Ira Berlin wrote that Atlantic creoles were defined by their experiences in the Atlantic world. By those experiences, Creoles became part of the three worlds of America, Europe and Africa. Harry Washington came from West Africa to Virginia and was sold to George Washington. Harry spent many years on several properties belonging to the Washington family. At one point, he was a house slave at Mount Vernon during the beginning years of the American Revolution. Harry was a witness to the talks of freedom and equal rights of men. Once the British promised freedom to any slaves who would join their side, Harry and hundreds of other slaves and indentured servants fled to the British ships to enlist. After several years of fighting, these men and women who promised their loyalty to the British were faced with the prospect of being returned to their owners. Several British men tried to get the black men and women to Europe. One man was successful in getting a group of slaves to Nova Scotia where they were promised land and other concessions. But those who made the voyage found terrible land conditions and were still being subjected to the white man's racism. Harry Washington was one of the many who made the trip to Canada. Thomas Peters took the black settlers grievances to the British government. The Sierra Leone Company offered land grants under certain conditions to new settlers arriving from Nova Scotia. Those promises would never come to fruition, much like the situation in Nova Scotia. Due to the failure to follow through on these promises, several people among the black settlers, including Harry Washington, refused to pay the quit rent which would lead to the appointment of a young and inexperienced governor. Men like Harry Washington spent the better part of twenty years fighting the injustices and treatment that began their lives as slaves. These same individuals were trained and educated in the American Revolution. They elected their own judge and justices of the peace and began to pass laws to help manage the day to day affairs of the Sierra Leone colony. These actions would be mirror images of those of the colonists that lived among these black settlers. Unfortunately, the outcome would not be the same. The men of Sierra Leone would be accused of being armed and dangerous and a threat to the Sierra Leone Company and the colony itself. Additional troops would be brought to the colony in order to suppress the discontented settlers. Several men were killed. Some were banished to other parts of the country. And others were banished across the Sierra Leone River, Harry Washington included. Washington and others who settled in that colony are considered to be part of the Sierra Leone Creole people.
Karen Racine and Beatriz G. Mamigonian (eds.), Human Tradition in the Atlantic World, 1500-1850. http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/Open.aspx?id=292261&src=2.
Accessed 18 June 2012.
I also wrote about Harry Washington. However, I compared Harry Washington to the Maroons that were discussed by Richard Price - which stated that runaway slaves used their African pasts to form communities with New World traditions (Price, 514-515). Harry Washington was a runaway slave as were the Maroons. Harry Washington joined the British military to fight against the American colonies during the American Revolutionary War in hopes of securing freedom for his loyalty to the British Crown. Unfortunately, his independence and freedom were constantly threatened whether it was from the slave owners, white settlers in Nova Scotia, or against the financially powerful Sierra Leone Company. The Maroons also struggled to retain their independence (Price, 517). Harry Washington went to Canada and then Sierra Leone with a group of runaway American slaves. They formed a community due to their common African past, but held onto New World concepts - such as freedom encompassing political rights. Conflicts arose between the black settlers and the Sierra Leone Company because of civil rights - a New World concept - following Price's model of creolization. You made a good essay about Harry Washington and it was interesting to see a different view by making comparison to Ira Berlin.
ReplyDeleteI feel your analysis misses some important elements. Throughout Harry Washington’s life, his culture was dictated to him. When he was a slave of George Washington, his culture was that of an American slave. When he fought for freedom, his culture was that of a black soldier. When his freedom was not delivered to him, he was sent to Nova Scotia only to have much of his culture was dictated to him by the conditions he encountered. At no point did Washington end up in a place by choice. There was never any chance for him to adapt or adopt a culture to call his own. Because of these conditions, I have a hard time accepting Washington’s narrative as an example of “Creolization”. It would have been more compelling to learn how he evolved after he was settled in the colony across the Sierra Leone River.
ReplyDelete