It has long been asserted that many Sabans of European ancestry are
descended from pirates. In the West Indies during the heyday of piracy
people from England, Scotland and Ireland also played a role. The
Reformation made changes in England both at the religious and economic
levels. As the wool business became more important than the tilling of land,
serfs became redundant. England swarmed with dispossessed serfs turned
vagrants who wandered about the country. England wanted some place to
dispose of all these undesirables and unemployed.
The West Indies was considered the best repository for these folks, where
they could work with the dyestuff so essential in the wool business--indigo,
cochineal, logwood. Jamaica captured under Cromwell became a sort of dumping
ground for all undesirables from England. At every turn of the political
wheel the losers were also whirled out of England, many of them ending up in
the West Indies. The Civil War threw out the Royalists, the
Restoration
threw out the Puritans, Scottish Covenanters were shipped overseas, and
Monmouth's supporters, victims of Sedgemoor and the Bloody Assize, sent
thousands to the West Indies. The lost cause of Bonny Dundee added more to
the export, the Irish 'troubles' shipped out their tally, culminating in the
aftermath of the disaster at the Boyne. The indenture system also supplied
labour to the colonies for a matter of fifty years or more, until black
permanent slaves kidnapped from Africa replaced them, Tens of thousands of
white men, women and children were ferried across the seas and sold into a
curious kind of temporary bondage on the plantations. Even young children,
preferably over eight years of age, were kidnapped and sold into slavery.
One of the kidnappers or 'spirits' as they called themselves, boasted he had
carried away and sold an average of five hundred children a year for a
period of twelve years. From the politically undesirable to criminals, all
kinds were lumped together and sold by their Government into seven-year
bondage. The servants were lucky if they were not tricked into permanent
indenture, and lived to survive the ordeal. They ranged in quality from
politically radical intelligentsia, teachers, and professional men to the
worst kind of footpad and pimp. An uneven grist for a harsh and brutal mill.
Many of our ancestors came to the West Indies in this fashion. One of those
who survived the ordeal calls to mind why many of our ancestors became
pirates:
Being now at liberty, though like unto Adam, when he was first created
by the hand of his Maker--that is, naked and destitute of all human
necessities, nor knowing how to get any living--I determined to enter into
the wicked order of the Pirates or robbers at sea. Into this society I was
received with common consent both of the superior and vulgar sort and
amongst then I continued.
The indenture system, as a means of stimulating emigration to the New
World, lasted until indentured white servants became gradually replaced by
black African slaves who proved in the long run much more satisfactory, but
during the great days of piracy the indenture system was in full swing. This
iniquitous program contributed directly towards piracy. The human flotsam
drifting about the Caribbean after having been evicted from St. Kitts in
1629 turned to piracy. Repeated reports speak of Saba as being an
independent pirate republic having her own flag with a cabbage-palm in the
corner. The 'Canadian Magazine' (1914), has the following to say:
And here the rough ancestors of these Saba men hoarded their plunder
unmolested, long after Teach was a mutilated corpse and Morgan a
respectable Governor of Jamaica; whereas Saba was attacked by English,
French, and Dutch in turn, though never subdued, till wearying of it all,
they asked Holland to take them under her flag, which today with a
cabbage-palm in the corner, is their national emblem.
Another magazine article says:
The fortunes of Saba have followed those of their neighbor Statia. The
island is too small, too unfertile and too inaccessible for its
inhabitants ever to have been able to subsist independently. In the old
buccaneering days it can have served only as a last refuge and a safe
depository for the spoils of the pirates driven there from the other
islands, when the palmy times of piracy were over. Having no vestage of a
harbour, or even a safe roadstead, the buccaneers had to careen their
ships, as their descendants do to this day, in the Virgin Isles, a day's
sail to the North, But once landed in Saba they were safe from any attack,
however well concerted. The ravine would be a veritable death-trap for an
invader, defensible with ease by a few determined men lying among the
rocks to each side of the narrow defile. The only other gateway to the
stronghold is appropriately called "The Ladder" and consists of more than
a thousand steps, steep and narrow, leading from the water, almost
perpendicularly up the cliff at the western end of the crater. Scaling
this rock ladder, even under the easiest of conditions, is a feat by no
means easy or pleasant; and a single man at the top with two riffles could
stop an army from advancing a dozen paces. But, as if even this were not
enough to render these desperadoes safe in their last resort, a circular
depression at the very highest point in the island commanding an outlook
on all sides has been roughly strengthened where the only track across
runs near it, and testifies by its name "The Rendezvous", to its former
purpose. Midway between the two towns, it was here that the last stand
would have been made by the men of Bottom and Windward, English and Dutch,
combined for once in the face of danger.
A Commander of Saba, Edward Beaks, Jr., was dismissed in the midst of his
career because of allegedly being too lenient to the pirates. By Executive
Decree of 20th December 1828, Governor General Cantz'laar discharged him and
appointed the author's great-great-grandfather Richard Johnson, as
provisional Commander. He was 71 then, and was the eldest member of the
Council of Policy. After February 4th, 1830, upon the death of Richard
Johnson who repeatedly had asked his dismissal because of 'advanced age and
consequent debility', the next in line was Henry Johnson Hassell who
functioned until Thomas Dinzey Winfield was appointed Commander on May 5th,
1830 and served until his death on June 10th, 1836. At that time Edward
Beaks, Jr. was reinstated and served until his death in 1862.
In 1828, on August 13th the Caraboo, a pirate ship, was anchored off
Ladder Bay. Part of the booty captured elsewhere was landed and sold. The
Caraboo had been captured off Gibraltar by a pirate ship named 'Damas
Argentinas'.
The Caraboo was taken to St. Eustatius and the cargo estimated at 28,000
Engl. pounds. An English Man-of-War investigating the incident discovered
the 'Damas Argentinas' in the harbour of St. Eustatius. They forcefully took
her to St. Kitts, hanged 21 of the pirates and released 5 because of their
being minors and therefore not accountable for their deeds. The Dutch
Government made an investigation into the piracy matter and as a result
dismissed Edward Beaks, Jr. from the office of Commander with the provision
that he could never hold public office again. However in 1837 he was
reinstated after a petition by the Council and 120 citizens of Saba who were
able to prove to the Dutch that Commander Beaks had been helpless to do
anything about the matter.
Another incident happened during the short period that my
great-great-grandfather Richard Johnson was Commander. Although the
historian M.D. Teenstra, who visited Saba in 1829, describes him as a
71-year old man who had never been off the island, nevertheless, he is given
credit for capturing a pirate ship anchored at Ladder Bay. According to
Willie Johnson of the 'Morning Star' grocery (also great-great-grandson of
Commander Richard Johnson), the commander was given a sword and a silver
chalice with the inscriptions by the British Government. According to Willie
it was the Caraboo that he captured. One of his grandsons, Willie's father
Peter Ignatius Johnson of 'Bra', made a scraper out of the sword to clean
his potatoes with (so much for history) and the silver chalice was sent to
the Masonic Lodge in St. Thomas. The pirate ship in question during
Commander Johnson's time was the 'Governor Dorego' from Buenos Aires under
the Command of the pirate Alexander Bariteau. It had in tow the three masted
Brazilian schooner the 'Libre'. This all took place in April 1829. Commander
Johnson is said to have seized both ships and turned them over to the Dutch
Man-of-War the 'Valk' under the command of Commander van Es who took the
pirates back for trial to Surinam. The pirate Bariteau was sentenced on
September 29th, 1830, to twenty years of forced labour, his second in
command Stevan Donay to 15 years. Manuel Echonis and Charles Stuart were
each sentenced to 3 years, while Eugene Governou and the rest of the crew
were deemed innocent and were granted their freedom.
The most notorious of the former Saba pirates was Hiram Beaks, a nephew
of Governor Edward Beaks, Jr. His name appears in the book of 'Who's Who in
Piracy'. He operated as far away as the Mediterranean and is reported to
have eventually died in a naval battle off the coast of Holland.
Saban pirates were also active in the waters of nearby St. Maarten. The
'Man-Of-War Shoal' on St. Maarten which got its name from the British
Man-Of-War the 'Proselyte', which went aground there in 1802, was allegedly
the scene of a shipwreck. The late Wallace B. Peterson of St. Maarten once
told me that he had heard that before the 'Proselyte', a Man-Of-War in hot
pursuit of a Saban pirate had been purposely led over the reef by the Sabans
where it had been shipwrecked.
The legacy of the pirates served us well in later years as our people
continued to make a living from the sea. As St. Eustatius grew in
importance, Captains from Saba served first on slaveships bringing slaves
from Africa to St. Eustatius. Later on when it grew into an important
commercial center, Sabans found employment as sailors and captains on
locally owned as well as American schooners and served as gunrunners during
the American Civil War.
Sabans have also fought in South American Wars. During the revolution
against Spanish authority in Latin America the great Liberator himself Simon
Bolivar visited Saba and recruited a number of men who went along with him
to fight for the independence of Venezuela. From the records kept at the
time we read:
March, 31st, 1816, the Republican Squadron raised anchor towards the
harbour of Saba where it stayed till the 26th of the following month.
On November 26th, 1894, the presence of Dr. Francois Moanack, then
Ambassador-at-Large to the Caribbean from Venezuela and a number of other
distinguished visitors, the ceremonial unveiling of a bust of the Liberator
Simon Bolivar took place on Windward side, as a remembrance of this historic
event.
Our people who trace their roots back to Africa, were brought to the West
Indies in large numbers after the introduction of sugar cane by the Dutch in
1640. The West Indies companies established by the various European nations
involved in the slave trade had as a matter of policy the capture,
importation and sale of slaves from the west coast of Africa. They were
shipped to the West Indies via great fortresses on islands along the coast
of West Africa. At the great slave stations in West Africa 600 to 700 slaves
would be loaded naked into a slave ship. Only a third of them would survive
the middle passage from Africa to St. Eustatius, which was the second
largest slave market in the world.
Doctor L. Knappert in his book Geschiedenis van de Bovenwindse
Eilanden in de 18e eeuw, gives a detailed description of the slave
trade. It is interesting to note the various descriptions given by the
Europeans to the races of Africans imported into these islands. The most
sought after slaves were those who came from the interior of the Guinea
coast, the 'Minache' and the 'Lowangenu' from Luanga. There were the
Mandingo, considered the most intelligent, and a tribe of them called the
Fulani. Very few Fulani were taken as slaves. The Fulani were known as
pastoralists and warriors and superior in courage. They were tall,
brown-skinned, thin-nosed and thin-lipped people. There were Coromantees
from the Gold Coast and Whidahs and Fidas who were described as being very
docile. Also from the Gold Coast came the Anamboes; also Asanti and Fantis
of Sierra Leone who were described as being very black and very strong. The
Asanti were Akan or Ture speaking people from around Central Ghana with
their capital at Kumasi. There were also reports that the blacks from the
Tio Calabra and Del Rey in the Cameroons were stubborn and bad, committed
suicide and caused slave rebellions.
On Saba slavery was not the same as on the typical plantation islands so
that as a result whites were always in the big majority throughout the
slavery period. Slavery was officially abolished in the Dutch colonies on
July 1st, 1863. Here on Saba, echoes of Africa persist in extended family
structure and in the powerful loyalty to local communities. Elsewhere in
this book there is a list of the surnames of the slaves who were freed. Many
former slaves moved to St. Eustatius in the hope of a better life there
while the reverse is also true of those who were freed at St. Eustatius.
Today many of the surnames on St Eustatius and Saba can be traced back to
this original list. This was the first granting on a large scale of surnames
to slaves. Before emancipation slaves were given only first names. By law it
was prohibited for a manumitted slave to take the name of a Creole (white)
inhabitant of the Dutch colonies. Therefore the owner of a slave who wanted
to free that slave would usually devise a similar sounding name or one of
someone he knew. Many blacks on Saba have former Scottish surnames such as
Wilson, Granger, Maxwell, Dunlock, Windfield, Court, Beale, Leverock etc.,
or Irish names such as Lynch, Barnes and so on giving yet another clue as to
the origin of surnames on Saba. Others were given similar sounding names.
Horton became Sorton, Dinzey became Linzey, thus establishing still existing
links between families whose histories are irrevocably tied together. As in
other West Indian islands there has been quite a lot of mixing of the races
over the centuries. We would like to end by quoting Mr Felix Choisy, former
Deputy Mayor of French St. Martin as quoted in the 'Holland Herald'
magazine. What he says here about St. Maarten, to a large degree holds true
for Saba:
I have traced the roots of quite a few island families, and have
reached the conclusion that it's a misconception that black Caribbeans are
descended from African slaves only. My mother had a Spanish name, and my
maternal grandmother had German and Flemish blood. On my father's side I
have ancestors from Scotland, the Balearic Islands and Portugal. My great
grandmother was an Indian who was taken to St. Barthelemy by a sea
captain. I think I owe my high cheekbones to her. I believe we Caribbeans
are a separate ethnic group, with our own Antillean personality. The color
of our skin is irrelevant. I've seen families change from black to white
and vice versa in three of four generations.
In my research on the families of Saba, and in my own observation of life
unfolding on Saba, I have reached the same conclusion as Mr. Choisy. we are
a Caribbean people! The new Saba rising out of the ashes of slavery,
hardship and poverty, through education, tolerance and understanding hopes
to break with its centuries of isolation, to put its first timid steps into
the 20th century, and to be accepted as a Caribbean island with an identity
of its own among the nations of the West Indies.
Hopefully this will be accomplished in this generation. If not, the next
generation should consider these goals as their cause in life and their
contributions to the present and future West Indian peoples.
