Should Harvard Pay Reparations to Antigua?

written by Cassy

In light of the recent and unjust deaths of African-Americans such as Breonna Taylor, for who many are still demanding justice, the U.S. has been rocked to its core. The world, Americans, corporations, and even academic institutions have been forced to address their relationship with racism. For many prestigious and historical institutions such as Harvard University, such connections to our country’s history of slavery have opened memories of a rather dark past.

 Harvard Law School, founded in 1817, was a hot topic after it became public knowledge that the school could trace its roots to Antiguan slaveowner Isaac Royall Jr. Royall who was born in Antigua in 1719, amassed a considerable amount of wealth trading rum and sugar while using Antiguan land and slaves to do so. In his will, he left a considerable amount of his Massachusetts land to Harvard College which was used for the first professorship in law. This ultimately led to the founding of Harvard Law School. 

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The seal for Harvard Law School was Royall's family coat of arms and was adopted by the Harvard Corporation in 1936. In 2016, the seal became an object of contention because of Royall’s slaveholding in Antigua. After weeks of protests and Harvard’s Black Tape incident (where the portraits of Harvard’s Black Law professors were vandalized with black tape), the university decided to remove the Royall family’s coat of arms as the official seal.

On October 30, 2019,  Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister- Gaston Browne wrote an official letter demanding the university pay reparations “...for the gains Harvard enjoyed at the expense” of Antiguan slaves. Browne’s letter draws references to the direct connection between Harvard Law School’s founding being the result of free slave labor. The land gifted to Harvard Law School would have been purchased using money from profits made as a direct result of slavery.

While Prime Minister Browne’s letter acknowledged the efforts made by the university, he highlights that it is not a full rectification of Harvard’s obligations to Antigua. 

“Reparation is not aid; it is not a gift; it is compensation to correct the injustices of the past and restore equity. Harvard should be in the forefront of this effort”, the Prime Minister wrote.  

While critics may view this as a mere request for money, the Prime Minister wants reparations to be paid to the University of the West Indies. The proceeds would be used to offer financial assistance to descendants of Antiguan slaves on the campus in Antigua and Barbuda. 

During the colonial era, the plantation owner and the wealthy benefactor of Harvard’s first law professorship in 1815, retains a legacy through Harvard’s distinguished Royall Professor of Law. The title is currently held by Dr. Janet Halley. To analyze Prime Minister Browne’s request one must take a look into the past —a past that ironically enough is colored crimson with the blood and sweat of Antiguan slaves.

Let’s start with the  Antiguan Slave Conspiracy of 1736.  The origins of slavery in Antigua can be credited to the sugar trade of the eighteenth century. Before the Spanish discovered the islands of the Caribbean, very few Europeans had tasted sugar. Upon its discovery in the early 17th century, the colonial powers of the time, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark went to work cultivating sugar cane plantations from Trinidad & Tobago to Puerto Rico. Once a luxury commodity, sugar now became more accessible to Europeans, and with high demand and lowered prices, white plantation owners in the islands became some of the wealthiest merchants of their day.

Even though the island is only 11 miles wide, Antigua’s climate along with its harbors and trade winds were the driving factors behind the success of windmills that refined cane. The conditions were perfect for growing this “White Gold.” To find people to harvest the crop on the other hand presented a huge obstacle. 

Sugar cane is tough and fibrous, requiring a lot of force to cut it down. Once cut, the crop would be shipped to the “boiling houses” where large fires are kept burning day and night to heat the cane and harvest its juices. The first workforce for these plantations were indentured servants. In the case of Antigua, poor Irish and English workmen became indentured servants. However, the work proved too laborious for them. As a result, many abandoned their work and moved to colonies in North America, leaving Caribbean plantations in need of laborers. Slavery in turn became the choice method for free labor.

By 1736, African slaves made up 85 percent of the Antiguan population, a number of plantation owners grew wary over. White planters formed militias and banned the slaves from congregating together. The mere whisper of revolt resulted in an immense show of force through elaborate trials and numerous executions. Regardless the inevitable occurred. Tensions came to a high in 1735, when a severe depression and earthquake caused plantation owners to cut costs including the costs of feeding and housing slaves. The resultant instability concurred with a successful slave rebellion in the Danish Virgin Islands. This culminated in the massacre of many local planters and the establishment of slave rule in the territory. 

Thus, the stage was set for the Antiguan slaves to find their revolutionary leader. Prince Klass, a slave turned free man, also known as “Court,” is revered as a national hero. Dr. David Barry Gasper, considered an expert on the slave trade in the Caribbean, says Klaas was one of the masterminds who concocted a plot to overthrow white rule on Antigua. The conspiracy called for numerous slaves from different plantations to destroy the island’s planters in a singular explosion. The plan became a reality in 1736 when the slaves smuggled a 10-gallon barrel of gunpowder into a building where the planters met for an evening ball and blew it up. 

Slaves rose up, murdered their masters, and then marched to the capital from all directions. Once the massacre was over, Prince Klaas would be named as the leader of a new Black kingdom on the island. This victory, however, was short-lived. Slaveowners exacted retribution. Upon Prince Klaas’ and his chief lieutenant Tomboy’s confession, they were put to death. Altogether 132 enslaved persons were convicted; 88 executed, five by the breaking wheel, six by gibbetting, and 77 were burned at the stake.

Fast forward to 2020. Universities across the U.S. have sought and continue to reckon their ties to chattel slavery. Princeton Theological Seminary pledged $27 million in reparations to the descendants of slaves. It released the funds in the form of scholarships. The Virginia Theological Seminary also created a $1.7 million reparations fund. Additionally, the University of Pennsylvania established the Slavery Project in 2017 to explore and research the school’s historical connections to slavery among its funders, trustees, and faculty.  Yale University which is named after slave trader and merchant Elihu Yale, established the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition which includes but not is limited to researching  Yale’s legacy with slavery. 

Many academic institutions are still in the process of evaluating their connection to slavery. It is a herculean effort when one thinks about institutions can rectify the injustices slavery has caused. It’s a big part of Caribbean-American history as first-generation children of immigrants growing up in a country where historically prominent families have built generational wealth from the free labor of Black slaves. From history classes to Black Lives Matters the U.S. has stressed the importance of acknowledging these historical atrocities and learning from them.

While many West Indian immigrants are afforded the lifestyle not given to their enslaved ancestors, the question remains: Should Harvard Law School pay reparations to the descendants of  Antiguan slaves? 

Given this period of history in the U.S. and how such institutions have profited from free labor, many critics of chattel slavery would respond with an adamant “yes!” Others are indifferent, and some take the stance that the past is the past. What’s your opinion?

It’s important to note that as of October 1, 2020, Harvard Law School has not announced any form of reparation to paid to the country of Antigua and Barbuda.