by Jackie Kay
At the Port in the pouring rain.
I couldn’t believe it was
Happening all over again.
I was brought to England
From the Plantation,
I managed to run away.
I was hiding in the hole of a roof
When I heard a bell ringer calling out
For me
FX:
(We hear the bells ringing.)
MACBEAN:
Guinea reward for black girl!
LAMPLIGHTER:
They found me.
And I was sent back to the Plantations.
I remember what was going through
My head as I stood on those cobbles.
I knew exactly what I was going back to.
I remember
Standing there as if I had stopped time.
CONSTANCE:
I remember.
ALL:
West Indian Trade! East Indian Trade!
Baltic Trade!
CONSTANCE:
Money makes the world go round.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Money makes the man.
I remember once hearing BigCheese say
I would rather have my money buried with me
Than give it to the slave.
MARY:
And alas! I am weary, weary O.
CONSTANCE:
Money sets the world in motion.
MARY:
I came under the hammer for money.
I was money for old rope.
CONSTANCE:
My children were sold for money.
MARY:
The BigMan made millions out of me!
CONSTANCE:
Guinea, shilling, penny, florin.
Ingot, silver, copper, farthing.
Buck, fiver, tenner, pony.
Copper, sovereign, nickel, crown.
Quid, bob, bit, pound.
MARY:
Bigbelly made a mint out of me.
BLACK HARRIOT:
His ships came home.
MARY:
Bigbelly laughed all the way to the bank.
BLACK HARRIOT:
His ships came home.
MARY:
BigCheese raked it in.
CONSTANCE:
I cut the cane.
MARY:
Fatface made a fortune.
ALL:
And alas I am weary, weary O.
BLACK HARRIOT:
His ships came home.
SONG:
LAMPLIGHTER (sings):
Look at the sugar ships cross the water.
ALL:
Hey nanny, ho nanny hey nanny no
BLACK HARRIOT:
Look at the big ship taking away my daughter
ALL:
Hey nanny, ho nanny, hey nanny no.
MARY:
There is not a brick in this city
CONSTANCE:
Huff puff. Blow your house down!
BLACK HARRIOT:
Bristol, London, Liverpool, Glasgow
MARY:
There is not a brick in this city
LAMPLIGHTER:
But what is cemented with the blood of a slave
CONSTANCE (sings):
Bristol belongs to me.
MACBEAN:
I put them all in leg irons; and if that not
Be enough, why then I handcuff them;
If the handcuff be too little, I put
A collar round their neck, with a chain
Locked to a ring-bolt on the deck; if one chain
Won’t do, I put two, and if two won’t do, three,
You may trust me for that. These are not cruelties;
They are matters of course. There is no carrying on
The trade without them.
LAMPLIGHTER:
May 22, 1731, the slave ship Neptune
Of Port of Glasgow, dropped anchor in
Carlisle Bay, Barbados.
On board were 144 enslaved Africans
Who had been shackled for nearly a year
With leg irons.
MARY:
And alas! I am weary, weary O
BLACK HARRIOT (sings):
I belong to Glasgow and Glasgow belongs to me!
LAMPLIGHTER:
Some stories don’t have a name to their voice.
I built those houses, brick by brick.
BLACK HARRIOT:
My head is on the red brick Customs House in Liverpool in between the elephants.
LAMPLIGHTER:
The Tobacco Merchant’s House, The Trades Hall,
The Gallery of Modern Art, Venturer’s House:
BLACK HARRIOT:
London, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow belongs to me!
CONSTANCE:
William Cowper,
BLACK HARRIOT:
the poet
MARY:
wrote
CONSTANCE:
I pity them greatly
BLACK HARRIOT:
meaning me
CONSTANCE:
I pity them greatly but I must be MUM
For how could we do without sugar and rum.
MACBEAN:
Instructions sent by the Bristol firm of Isaac Hobhouse. Let your knetting be fix’d breast high fore and aft and so keep ’em shackled and hand bolted. We hope this will find you with a fine parcel of Negroes ready to be put on board. Endeavour to purchase about 100 boys and girls from 10 to 14 years of age. Observe that the Boys and Girls you buy be very black and handsome.
CONSTANCE:
I landed in Barbados brought by the Royal Africa Company.
I was a child. One in six of us were children.
ANNIWAA:
I was a girl once. I wonder if I am still a girl. Maybe, not a girl anymore. Maybe I have grown into a small woman without my mother.
MARY:
I can hardly remember the girl I was or if I was ever a girl.
ANNIWAA:
I am the ghost of the child past. I am your past.
MARY:
I landed in Jamaica in the 1720s. I was a child. They named me Mary MacDonald
MACBEAN:
In 1770 on the slave island of Jamaica
There were one hundred Black people
Called MacDonald;
A quarter of the island’s people
Were Scottish.
BLACK HARRIOT:
My daughters have Scottish blood.
Scotland has my blood.
MACBEAN:
There was a network of Argyle Campbells at least 100 strong in Jamaica. Concentrated in the west with place names such as Campbell Town, Argyle and Glen Islay.
LAMPLIGHTER:
My story is the story of Great Britain
The United Kingdom, The British Empire
BLACK HARRIOT:
In 1756 in Liverpool, there was an auction at the Merchants’ Coffee house for: 83 pairs of shackles, 11 slave collars, 22 pairs of handcuffs, 4 long chains, 34 rings and 2 travelling chains.
CONSTANCE:
1760. In London, an iron gag muzzle specially designed for use on Africans was offered for sale by ironmongers.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Chained two by two
Right leg and left leg
Right hand and left hand
Each African had less room
Than a man in a coffin.
ALL:
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Scene 14: Shipping News
MACBEAN (slowly):
Buryed a man slave. Number 84.
Buryed a boy slave no 47.
Buryed a girl slave no 126.
Finally. Into the seas. Moving steadily
And filling. Cyclonic becoming Northwesterly.
Severe Gale 9, Later.
New High expected by same time tomorrow.
LAMPLIGHTER:
By same time tomorrow.
MACBEAN (despondent now):
The moon that night was cleaved in
half,
The night the ships landed in the Americas.
The slaves were shined and sold.
When the ships unloaded their slaves,
The ship’s shelves were reloaded with sugar,
Tobacco, rum, heading for London, Liverpool,
Glasgow. Rum weather.
Moderate, not good. Fog thick as syrup.
Visibility poor.
Shannon. Rockall, West or Northwest,
Backing Southwest 6 to 8.
Occasionally very high in the West, sole.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Becoming very Rough.
Rough.
Rough or very rough.
Becoming very Rough.
Rough, very Rough.
Becoming very Rough.
MACBEAN:
And that is the end of the shipping forecast.
Scene 15: Resistance
CONSTANCE:
August 14th 1791. At a Voodoo service in Saint Dominique, a woman becomes possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrifices a black pig, and speaking in the voice of Ogoun, she names those who must lead the call for resistance.
(The women whisper to each other, plotting. Sound of burning, rackling, celebrating.)
MACBEAN:
Made a timely discovery today that the slaves were forming a plot for insurrection. Punishment: Gelding or chopping of half of the foot with an axe.
CONSTANCE:
The passing on, quick – quick, of an idea
Is irrepressible.
LAMPLIGHTER:
I can write it down! I will write it down and pass it on. This is a letter from me to my ancestors.
CONSTANCE:
This is the story of the Lamplighter
LAMPLIGHTER:
First, they wouldn’t let me publish it.
They tried to censor it.
Eventually I managed it.
MACBEAN:
Glasgow. 1792. 13,000 residents put their name to a petition drawn from a non-Conformist movement to abolish slavery. The movement to end slavery in the British Empire in the eighteenth century is likely the first human rights campaign in history.
BLACK HARRIOT:
April 2nd 1792.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Pitt to the House
MACBEAN:
We may now consider this trade as having received its condemnation;
CONSTANCE:
Condemnation
MACBEAN:
that its sentence is sealed;
MARY:
Sealed!
MACBEAN:
that this curse of mankind is seen by the House in its true light;
LAMPLIGHTER:
true light
MACBEAN:
and that the greatest stigma on our national character which ever yet existed, is about to be
BLACK HARRIOT:
removed.
MACBEAN:
And, Sir, I trust, we are now likely to be delivered from the greatest practical evil that ever has afflicted.
BLACK HARRIOT:
the human race –
MACBEAN:
from the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in the history of the world!
LAMPLIGHTER:
Immediate, not gradual abolition!
BLACK HARRIOT:
Watch the fire spread!
CONSTANCE:
A rebellion could start in the north of the island
And move to the south in seconds –
Minutes, the fire of the idea sweeping faster
Than the bush
MUSIC:
(The sound of drums beating.)
BLACK HARRIOT:
We’d see the fire on the other plantations
And that was our sign!
MARY:
The Rebellion in Grenada
BLACK HARRIOT:
And the Rebellion in St Vincent
CONSTANCE:
Tacky’s Rebellion, Jamaica
MARY:
Providence Rebellion
MACBEAN:
Am I not a man and a brother?
LAMPLIGHTER:
Am I not a woman and a sister?
MACBEAN:
Jan 1st 1804. Saint Dominique achieves the only completely successful slave rebellion in world history and becomes the Republic of Haiti.
In exchange for diplomatic recognition by Great Britain, Haiti must agree to pay France 150 million gold francs compensation for the loss of “property”, including slaves.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Schools were closed. Education stopped. Freedom stopped.
MACBEAN:
It took Haiti one hundred years to pay the ‘liberty debt’.
CONSTANCE:
One slave rebellion after another.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Bermuda.
MARY:
Boni Rebellion, Surinam.
CONSTANCE:
New River revolt, Belize.
Fedons rebellion, Grenada.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Getting – closer
MACBEAN:
On the 25th of March at Noon
the Bill to Abolish the British slave trade
is signed into law by George III.
BLACK HARRIOT:
What happened?
MARY:
What changed?
LAMPLIGHTER:
More slave ships sailed the shark filled sea.
CONSTANCE:
More beatings for you, for me.
FX:
(We hear cheering and celebrating in a distant country. Sound of drums.)
BLACK HARRIOT:
The Easter Rebellion, Barbados.
Second Maroon war, Jamaica.
MARY:
Cuffy Rebellion, Berbice.
Tula Rebellion, Curaçao.
CONSTANCE:
Coming soon.
BLACK HARRIOT:
The Demerara Rebellions.
Christmas revolt, Antigua.
St Kitts uprising.
MACBEAN:
Bee it enacted by the kings most excellent majestie that it shall not be lawfull for any negroe or other slave to goe or depart from his masters ground without a certificate from his master, mistris or overseer; and every negroe or slave soe offending shalbe sent to the next constable, who is hereby enjoyned and required to give the said negroe twenty lashes on his bare back well layd on.
CONSTANCE:
Pumpey’s revolt Bahamas.
Uprising, Courland Bay, Tobago.
New year revolution, Dominica.
MARY:
One island after another.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Bring it on!
CONSTANCE:
Closer coming soon.
BLACK HARRIOT:
A tinder spark from one small island
Can easily land on another.
Bring out the conch shells and the horns!
MACBEAN:
Am I not a Man and a Brother?
LAMPLIGHTER:
Am I not a Woman and a Sister?
MARY:
Eventually, on my last legs
At the end of the day,
I was too tired to get away.
I kept the Lord beside me.
Amen.
BLACK HARRIOT:
I had my own spirit. I was never going to let them break me.
ANNIWAA:
All of a sudden, some men come and take us.
LAMPLIGHTER:
I was spirited away.
MARY:
In the name of the father, the Spirit and the Holy Ghost.
CONSTANCE:
My children were spirited away.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Am I not a Woman and a Sister?
MARY:
Am I not a Woman and a Sister!
BLACK HARRIOT:
Immediate, not gradual abolition!
MARY:
The Jamaican Christmas Revolt was organised by Sam Sharpe
.
LAMPLIGHTER:
I’d rather die on yonder gallows than live in slavery.
MACBEAN:
The Revolt started in St James and spread through the whole island. It lasted eight days.
FX:
(Cane fields on fire.)
MACBEAN:
On Friday, July 26, 1833, the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery passes its second reading in the House of Commons after an agreement is reached to generously compensate the slave owners. ‘Thank God,’ says William Wilberforce, ‘that I should live to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of Slavery.’
SONG:
(Spiritual.)
ALL (sing):
I went down in the valley one day
Good Lord, show me the way
Talking about that good old way,
Good Lord, show me the way.
LAMPLIGHTER:
On a sweltering night before the 1st of August 1838, the Baptist church in Falmouth, Jamaica, hung its walls with flowers. A coffin was inscribed: Colonial Slavery died July 31 1838.
The coffin was filled with British slavery – chains, collars, whips.
MUSIC
Scene 16: Freedom
LAMPLIGHTER:
This is the story of the Lamplighter:
One day, I finally managed to tell
My story. I wrote it down.
It was printed and reprinted
And told.
And retold again.
MARY:
At the end of the long day
I found a free man
Who loved me, even though
I was scarred all over.
He’d kiss me gently,
And hold my rough hands
To his face.
His voice was rich, melodious.
He tried to buy my freedom
FatMan wouldn’t let me go.
BLACK HARRIOT:
My children
Were his children.
I could always see his eyes in their eyes.
I don’t know where they’ve gone.
What’s become of them.
(With bravado.)
They haven’t had anything
I didn’t have.
I never knew my mother.
And I managed. Life’s tough!
SONG:
(Spiritual repeated.)
ALL (sings):
I went down in the valley one day
Good Lord, show me the way
Talking about that good old way,
Good Lord, show me the way.
CONSTANCE:
My children are scattered,
Maybe dead, maybe alive.
I wonder if I will ever see my wise boy,
My bean girl, if they’ll ever
Try and come and find me.
LAMPLIGHTER:
And one day the years caught up with me
I turned round, and there they were,
All the years,
ANNIWAA:
There I was
LAMPLIGHTER:
The years, facing me. Her hair plaited with thread. She has climbed down from the tree. She is wearing her mother’s yellow head-tie. Her arms on her hips