Host Dr. Katherine Smith, director of culture, and Bernadine Louis, director of the Virgin Islands Studies Institute, led viewers through a visit to the free village of Long Look, which dates back to 1776 when the Nottingham Estate’s owners bequeathed the land to 25 of their former slaves. This made it one of the oldest known free black communities in the West. They said it began the territory’s journey toward prosperity and self-determination as they began farming and trading with nearby territories.

“This started the ball rolling for them,” explained Ms. Louis. “It made them independent long before the other enslaved persons became free, and they were not just landowners. They became entrepreneurs.” Many of the territory’s leaders were descendants of those 25 original Nottingham landowners, she said.

Next, they paid a visit to St. Philip’s Anglican Church in the free village of Kingstown, founded by Africans who entered the territory in 1814 after being liberated from four Spanish slave ships known as the Candelaria, the Venus, the Acevedo and the Emmanuela.

“I think that we should know the names of those ships as well as we know the names of the ships that Christopher Columbus entered into the Caribbean upon,” remarked Dr. Smith.

In another segment, Dr. Quincy Lettsome spoke about how the Emancipation Festival has evolved over the decades, starting with the first organised festival in 1953, which looked very different from current raucous festivities. Among simpler events like beach picnics and dances, it featured a competition to catch a greased pig.

”They would let that pig go and it would run and run and if you’d hold it would slip through your hand,” he recalled. “Eventually somebody would catch the pig and that pig would be theirs.”

Ministers’ remarks

In their remarks, VI leaders stressed that the legacies of slavery and emancipation continue to affect the territory to this day.

Premier Andrew Fahie noted that though it has been 186 years since the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, that did not mean that oppression had come to an end in the VI. He pointed out that for years after being freed, ex-slaves were still exploited by their employers due to an “apprenticeship” programme that they had to fight to abolish, and noted that “there has been no formal apology” from the United Kingdom. “There has been no meaningful expression of remorse by those who institutionalise the inhumanity towards our ancestors … while we do not hold any animosity, we all must agree that there must be reciprocity.”

Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley, minister of education, culture, agriculture and fisheries, explained the reasoning behind the theme of the 2020 festival: “be fully free, emancipate yourself from mental slavery,” which he said was especially meaningful as the territory ponders its destiny in light of this year’s constitutional review.

“Too many of our people believe that in the Virgin Islands, we cannot be successful if we are not ruled by the United Kingdom, the nation which enslaved us,” he said. “They are still very uncomfortable with the concept of us ruling our own destiny. This is because for many years, we have been taught that black leaders are incompetent and corrupt. I am here to tell you that we have prospered as people, because of the courage, competence and compassion of our leaders.”

For his sermon, Dr. Melvin Turnbull, chairman of the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee, read from the book of Daniel, concerning three Hebrew boys’ escape from the fiery furnace, in which they were tossed for refusing to compromise their morals.

“What a solid unwavering stubborn faith is needed to withstand all the temptations and trials,” he said. “You ask our forefathers. They have been through it all. This sweat. They bled then died … and that’s why we have the freedom that we have today. For this reason, the Lord encourages us to place our faith in him, so that we can stand.”