henry dundas toronto

However, these essentially echoed the goals of the 1788 Consolidated Slave Law, passed by the slaveowner-controlled Jamaican House of Assembly, which were meant to preserve slavery, not abolish it. Henry Dundas, Empire and Genocide By Melanie J. Newton Melanie J. Newton is an Associate Professor of History and the former Director of the Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto. In the 1790s, faced with the epoch-defining choice to either align Great Britain with freedom or slavery, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and his ministers unequivocally chose slavery. My answer is simple: change has to begin somewhere and names mean everything. These kinds of superficial arguments suggest a selective reading of complex historical materials. The street is named after Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville from Edinburgh, Scotland. Scholarly work about Henry Dundas has virtually ignored his handling of indigenous interests in the North American territories controlled by Britain. We can never know whether or not that might have been true; to pursue counterfactualism as truth is to enter the realm of “alternative facts”. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western suburbs and several cities in southwestern part of the province. Over the last few months, Dundas has been politically exhumed on both sides of the Atlantic. Only one active session is allowed per subscriber. Modern arguments defending the necessity of Pitt’s efforts to expand Britain’s slaveholding empire in order to undermine France echo the recent statement by US senator Tom Cotton, who described slavery in his country as a “necessary evil”. Gaining control of the French colony of Saint Domingue, the most profitable slaveholding colony of the age, was his central aim. Toronto City Council is to launch a public consultation over renaming a street named after 18th-century Scottish politician Henry Dundas. These debates are not new to the Caribbean and Colston was not the first slave trader whose monument ended up in the ocean. These men were celebrated not in spite of the fact that they were white supremacists and, in some cases, mass murderers… but because of it. The case led to a 1778 ruling, similar to the more famous decision in the 1772 case of enslaved man James Somersett, in which an English judge ruled that there was no positive law in England that could empower a slave owner to force an enslaved person back to a slaveholding jurisdiction. The supposed intentions of a historical figure like Dundas, dead for more than 200 years, are rarely knowable after the fact. Across the pond, Dundas Street is a major historic arterial road in Ontario. Like Edinburgh, Toronto’s Dundas Street is named after Henry Dundas, the 18th century Scottish politician who delayed Britain’s abolition of slavery by 15 years. Between 1793 and 1798, across the Caribbean, 40,000 British troops, most of them sent there by Dundas, died or were incapacitated in a bloody struggle to expand the frontiers of British slavery. With France financially devastated by the war, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the US. An online petition made to change to name of Dundas Street as a result of Henry Dundas' opposition to the British abolition of slavery in the 18th century, according to CP24.. Haitian independence, the Louisiana Purchase and the end of the Pitt era in Parliament are the backdrop to British slave trade abolition in 1807. The Henry Dundas Committee for Public Education on Historic Scotland [1] wishes to highlight important evidence that has been ignored — evidence that shows that Dundas was an abolitionist. The colonial government ordered the transportation of thousands of indigenous Vincentians to nearby Balliceaux Island, where British forces held 4,476 Garifunas prisoners for months. on Wednesday, June 10, 2020. called to remove the Henry Dundas statue from St Andrew Square’s, Son of slaver Dundas + Colonialist Profiteer’. British forces hunted down indigenous Vincentians across the island, massacring entire villages and destroying Garifuna autonomy. I have spent countless hours in the archives of the British empire. Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, PC, FRSE (28 April 1742 – 28 May 1811) was a Scottish advocate and "independent Whig" politician. Others, notably one of Dundas’s descendants, claim that Dundas was actually an opponent of the slave trade. Parliamentary critics presented evidence that the British had used dogs to hunt Maroons down. But now clamour is growing for the removal of the statue of Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount Melville, from St Andrew Square in Edinburgh as awareness has … Meanwhile, in Grenada, Dundas’s forces suppressed an abolitionist uprising that lasted for eighteen months from 1795-96, led by enslaved people and a free man of colour named Julien Fédon. He held a lot of power when, realistically, no one overseeing how Until recently, few Scots who stood under the shadow of Edinburgh’s Melville Monument or sauntered along Dundas Street; or Canadians who walked down Toronto’s Dundas Street and gathered in Dundas Square, or residents of Dundas, Ontario, knew or cared that Henry Dundas (1742-1811), first Viscount Melville, was Home Secretary from 1791 to 1794, Minister for War and Colonies from 1794 to 1801 and First Lord of the Admiralty from 1804 to 1805. What stopped Pitt and his government in Saint Domingue was not their own misgivings, or parliamentary abolitionists, or the French, or the British public… but enslaved rebels in Saint Domingue, the British empire’s Vietnam. During a press briefing this week, Mr Tory said: “We have been clear about that, at the same time acknowledging that it still exists in 21st century Toronto and that there has been plenty of anti-Black racism in Toronto's past. Apologists for Dundas point to his role as an advocate representing an Afro-Jamaican man, Joseph Knight, in his freedom suit in Scotland in the 1770s, as evidence of Dundas’ abolitionism. It is irresponsible revisionism for certain historians to assert, on the basis of no sound evidence, that, had it not been for the unfortunate business of the war with France, Dundas would have supported abolition. Dundas defended these actions, stating that “The Maroons had been treated with humanity and attention.”. In addition to Dundas County, Dundas Street, an early settlement, military, and post road, was named after Henry Dundas. HIS name was usually only known to students of Scottish history and researchers in the slave trade. The sight of British protesters dumping the statue of slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour will likely be one of the enduring images from the anti-racism protests currently sweeping the world. On street names and monuments: Toronto's Dundas Street is named after Henry Dundas, the 1st Viscount Melville. Dundas had nothing to do with the eventual success of slave trade abolition. Across the United States, confederate monuments and symbols have been torn down or banned from public life. But his complicated historical legacy – which included delaying slavery abolition for 15 years – is under greater scrutiny. No scholar who is really committed to this subject thinks Dundas was an abolitionist. ", "Renaming a major street or public space does create many practical challenges, but we should have a process that can examine our very important and relevant historical questions, along with all of the practical matters involved if such changes were to be made.". I have men like Dundas to thank for that. ©JPIMedia Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. I can never find that name, it is lost to history, it is lost to me. Britain had seized St. Vincent from France in 1763, part of the empire’s expansionist vision for slavery and sugar production – however, the Garifuna controlled about half of the island. Mr Lochend, who began the petition, told Toronto’s National Post that keeping Dundas’ name on the street was ‘particularly galling’. In a recent public event, Diana Paton, William Robertson Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh, accurately summed up the debate among serious scholars of the slave trade about whether or not Dundas was an abolitionist by stating emphatically that there is no such debate. Far from contributing to the slave trade’s abolition, Dundas’s ‘gradual abolition’ resulted in an immediate, devastating and unprecedented escalation of transatlantic human trafficking. Britain slunk out of Saint Domingue in defeat as Napoleon rose to power in 1798-99. Much of the discussion about Dundas is narrowly focused on the 1792 parliamentary slave trade abolition debate, when he inserted the word ‘gradual’ into William Wilberforce’s abolition bill, which passed in the House of Commons. The impetus for this removal stems from the person these designations sought to honour: Henry Dundas, 1 st Viscount Melville. Noble descendant of Henry Dundas calls in to defend ancestor in street renaming debate ... 2020. Toronto Mayor John Tory will look into changing the name of the street and a task force will be assembled within 30 days to look into the matter. In 1796, he opposed immediate abolition as politically inconvenient in the context of the British war against emancipation, racial equality and democracy in France and the Caribbean. Sound historical analysis cannot just take historical figures at their word. Like Edinburgh, Toronto’s Dundas Street is named after Henry Dundas, the 18th century Scottish politician who delayed Britain’s abolition of slavery by 15 years. Does the name Dundas matter? It was banished to the Georgetown Botanical Gardens in 1970 when Guyana became a Co-operative Republic, but returned to its original location in front of the law courts in 1990. In Canada, they have persuaded Toronto City Council to consider renaming the iconic Dundas Street that runs through the city. Half of the prisoners died and the survivors were then exiled to Central America. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/henry-dundas-empire-and-genocide/?fbclid=IwAR08KX_7Ghhk8ZQW491U7IlvDQKS-9L5ijuK4IpKXSfRReXs2phhkvQMSC8, Understanding ourselves: Confronting shame, blame and internalised racisms: Reimagining the future? Shop online for new, used and demo digital cameras, buy digital SLRs and video cameras. Dundas was a powerful politician who, among many things, is … Until recently, few Scots who stood under Edinburgh’s Melville monument or sauntered along Dundas Street; Canadians who walked down Toronto’s Dundas Street or gathered in Dundas Square; and residents of Dundas, Ontario, knew or cared about Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, (1742-1811) and his support for the slave trade. Will it undo the past of Indigenous genocide and Black enslavement if city officials in Toronto and Edinburgh publicly acknowledge Dundas’s role as one of British slave traffickers’ most powerful supporters? The petition states that Scottish politician Henry Dundas, whom Dundas Street is named for, has a “highly problematic” legacy which saw him participate in … Ontario's NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who grew up in Hamilton, supported the idea of renaming the Toronto street on Twitter. The weight of the evidence – that Dundas was a man dedicated to a vision of empire built on the mass enslavement of Black people and the mass slaughter of Indigenous Americans – is overwhelming. 295,017 of those people were transported when Dundas was colonial secretary from 1794-1801. In 1795, Dundas threw Britain’s military might against a combined French and Garifuna force for control of the island. Then as now, lawyers’ arguments in court cannot simply be taken as evidence of their own personal beliefs. "That has sparked a discussion about Dundas Street, and other streets and spaces and installations in our city. He added: “Henry Dundas has very little if any impact on British North America other than the fact he purposely obstructed the abolition of slavery and other than the fact he happened to one mates with John Graves Simcoe. In 1804, Saint Domingue became independent from France as Haiti, the second independent state in the Americas. Some of his defenders have pointed out that, during the 1792 debate, he also made recommendations on how to improve conditions for enslaved people. Henry Dundas opposed the abolition efforts of people like William Wilberforce in the British Parliament. In response to a public campaign, Edinburgh City Council has decided to proceed with a plaque on the Melville monument acknowledging Dundas’s role as a defender of the slave trade. Log in for full access to stabroeknews.com. This website and its associated newspaper are members of Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). But interpreting the role of Henry Dundas in the abolition of slavery “is complicated,” the report noted. As Secretary of State for War and Colonies, Dundas prioritised seizing France’s Caribbean slaveholding empire “with the view of enlarging our national wealth and security”. In its second public debate about this issue in three decades, the government of my own country, Barbados, plans to remove the 207-year-old statue of Horatio Nelson, hero of the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar that helped to preserve Britain’s slaveholding Caribbean empire. Melanie J. Newton is an Associate Professor of History and the former Director of the Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto. A FREE roundup of top news from Guyana you might otherwise miss. This island is the homeland (yurumei) of the Garifuna, the Afro-indigenous descendants of African fugitives from enslavement and the indigenous people for whom the Caribbean region was misnamed. Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville Henry Dundas Wiki Henry Dundas was not a good guy. However, the Knight decision had no direct impact on the Atlantic slave trade or slavery in any legal jurisdiction besides Scotland. Dundas’s namesake has been deeply emblazoned across the province. A petition went up today on the site You.leadnow.ca to change the name of Dundas Street in Toronto. Dundas Street, which runs through Toronto and several other southern Ontario cities, was named after Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed Britain’s abolition of … Long before Colston, in 1986, after the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, Haitians threw Port-au-Prince’s statue of Christopher Columbus into the sea. Napoleon reimposed slavery across the empire in 1802, but he too was unable to defeat the rebels. This is a counter petition of this petition calling to rename a major street in Toronto. It is very clear that every one of Dundas’ interventions into the abolition debate, and his policies as Minister for War and Colonies, served immediately to buttress the influence of slave owners and slave traders and commit Great Britain even more deeply to slavery. Those options include renaming Dundas Street as well as other city streets and city assets carrying the Dundas name, retaining the name but adding ceremonial street names and other signage that will address the legacy of Henry Dundas or retaining the name while renaming other city assets with Dundas in its name, such as Yonge-Dundas Square. The period from 1793-1807, after Parliament agreed to ‘gradual’ abolition’, witnessed the most consistently high volume of Africans transported to the British Caribbean in the entire history of the slave trade (574,370, or an average of 38,391 per year). Genealogy profile for Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville Henry Dundas (1742 - 1811) - Genealogy Genealogy for Henry Dundas (1742 - 1811) family tree on Geni, with over 200 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Since the 1750s, enslaved people in Britain like Knight and Somersett, as well as Black and white abolitionists, had challenged slaveholding in metropolitan Britain. , an early settlement, military, and post road, was his central aim good.! Example of this transnational imperial past is the current public debate in Scotland and Canada memorials... Virtually ignored his handling of indigenous interests in the empire in 1802 but. 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