We have no hesitation in saying “hats off!” to Mayor Garth Rothwell and the Corporation of the St George’s for the giant step they made during this year’s Peppercorn Ceremony.

I was driven deep into the extensive archives including my own book, Freedom Fighters From Monk to Mazumbo, articles published in The Royal Gazette by historian Edward Harris, and other sources revealing how rocky the road has been leading to the democratic state of the one Bermuda I believe we all ascribe to.

The Mayor’s act of giving the freedom of the Towne of St George was a magnanimous salute to the Bermuda Regiment on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

Social and political commentator MP Walton Brown Jr put it succinctly when he illustrated how the importance of history is reflected by fashionists who illustrate how present day styles herald back to a bygone era and how business tycoons reflect on the seeds of their success. And he noted that typically those who argue against reverting to history to gain insight into a modern Bermuda want to shape an argument rooted in some distortion that would provide no insight.

It was a vastly different Bermuda before the amalgamation 50 years ago of our local forces into the Bermuda Regiment we can be so proud of today.

For generations, control was in the hands of a small — and we mean small — band of aristocratic families; a few white land owners, merchants, lawyers, bankers and businessmen.

They were powerful, feared and most vindictive. Everything they did was geared towards keeping the black masses in their places as second-class citizens. Portuguese then were third-class residents. Main instruments of control were the banks, parliament and the courts.

Educational opportunities were restricted. Black boys were expected to be carpenters, masons and labourers. They were even more restricted for girls and women, who were destined to become housekeepers, cooks, and maids; professionally, they were to be teachers and nurses.

Bermuda had been in continuous settlement since the shipwreck in 1609 of Admiral Sir George Somers and his party of 150 colonists while en route from England to Virginia. A census in 1619 revealed some 1,500 people living in tribes (parishes) as they were then known. Half of the population were black slaves who “were especially valuable because of their West Indian agricultural and maritime skills”.

Shipwrecked Spaniards in 1639 gave a graphic description of Bermuda. There were a few negroes, some of whom were left by shipwrecked Dutch who had captured them. Most of the other people came from humble and lowly conditions in England to colonise the Island

Expectation of a Dutch invasion caused mobilisation of all slaves, men and boys over the age of 14. They were ordered to carry weapons when a general alarm was sounded, and to report to specific places carrying hoes, hatchets, axes, etc. The slaves were required to be obedient to their respective commanders “under pains of death”.

By 1679 the population totalled 8,000. Further measures were taken by the passage of The Militia Act. Failure to meet requirements of the law could lead to heavy fines and corporal punishment. The law also made provision to compensate any white who lost a limb in combat with 200 pieces of eight (gold) and if the loss occurred to a slave, the compensation was 100 pieces of eight payable to the slave master

The first regular soldiers sent to Bermuda arrived in 1701. The following year Britain and France were at war and all able-bodied men were required to reinforce the regular soldiers. Six hundred slaves were provided with lances and trained.

Strong concerns began surfacing in certain quarters about arming blacks. Those fears were allayed by the Governor-in-Council and his military officers. They expressed satisfaction that in hand-to-hand fighting they would be effective and would not endanger local inhabitants.

Whatever little good the then Governor earlier thought in favour of blacks changed radically in the 1720s and 1730s. That’s when discovery was made of the famous slave revolts and conspiracies to poison slave masters. Those revolts led to the execution of six black slaves and the woman Sally Bassett, who was publicly burned at a stake at the Foot-of-the Lane.

As a consequence, harsh new martial laws were enforced carrying penalties of floggings on the naked back, summary executions or punishment and banishment from the Island for blacks caught with sticks or other dangerous weapons after nightfall, when they had to fall to their knees and be searched.

Blacks were feared. Lucky for the whites, their symbiotic need of arming slaves lessened in proportion to the extent that England developed Bermuda as one of its most impregnable naval and military bastions during the troubled times with the American colonies as well as the Napoleonic wars. But on the other hand, the skills and manual labour of blacks were exploited to the fullest for the building and maintenance of the fortifications.

It was not until well after the Emancipation Act of 1834 had outlawed slavery that large-scale recruitment of black soldiers resumed.

An Act of Colonial Parliament in 1892 authorised creation of a force of 300 men for local defence. The Black Bermuda Militia Artillery with its white English officers and the white only Bermuda Volunteer Rifles (BVRCs) were formed.

The BMAs were the first of the two units to be up and running. The blacks were fanatically proud of their unit They revelled in the adulation they received from family and friends-at-large during their many public appearances over the years.

There was friendly rivalry with regular British forces stationed in the Island. And there was keen competition with their white Bermudian counterparts, the BVRCs, as well as the occasional antagonism and brawls.

Time and space do not allow me to report on those incidents, some of which were bloody and were fully covered by The Royal Gazette.

Bearing in mind Walton Brown’s comment on the value of history in making current assessments, we end this feature as we began, stating “hats off!” to the Mayor and Corporation of St George’s for the giant step they made during this year’s Peppercorn Ceremony extending freedom of the Towne to the Regiment.