Did you Know

In this section DID YOU KNOW you will find information about our eminent author Richard Hart who celebrates his 90th birthday in 2007, as well as some of his contextualising material about the sugar trade.

No Small Contribution To Caribbean & British History
Jamaican born, author, historian, international lecturer, life long political activist and lawyer Richard Hart has made no small contribution to our understanding of Black History specifically African Caribbean/British history as it unfolds. In the course
of painstakingly researching, writing and publishing seven books and numerous pamphlets and articles to date, Hart's gift to us is rich in its' legacy. His books illuminate our past and indeed ourselves as people of Caribbean ancestry.


'The truth is' Hart attests,' that we have always been a people of struggle'. His chronicling of Caribbean history, in part British history, from colonisation to independence is no mean achievement. 'We have to realise; Our History is their history, informing Britain's role as a former Colonial Empire. Many of the contributions towards our history as Caribbean people are recorded by colonialists and not the activists, thus it is rare to hear the stories of ordinary people as part of the unfolding story of our struggle to define ourselves and to write our own history.'

In his well received two volume book: 'Slaves Who Abolished Slavery' Hart cites the slave rebellions and uprisings by leaders such as Sam Sharpe, Cudjoe leader of the Maroons and others; that reset the timetable for the abolition of slavery.

'British rule in the colonies depended on a carefully nurtured sense of inferiority in the governed and resulted in the looking down on our African ancestry and the elevation of all things
European. In the Jamaican vernacular it is still common to talk of hair as being good and bad,’ he explains, showing how effectively brain washed we were, or are, some would say, for this legacy remains with us today.

Hart's work to date spans in correspondence: the language of The Arawaks (one of the indigenous peoples of Caribbean) as well as the slave rebellions of the Caribbean. He has researched the detailed workings of a Jamaican plantation, Good Hope, which was amongst several plantations in Jamaica financed by the Miles family, a family of Bristol sugar merchants.

In a series of books, he conveys the political and economic struggle for decolonization in Jamaica and the colonies including a pamphlet entitled ' The Life and Resurrection of Marcus Garvey.'

'People come to history for other reasons. I did because I was embroiled in union and political activities as a law student in Kingston in the thirties.

I was a member of the Labour Committee convened by the late Manley QC (in 1938) to assist in the formation of workers unions particularly the railway workers. I was acting secretary in 1939 to the Trade Union Advisory Council predecessor to the trade Union Council of Jamaica. My father (also a solicitor) had a library full of books on the Caribbean from which I first learned of these remarkable leaders of slave rebellions. I used to recount stories of slave rebellions from the political platform. At first they thought I was mad to speak about history.'

A founder member of the PNP in Jamaica and a member of its Executive Committee from 1940 until 1952. 'In 1940 the English governor of Jamaica was granted war time powers. He signed a bit of paper and locked you up. Many of us had a period of imprisonment, but we had allies in Britain who saw what the government was doing as an attack on the Trade Union movement. Our British allies pressurized the Colonial Office and demanded we be released. ‘It was when scrutinizing the Colonial Office records for the period that I was to unearth that we were deemed as revolutionary elements who were racially antagonistic towards Britain!'

Hart asserts there was a governmental (British) strategy of destabilizing left wing political parties across the region before handing those colonies their independence.

He was appointed Attorney General for Grenada in 1983 by Maurice Bishop following on from a post as a legal adviser for the Peoples Revolutionary Government. He bore
witness to what happened when American troops invaded Grenada.' There are still survivors from the Grenada revolution who are locked up today.'

What is evident through personally knowing Richard Hart and becoming familiar with his work, is the volume of what he leaves us with and the importance of disseminating this legacy.

for more information on Richard Hart see this link