Cruzan Rum “Heritage” Rooted In Slavery
Guest Opinion by Shelley Moorhead, President, Caribbean Institute for a New Humanity, Inc., and Founder, African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA)
I listened with great interest to the special session of the legislature on Tuesday October 27, 2009 called by the governor. I was deeply moved by the distinct pride and honor in Mr. Gary Nelthropp’s voice as he spoke of Cruzan Rum’s rich heritage in the Virgin Islands, particularly on the island of St. Croix. Holding his fathers’ previous position at the company, Mr. Nelthropp is the current president of Virgin Islands Rum Industries, Ltd. (VIRIL) and master distiller at the Cruzan Rum plant. With every mention of the year 1760 as the year the distillery was founded on St. Croix, I could not help but envision the heritage of which he spoke.
The words history, legacy, tradition, and heritage graced the senate floor to a quadrille so sweet, a dance of partners so filled with promise for the territory’s coffers and for the future of the Virgin Islands; but, like yesteryear when slaves were not allowed at the corporate boardroom table or in the halls of government, the special session called to ratify the governor’s “Cruzan Rum agreement” with Fortune Brands, Inc. was again an occasion to which the remembrance of the enslaved was uninvited, their interests and contributions without representation.
What might this rich Cruzan Rum heritage spoken of by Mr. Nelthropp encompass? Who were the historical parties involved in 1760 (and before) that have contributed to the years of “tradition” prided by VIRIL? Why has there been no mention of the uncompensated laborers? Is not the enslavement of human beings, the purchase and sale of men, women, and children, the parentage of Virgin Islanders, a part of Cruzan Rum”s history? Are the several years of uncompensated, forced slave labor at Estate Diamond and other estates on St. Croix not a remarkable part of VIRIL’s legacy? Are the enslaved laborers who have been integral to Cruzan Rum unworthy of recognition?
Given such monumental an occasion as the legislative ratification of an historic agreement between the Government and people of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Fortune Brands, Inc., I found it disturbingly remiss of the parties present that there was absolutely no mention of the multi-generational contributions made by the enslaved Virgin Islands parentage to what is the oldest industrial company in the territory. Furthermore, that these unsung heroes of the Virgin Islands rum industry have until today received no dignity, honor, recognition, or creditable place in the history of Cruzan Rum, VIRIL, or Fortune Brands, Inc. is a matter requiring our most serious attention.
The many essays, books, and writings of historians like Dr. Arnold Highfield, Mr. George Tyson, and Mr. William Cissel speak volumes concerning slavery on St. Croix, in the Danish West Indies, and on plantations and estates where corporate predecessors manufactured what is today ?Cruzan Rum?. This history is also well documented outside the territory. Writing about the historical estate home of Cruzan Rum, Jamaican Professor Neville A. T. Hall (1936-1986) of the University of the West Indies, in his book Slave Society in the Danish West Indies: St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, remarks that ?estates such as Diamond, with a total of 72 slaves on its 187 acres? had ?as many as 20 slaves or 27 percent employed in household work.?
Was not the V.I. rum industry established, in large part, on stolen (free) labor ill-gotten in the slave trade? These unsatisfied debts in human labor, if calculated today in corporate books and financial records, can amount to the fact that Virgin Islands forebears, especially those enslaved at Estate Diamond on St. Croix, were original creditors, capital investors in the Cruzan Rum business, providing daily the uncompensated labor that drove the operation of the corporation. What is the value of this investment today? When might it be officially recognized? When might the returns be realized by their descendants? What of their legacies and rich heritage? Is it not foreseeable that VIRIL, Fortune Brands, Inc. and their predecessor corporations in the least owe the historical debt of disclosure to these people and their descendants? Or, is your view that ?slavery is in the past? and not worth mentioning and therefore there should be no corporate liability inherited or borne by these parties?
It is shocking to learn that there are more than 200 million people still enslaved in the world today. It is important that the injustice of slavery be forgiven on these shores, but like the Holocaust of European Jews never forgotten lest future generation too fall victim of this crime. It is equally important that we in the territory are forever reminded of the tremendous sacrifices given and the countless lives lost to the crafting of the Cruzan Rum brand. The respect of this humanity in the Virgin Islands has been long deferred and is a matter which restricts us today from fully embracing the Virgin Islands rum industry as our own. At present, there exists no curricular mechanism in the Virgin Islands public school system to teach students about this very significant era of Virgin Islands history and development; partly, because we are ashamed as a people to look slavery in the face and to challenge its still lingering effects for this would mean that we too are victims (or beneficiaries) of this long-running, culture-destructive crime. But mostly, because there has been no disclosure of the history, records, or archives of corporations in the territory responsible for this atrocious and heinous institution.
With a little encouragement, perhaps Virgin Islanders might convince our lawmakers to once and for all address the critical matter of slavery era corporations? disclosure. On June 29, 2005 Bill No. 26-0089 was introduced in the 26th legislature by Senator Shawn-Michael Malone. Held in the Committee on Government Operations and Consumer Protection, the bill proposes to amend title 13 of the Virgin Islands Code by requiring existing and new corporations doing business in the territory to research their history to determine if any predecessor corporation existed which used forced labor or was involved in the trade of human chattel. There are many people today who are very interested in knowing the status of the legislation.
The cities of Los Angeles (CA), Chicago (IL), Detroit (MI), and Philadelphia (PA) have passed slavery era disclosure ordinances. The states of California, Illinois, and Iowa have all passed legislation regarding disclosure of slaveholder insurance information from insurance companies licensed to do business in each respective state and required the reporting of such information.
The city of Chicago was the first municipality to pass a slavery disclosure ordinance on October 2, 2002. The Chicago ordinance requires that all businesses seeking city contracts provide affidavits disclosing whether they have profited from slavery. Businesses must also provide research documentation, and if affidavits are found to be inaccurate, the contracts may be nullified. Detroit and Philadelphia passed similar slavery era disclosure ordinances on June 23, 2004 and March 17, 2005 respectively.
The Los Angeles slavery era disclosure ordinance was passed June 27, 2003. The ordinance differs from Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia in that Los Angeles requires companies that do business with the city to report whether they have profited from slavery. It does not penalize companies that decline to disclose their pasts. Companies with slavery in their past are not barred from doing business with the city. The law requires companies to research their records and provide affidavits stating whether or not their predecessors profited from slavery. The law makes no provision for investigating a company?s disclosure for accuracy.
Given all that has been transferred by Cruzan Rum through the ages; history, tradition, legacy, and heritage considered, should VIRL & Fortune Brands, Inc. also inherit the responsibility of repair neglected by its predecessor corporations? Should they today offer full Slavery Era Corporations Disclosure? Through the passage of the aforementioned ordinances the following U.S. companies have disclosed ties to slavery: JP Morgan Chase/Bank One, Bank of America/FleetBoston, Norfolk Southern Railway Co., Union Pacific Railroad, CSX Transportation Inc., R. J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson, WestPoint Stevens, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia Corporation, ACE USA, Aetna Life Insurance Company, AIG, Manhattan Life Insurance Company, New York Life, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, Providence Washington Insurance Company, and Royal and Sun Alliance respectively. With respect to slavery, should not the makers of Cruzan Rum be held to the same standards of responsibility expected of their corporate peers?
In an age where municipalities, city councils, and state legislatures on the U.S. mainland have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery, and after the U.S. House of Representatives, the same which authorizes the rum tax revenues for the USVI, on July 29, 2009 apologized to black Americans, more than 140 years after slavery was abolished, for the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow” segregation; should not VIRIL, Fortune Brands, Inc., Diageo, and the West Indian Company, Ltd. (WICO) also issue apologies for their historical roles in the slave trade?
This is not a discussion about rum tax revenues, contributions to the University of the Virgin Islands, good corporate citizenship, or the impact on tourism; for, truly these things are beyond our reproach. This conversation regards the principle of human rights in business; it concerns repair and making reparations. The reckoning, however difficult, is about enslaved, uncompensated and unrecognized laborers, the honoring of their contributions and life sacrifices, and the disclosing of records that will inform their descendants and make them whole.
It is the intention of the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) to contact VIRIL, Fortune Brands, Inc. and such corporations in territory having ties to the slave trade and to request of them disclosure and to propose corporate-community partnerships that work to honor, recognize, and memorialize the enslaved laborers and to educate students on the history of the Virgin Islands rum industry.
Is it our pain or our ignorance that leaves “no comment”about a shameful past that is now perpetrated as a proud “Heritage”?
If what Ms. Moorehead wrote in this post is true, this is one more reason why the Cruzan Rum deal may not benefit us in the long run, and why the governor was so eager to push this deal on us. He and our senators knew they would benefit more from this deal than the rest of us.
I too sat and watched the hearings with the Nelthropp family the crucian pride showed forth about his ancestors, provided me the moment to reflect on my not so prosperous lineage in terms of ($$).
Like most, my family is born out of Danish slavery, the complexity of slavery which includes its benefit to a nation/people that strives and its ill affects on the descendants of captives, enslaved people has been seriously undermined by those who want us to “get over it”.
I am moved and inspired by your article to never forget as the honorable Randall Robinson correctly coins the “major crimes of slavery”. In this predominately Black Country we daily witness the evidences of slavery upon our hills with the Sugar Mills, Steam towers, Watch houses along side the roads as a reminder to the struggle of these “enduring people”.
No we will not “get over it” Let us not resist but make this Bill a concern amongst our political leaders. This bill not only brings disclosure it also allows corporate citizens to tell the rest of the story with pride of how they made a wrong right.
Thank you, for your attempts to bring Bill No. 26-0089 back on the table for re-consideration.
“Get over it. The slaves were captured in African warfare. Those not killed were sold. Those sold where American influence happened eventually gained freedom. Elsewhere slavery still flourishes.
Be proud to be an American where discrimination is unlawfull.
Reparation – I want reparation for being at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese caused me and my family great harm. –
Rediculous isn’t it. I was 51/2 when they bombed us.
I worked at Hess for 13 years. I know Alex Moorhead and liked him a lot – his brother?, not so much………”
The article has been read more than 800 times on Caribbean Net News: http://caribbeannetnews.com/news-19796–7-7–.html
WE WANT REPARATIONS!
http://www.acrra.org/We%20Want%20Reparations.mp3
Shelley Moorhead……you ain’t getting any reparation.
And, the reason people read your articles here and there is because they want to be amused by a clown who is ‘standing still’. Get on with your life!!!!!!
@ Stanely. Have you gotten over your experience and when you state “get over it” what exactly do you mean? Please espound on it? Did you learn about the Holocaust in school? (Yes or No)? Do you think that the Jews should just “get over it”. What is the “it” that we are to “get over”
@evalissa. All I can say is WOW. Why do you feel the need to use the word ‘clown’. Why are you resorting to personal insults/attacks. Do you know the definition of clown? Your statement is definitely supportive of the basis for reparations.
May God Continue to Bless you Mr. Shelley Moorhead. For the path you have chosen is a noble one. How can I join your organization/assist you in your efforts?
@ evaliisa:
And, what of the 897 reads (as of 1:19AM Nov. 16, 2009) on Caribbean Net News (http://caribbeannetnews.com/news-19796–7-7–.html), or the more than 700 facebook members of the Virgin Islands Reparations Movement|ACRRA? That’s a whole lot of people who seek to just be “amused by a clown who is standing still”. Perhaps you are the one who is really a clown, and, to me, it would seem that to seek to attack me personally while standing behind the misnomer “evaliisa” further illustrates the need for repair (mental) in our community. If you’d like, you can post your picture and we can make you the “poster-child” for reparations in the Virgin Islands and you can get your attention that way.
Alternatively, if you find your way to desiring to understand Shelley Moorhead or the reparations movement, you may visit the movement: http://groups.to/acrra.
@ Mr. Moorhead: The links have changed: The same article we read above has in the less than 3 days it has been published been read more than 900 times online at: http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/usvi/usvi.php?news_id=19796&start=0&category_id=19.
Also the ACRRA Facebook page of the Virgin Islands Reparations movement can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2417591568
“evaliisa” can come join ACRRA’s 700 members there and see if she can find a clown among us.
To me, when issues of reparations are discussed it brings tension and in some instances emotional pain, but we cannot ignore a fact that the enslavement of Africans were devastating not alone inhumane you can see the disparity in terms of housing, education, health, environment etc.
I believe that these factors are indicative as to some of the reasons why reparation payments were distributed.
Take a look at some examples of reparations payments
1952 Germany $822 Million to Holocaust Survivors
1980 United States $81 million to Klamaths of Oregon
1985 United States $105 million to Lakota of South Dakota
1985 United States $12.3 million to Seminoles of Florida
1985 United States $31 million to Chippewas of Wisconsin
1988 Canada $230 million to Japanese Canadians
1990 Austria $25 million to Jewish Claims on Austria
1990 United States $1.2 billion to Japanese Americans
Source: Black Reparations Now! 40 Acres, $50.00 and a Mule by Dorothy Bentlon Lewis, 1998.
Perhaps the above mentioned groups were also thought of as clowning, I say “send in the clowns.
@ minkyadu:
Did you know that Dorothy Benton Lewis visited the Virgin Islands in March 2008 for a reparations forum held by ACRRA on St. John? See: http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/usvi/usvi.php?news_id=6938&start=0&category_id=19
She has followed the Virgin Islands Reparations Movement for some time now and has been active in advocating repair for the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Virgin Islands. In fact, during her visit she coined the term “Other African-Americans” to highlight the inequities seen in the political and civil rights of the people of the territory.
Good Night Readers, can any one man or woman, black or white or any combination thereof, explain why there is no movement for suffrage? The act of rape of women and girls is a current dilemna in oue society, but a woman who has suffered rape is reccommended medication, whereas a race requests reparations. Is rhere really a diference in the outcone of either, other than one practice sees no color, sees no age, nor is viewed as worthy of gender apologies?
Thank you ACRRA for your attempt to repair an inhumane act.
This testimony was submitted October 26, 2009 @ the UN Observation Day Presentation given on St. Croix.
Greetings,
Thank you for allowing me bringing this dialog to the forefront. First, let me be clear, I mean no offense or disrespect to anyone who has come to the Virgin Islands seeking a better way of life. My statement is to say, as a Native Virgin Islander, we deserve the right to speak to our sovereignty, no matter how long it takes. I do not consider myself an American but someone whose home has been seized by cunning piracy.
It is assumed that Virgin Islanders do not care about status, the right to self determination or self government. This is farthest from the truth. As a person considered “Native” under whatever definition the body is using today, I am of African ancestry as well as Carib and Taino.
Today however, I am speaking with regard to my African ancestors who never had a say in the political discussion as to the status of the only home they knew. I stand here as a representative of their silent voices whose blood, sweat, tears and lives were shed to build the Virgin Islands which created and enriched wealthy nations. All this with no thoughts or concerns of the people who directly had a hand and no say in creating wealth for others in the Virgin Islands and more so, abroad. Yet, the Africans and their descendants never freely had a say as to what political future they wanted.
In the Virgin Islands those of us of native descent are in the minority. Our non governing status has left us without the ability to hold the U.S. accountable for the violations of treaties held between itself and our former colonial master, Denmark as well as The United Nations and its Resolutions.
Our government system has been manipulated to act in the best interest of the United States, while neglecting the basic right to self determination of Virgin Islanders. We have been and continue to be overrun and infiltrated by persons who come from places whose status has already been established and are not interested in the self determination for/of people of the Virgin Islands.
Since the opening of our doors to Tourism, with the increase of other Caribbean People and their offspring, the Virgin Islands Community has had to shoulder the cost of education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. forced upon us by the United States. Today, the influx continues even though the ethnicities and nationalities are different. Since we have no control of our borders, have we ever been reimbursed for such allowances? These finite resources continue to be spent on people (legal as well as illegal) freely moving in and out of this US Territory. Please refer to UN Resolution 35/118 (Sections 2, 3 and 8 in particular are relevant and are placed below.) In this case, the member state is the United States of America.
2. Member States shall render all necessary moral and material assistance to the peoples under colonial domination in their struggle to exercise their right to self-determination and independence.
3. Member States shall intensify their efforts to promote the implementation of the resolutions of the General Assembly and of the Security Council relating to Territories and countries under colonial domination.
8. Member States shall adopt the necessary measures to discourage or prevent the systematic influx of outside immigrants and settlers into Territories under colonial domination, which disrupts the demographic composition of those Territories and may constitute a major obstacle to the genuine exercise of the right to self-determination and independence by the people of those Territories.
Our political process has/is constantly being undermined externally/internally long before we were allowed to vote for our own governor, and he was appointed to the position before we selected him. Political status and our right to self determination has never been truly part of any administration’s goal locally or federally except that of Independent Citizens Movement Governor Cyril E. King.
Whenever the topic of Status or the Right to Self Determination is discussed, everyone from every other corner of the globe living in the Virgin Islands, tells us we are discriminating against non natives. However, in the same breath “we” are told, “This sort of thing would never happen back home wherever. How is this allowed when we have never been given the opportunity to have open discussion of our unresolved issues stemming from the beginning of our colonization!
Virgin Islanders (wherever you may be) need to be included in the discussion and resolution of our self determination, or, we will forever be defined by the ideas/ideals/standards of others. We are being exterminated on many levels, brick by brick and if we do not take control of ourselves and our communities through the love, respect, integrity, honesty, respectful dialogue and all the other good things we are known for, we as a people will disappear as the grains of sand are washed away/absorbed by the ocean. Much of what we are experiencing negatively have been perpetuated long before “we” were in control of things.
Until we “Virgin Islanders” are allowed freely without intervention, objection and interjection from “others”, discuss and determine who and where we stand in the world at large, this issue will continue to fester and further divide Virgin Islanders from Caribbean Peoples. As I write this, I begin to wonder if all (decisions) that have taken place up until this point, is intentionally the very process that circumvents our right to decide politically what is best for this finite land mass called the Virgin Islands of the United States.
We as a group of concerned persons are going to have to make our own opportunity and stop waiting for everyone else to grant us what is ours already. Thank you.
Respectfully Submitted by,
Caroline A. Browne
I came across the website on the Diageo deal. The Cruzan Rum deal could also be afected by serious political pressure from Puerto Rico. Please cut and past eht website below to see how they are fighting these deals.
http://rumbailout.org/news.aspx
Puerto Rico is fighting this deal tooth & nail because they realized what they are losing. They figured that they can no longer profit from Diageo, no one can. Here is my question: Is fighting to keep Diageo in the VI worth risking our relationship with the Puerto Rican government? If I was Gov. deJongh, I would be very careful about how I handle this situation.
Wow, I was just reading a book on how the Crucian Caribs and Puerto Rican Tainos joined forces in 1511 to fight the Spanish colonizers…….
Boy, how times have changed!
Yes, we are fighting each other, and the colonizers are still in control – they just speak English now. Self-Determination – Hello?
Are the senators sleeping on slavery era disclosure?
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/letters/letters.php?news_id=20023&start=0&category_id=7