Emotional re-enactment Diamond Estate escape
By John van Kerkhof
COLE BAY--“Early Wednesday, around midnight, a group of people identified as runaway slaves, could be seen crossing the road, hurrying up the slopes of Diamond Hill, rapidly vanishing between the trees and bushes. Only the meagre lights of lanterns assisted them on their way. Shortly after, a man on horseback approached, accompanied by two men with hounds. Several gunshots were fired as the men tried to prevent the group from crossing the border between the Dutch and French sides of the island,†thus could have read the first paragraph of a newspaper report on July 1, 1848, on the escape of 26 slaves from Diamond Estate in Cole Bay running to freedom on the French side.
This historic event, known as the Run for Freedom, was re-enacted on this scenario early Wednesday with much passion and enthusiasm by a group of approximately 100 persons, who took on the roles of fleeing Dutch slaves and their freed peers of the French side.
Like the short but perilous journey of the slaves in 1848, when slavery had just been abolished on the French side, but still existed on the Dutch side, the journey of the “runaway slaves†began at midnight at the Caribbean Auto parking lot to usher in Emancipation Day 2015.
The group, costumed in nineteenth-century clothing trekked barefooted or on sandals through the bushes from Diamond Estate to Bellevue.
Coordinator Clara Reyes said this may very well have been the last possibility to organise a re-enactment on this location, as ongoing development in the area may block off access to hillside paths in the future Read more
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