Some Jamaicans want apology for slavery - 11/04/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

Some Jamaicans want apology for slavery - 11/04/2007 - MiamiHerald.com: "BY JACQUELINE CHARLES jcharles@Miamiherald.com KINGSTON, Jamaica -- From symbolic funeral rites to a moment of silence across the English-speaking Caribbean, there have been no shortage of activities to mark the bicentenary of the end of Britain's transatlantic slave trade. But none of the activities this year has sparked the kind of intense debate as the demand for reparations and an apology from Britain. ''An apology is necessary,'' said Verene Shepherd, a history scholar and chairwoman of a committee created by the Jamaican government to lead the island's commemorations. The group, which among other things is pushing for the compulsory teaching of Caribbean history in schools, is even trying to calculate Jamaica's share, if one were to put a price tag on the pain of slavery. The calculations are based on a host of criteria, including the suffering, the mortality of the slaves and what this country's approximate 1.4 million enslaved Africans would have earned as laborers."

Advert and print for the sale of Phoebe, a female slave in Jamaica.: "PHOEBE Jamaica Royal Gazette, Oct. 7, 1826. Spanish-Town Workhouse. Notice is hereby given, that unless the undermentioned Slave is taken out of this Workhouse, prior to Monday the 30th day of October next, she will on that day, between the hours of 10 and 12 o’Clock in the forenoon, be put up to Public Sale, and sold to the highest and best bidder, at the Cross-Keys Tavern, in this Town, agreeably to the Workhouse Law now in force, for payment of her fees. PHOEBE, a Creole, 5 feet 4½ inches, marked NELSON on breasts, and I O on right shoulder, first said to one Miss Roberts, a free Black, in Vere, secondly, to Thomas Oliver, Esq. St John’s, but it is very lately ascertained that her right name is Quasheba, and she belongs to Salisbury-Plain plantation, in St Andrews’s; Mr. John Smith is proprietor. May 11 Ordered, that the above be published in the Newspapers appointed by Law, for Eight Weeks. By order of the Commissioners, T. RENNALLS, Sup."