarah Wescott-Williams, National Alliance Leader, William Marlin and others have not only embraced the idea of celebrating Emancipation Day, but actually delivered addresses to mark the occasion.
In his Emancipation Day address to the people of St. Martin on July 1, 2010, then Leader of Government of the "island territory" of St. Martin, William Marlin stated: "It can be argued, with good merit, I might add, that perhaps the main significance of July 1, 1863 lies in the fact that it was on that date we became St. Martiners in the true, patriotic sense of the word, although the feeling of oneness, of belonging together, surely started long before that in the flats at the Great Salt Pond, which our illustrious poet, Lasana Sekou has aptly described as the "Cradle of our Nation."
During the first budget debate in the Parliament of St. Martin in December 2010, several Members of Parliament voiced their support for the idea of making July 1, Emancipation Day, a National Holiday. They included members from all the factions represented in Parliament. Political support for the National Holiday is therefore assured.
A day as important as July 1 cannot continue to be just another day on the calendar for St. Martiners. Its historical weight and relevance, its significance for our collective self-esteem and dignity, and the transformative cultural process it has unleashed—including claiming the full measure of freedom fought for and won as of 1848 for St. Martin—demand that Emancipation Day be set aside as a National Holiday, as is the case in many other countries in the world, particularly in our Caribbean region.