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Polly Pattullo, “Your time is done now”: Slavery, Resistance, and Defeat: The Maroon Trials of Dominica (1813-1814)
Polly Pattullo, “Your time is done now”: Slavery, Resistance, and Defeat: The Maroon Trials of Dominica (1813-1814), London: Papillote press, 2015, 140 pages. ISBN: 9780957118775
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1“Your time is done now”: Slavery, Resistance, and Defeat: The Maroon Trials of Dominica (1813-1814) is a remarkable piece of work detailing the life of the Maroons in Dominica written by Polly Pattullo, a British journalist who worked for The Guardian for many years. In 2013, she co-founded with Ann Jno Baptiste Papillote Press, an edition company that specializes in fiction and nonfiction books about the Caribbean and Dominica – also known as the Nature Island.
2The first two chapters of “Your time is done now”: Slavery, Resistance, and Defeat: The Maroon Trials of Dominica (1813-1814) are dedicated to showing the growing tensions between the maroons in Dominica and the colonial authorities. The author uses a compilation of scripts of the maroon trials which occurred in Dominica between 1813 and 1814 to show how Governor Ainslie’s ruthless martial law was applied to suppress the maroon communities. Indeed, he wanted to eradicate the maroons’ social organization which he termed “imperium in imperio”, a state within a state (5). Then the reader is given a detailed account of how British officials reacted to Ainslie’s methods before ending with a list of Maroon chiefs who stood as emblematic figures, fought for freedom and should be remembered.
3Academic literature has documented slave narratives with the cases of James Williams in 1838, Frederick Douglass in 1845, Sojourner Truth in 1850, Solomon Northup in 1853 and some slave trials in the USA. Slave narratives were a powerful weapon in the abolitionist fight against slavery by exposing the cruelties of slavery. Most of the time, the aforementioned narratives were autobiographies of runaway slaves whose aim was to fight slavery by speaking truths about the ‘peculiar institution’. Undeniably, they have been and will continue to stand as a remarkable source of knowledge. But little is known of such narratives from the maroons in the Caribbean. Indeed, Jean Pierre le Glaunec pointed out that “the American genre of runaway slave narratives does not exist in the Anglophone Caribbean” (Glaunec, 2014). Therefore, Patullo’s book provides a powerful insight into the lives of the Maroons in Dominica by reporting their words, actions and way of life.
4In the introduction, Bernard Wiltshire explains that the French and Haitian revolutions, respectively in 1789 and 1791, were international events which boosted the maroon spirit. Furthermore, a precise historiography of the island’s occupation by the French and the British governments is given. The introduction also documents the beginning of maronnage and examines how the return of the colonial authorities to the island in 1784 (after French occupation from 1778 to 1784) fed the slaves’ contempt for the British.
5Not only does the author explore the way the Maroons fought slavery by running away, but she also shows the Maroon community was a “civil society” which was “able to conduct something akin to a black economy” (3-4). Maroon communities were often said to be isolated in high mountains but by compiling the trial records, Patullo’s book allows the names and the voices of the Maroons to be heard and to become a real testimony of resistance to slavery and colonial power. As such, this book offers the Maroons a real opportunity to break free from a long tradition of silent history told from a Eurocentric vision. While providing the minutes of the maroons’ trials, the author never interferes with the voices from the maroons. The book is organized in such a way that it does not allow for personal commentaries. On the contrary, the reader is given primary documents and a glimpse at the historical context so as to assemble the pieces and have his/her own interpretation. Indeed, Patullo allows the readers to delve into this historical period without any interactions, directives or stereotypical visions of the maroons or the colonial authority. Nevertheless, Patullo also acknowledges that the voices may have been “filtered through the colonial authority” (2). In doing so, she genuinely provides the readers with the tools to have a reasonable distance with the given facts and therefore lays the basis for further investigation.
6In addition, as said in the introduction to the book, the title “your time is done now” is drawn from the minutes of the trials of a slave called Peter who exhibited a defiant attitude which later on came to characterize the maroon spirit. It is worth noticing that Peter was not a maroon but a slave who was tried for playing a key role in a rebellion called the Hillsborough revolt and misleading Ainslie’s troops in their search of the Maroons. But on the other hand, this expression “your time is done now” also corresponds to Ainslie’s attitude to put an end to the maroons’ existence. Therefore, the reader is free to decide how to interpret the title and the meaning of the book.
7The structure of the book and the way the trials are presented may look repetitive, enumerating the name of the slaves, of their owners (when known), of the offence made, detailing the time spent in the mountains and the judgment (death penalty, banishment for life or flogging); however, this organization stands as a powerful way to highlight a dehumanization process and Ainslie’s cold mechanism. Indeed, he was referred to “as an oppressor of the slave, an enslaver of the free” (10).
8Moreover, in an attempt to methodologically study the maroons’ trials, Patullo lays emphasis on how the maroons kept strong ties with the slaves on the plantations. Indeed, the Maroons were well informed of what was going on the plantations by exchanging either important information or goods. She also highlights the involvement of charismatic rebels in the fight against Ainslie though some of them are said to have prevented children and women from surrendering. However, Patullo gives minimal attention to the role of women within these self-sufficient communities. The well-informed reader cannot help thinking of examples of feminine characters such as Guadeloupian iconic figure Solitude who fought against the reestablishment of slavery in 1802. One may therefore ponder whether she was an isolated figure or a model to be followed.
9Nevertheless, Patullo’s compilation of the minutes of the trials points out that some of the leaders were runaway slaves for about forty years. This durability demonstrates that maronnage was not ephemeral but could be defined as long-standing resilience and resistance to bondage. Indeed, Maroons used their knowledge of the natural environment to form lasting communities which constituted an economic threat to plantocracy. Maroons stood as a token of freedom and therefore came to jeopardize a system which was based on forced servitude.
10While the author argues that Maroon communities were at times joined by “some white runaways from the British” (77), she fails to examine such conversions and see how integrated they were within the communities. One may wonder what the white men’s motives were to join the Maroons. Indeed, were they given the chief’s total trust? Unfortunately, this point is not sufficiently explored and this is probably due to the lack of material necessary to answer such questions as the cases discussed here may have been scarce. However, it lays the basis for further research.
11After demonstrating how governor Ainslie put in place implacable methods to suppress his enemies, the maroons; Patullo focuses on how Ainslie was summoned by his superior, Lord Bathurst, to return to London and explain his proclamations and attitude in the colony. Though many testimonies fustigated Ainslie’s martial laws stating that “it was a pretext [...] for getting a supply of fresh negroes for the plantations of individuals which cannot since the abolition of the slave trade” (p. 136); planters on the island of Dominica praised Ainslie’s achievement. This dichotomy exemplifies the existential struggle between planters who considered slaves as their properties and on the other hand, slaves and runaway slaves who fought to break free from the shackles of slavery. Patullo shows that British officials, who had failed to receive notifications from Ainslie about his methods in Dominica, turned to other officials in Dominica to obtain the minutes of the trials to examine the case. This philosophical and spatial separation helps to contextualize Ainslie’s martial law and the reason why he was not prevented from mechanically suppressing the Maroons because on the island colonial authority seemed to have free exercise of power over the slave population.
12With this book, Patullo demonstrates that the enslaved managed to organize themselves outside the plantations and recreate communities to survive beyond the reach of the white man’s authority. She also claims that “slavery was an act of unconscionable violence. In this regard, was it not pure hypocrisy to condemn an individual, like Ainslie, for violating the so-called law which was itself a violation a natural law” (12). Indeed, the international slave trade was abolished in 1807 but Parliament was still divided over the question of the abolition of slavery. Planters were not ready to let go of their economic interest since slaves were not considered human beings. It took several years and tough battles for William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and many of their contemporaries to make humanitarian considerations prevail over the planters’ economic interests with the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean in 1834. By sacking Ainslie, British officials did not question slavery but they only objected to the methods the governor had used to suppress the maroons which were referred to as “sanguinary” by the Times newspaper in England in 1814 (85).
13Patullo offers a unique experience by allowing the voices of the enslaved people and those who stood against colonial oppression by running away and creating free communities in the mountains to be heard. This remarkable work paves the way for further research about the Maroons in the Caribbean whether they come from the French, English or Spanish speaking worlds, the impact they may have had on the creation of Blackness throughout the African diaspora and the ties the maroons may have maintained between neighboring islands.
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Référence électronique
Freddy Marcin, « Polly Pattullo, “Your time is done now”: Slavery, Resistance, and Defeat: The Maroon Trials of Dominica (1813-1814) », Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [En ligne], vol. 18-n°50 | 2020, document 11, mis en ligne le 25 mai 2020, consulté le 19 mars 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/lisa/11764 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.11764
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