Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SLAVERY IN BELIZE
The nature
of slavery in Belize was very different from that on the sugar plantations. The
cutting of mahogany involved small gangs working in the forest on their own or on a fairly
harmonious level with an overseer. The slaves were armed, with firearms in some cases, to
hunt for food and for protection against the Maya. Skills developed in searching for the trees,
cutting them down and transporting them to the coast involved a position of trust that slave
masters depended on for the continuation of their own way of life.
Manumission
, whereby a
slave would purchase freedom or be freed as a bequest in a will, or simply a gift, was much
more frequent in Belize than in the Caribbean islands - perhaps an indication of the greater
informality of Belizean society. However, treatment was still harsh, with no protection offered
by the law. Owners could inflict up to 39 lashes or imprisonment, and if a slave was hanged for
rebellion the owner could be compensated for financial loss.
Ironically, it was the
Abolition Act of 1807
- which made it illegal for British subjects
to continue with the African slave trade but not illegal to transport slaves from one
British colony to another - that gave the settlers in Belize recognition as
British
subjects
. Belize was clearly not a colony, and therefore slaves could not be transported
from Jamaica. Superintendent Arthur, the British government's representative in Belize,
decided that the settlers were British subjects and therefore forbidden to engage in the
slave trade. The
Abolition Act of 1833
ended slavery throughout the British Empire, and
contained a special clause to include Belize. The Act, however, did not end slavery
immediately: “freed” Africans were to be called “apprentices”, required to work for
forty hours per week for free before being allowed to work for payment. This abuse
continued until full freedom in 1838. Despite inherent immorality in the institution of
slavery, the Act provided for
compensation
to be paid to the owners for the loss of
property, rather than to former slaves for their suffering - and, at £53 per slave, the
compensation paid in Belize was higher than in any formal British colony.
The Colony of British Honduras
The consolidation of British logging interests in the eighteenth century and the
grudging steps towards recognition from Spain led to a form of
British colonial
government
gradually becoming established in Belize. The
Public Meeting
, beginning
in the early 1700s, was the settlers' initial efforts at a rudimentary form of government,
assuming greater importance until the 1730s when they elected magistrates - though
only property-owning white men could vote. Free black men could vote at the Public
Meeting after 1808, though their franchise was limited through higher property
requirements than that of whites.
Burnaby's Code
in 1765 had enlarged the jurisdiction
of the magistrates and allowed laws passed at the Meeting to be enforced by a British
naval captain, though o
cers' reports invariably commented on the lamentable
inability of settlers to keep their own laws.
Britain's early acceptance of some form of responsibility to the settlers led to the
arrival in 1786 of the first
superintendent
, Captain Despard. The of
ce appears to have
been di
cult, often facing an unsupportive Public Meeting, which wanted to run the
settlement without “interference” from London. But gradually, the powers of the
1859
1862
1871
In vain attempt to settle
border dispute, Britain and
Guatemala sign Anglo-
Guatemalan Treaty
On May 12, the Belize
settlements, with boundaries
that still exist today, become
the Colony of British Honduras
Belize became a Crown colony,
with a nominated Legislative
Council
