Junita Dowling

March 2,2016
Preserve Our Heritage
S4
Topic : What was Bermuda like for blacks after Emancipation?
Research Paper
August 1, 1834 the law has passed for black slaves in Bermuda to become free. Six
months later a ship called the enterprise had arrived to Bermuda and had 78 slaves
abroad on their ship, out of the 78 only 72 choose to be free in Bermuda. I believe
that the family of six who was still under slavery thought that the life of being free
in Bermuda wasnt any different from being an unfree slave.
In Bermuda slavery was very woeful and Mary Prince would agree because as a
slave in Bermuda she worked every day for little to nothing and barely got any
sleep, she said I was immediately sent to work in the salt water with the rest of the
slaves. I was given a half barrel and a shovel, and had to stand up to my knees in
the water, from four o'clock in the morning till nine, when we were given some
Indian corn boiled in water. We were then called again to our tasks, and worked
through the heat of the day; the sun flaming upon our heads like fire, and raising
salt blisters in those parts which were not completely covered. Our feet and legs,
from standing in the salt water for so many hours, soon became full of dreadful
boils, which eat down in some cases to the bone.
We came home at twelve; ate our corn soup as fast as we could, and went back to
our employment till dark at night. We slept in a long shed, divided into narrow slips.
Boards fixed upon stakes driven into the ground, without mat or covering, were our
only beds." Mary Prince (1788-c.1833): The First Woman to Present a Petition to
Parliament: The Abolition of Slavery Project." Mary Prince (1788-c.1833): The First
Woman to Present a Petition to Parliament: The Abolition of Slavery Project. Web.
23 Mar. 2016. <http://abolition.e2bn.org/people_37.html>.
Slaver in America was quite different because James Johnson, a 79 year old ex-slave
from Columbia, South Carolina, stated in his narrative that he [felt] and [knew] dat
de years after de war was worser than befo. The Emancipation Proclamation and
the Unions victory in the war secured the freedom of slaves, but with a society
plagued by Jim Crow Laws and segregation, ex-slaves were far from liberated.
Slaves paid the price for their freedom as emancipation introduced new hardships,
insecurities, and humiliation. "The History Engine." History Engine: Tools for
Collaborative Education and Research. Web. 24 Mar. 2016.
<http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/5032>.
A year later in Bermuda, this island had transferred from a slave culture to being
easily free at a certain limit. Freed blacks had a long way to go to attain true
equality. Many kept busy in the same occupations for which they had trained before
emancipation and some even continued to work in the same families with the same
wages while others, found themselves struggling to survive financially once they
had to find jobs to pay for housing and feed their families. (Rosemary Jones 90)
Although in Bermuda blacks were free they were still living under the circumstances
before emancipation. They struggled to buy property because they lack ready funds
and the ones who had money realize that majority of properties were owned by

Junita Dowling
March 2,2016
Preserve Our Heritage
S4
Topic : What was Bermuda like for blacks after Emancipation?
white people and black were not abdicable to them. This made it harder for black
families to better their life because owning land worth 100 pounds 400 pounds
you were allowed to vote and to run as a member for General Assembly which of
course excluded the blacks.