The Lamplighter, стр. 13
CONSTANCE:
I landed in Barbados brought by the Royal Africa Company.
I was a child. One in six of us were children.
ANNIWAA:
I was a girl once. I wonder if I am still a girl. Maybe, not a girl anymore. Maybe I have grown into a small woman without my mother.
MARY:
I can hardly remember the girl I was or if I was ever a girl.
ANNIWAA:
I am the ghost of the child past. I am your past.
MARY:
I landed in Jamaica in the 1720s. I was a child. They named me Mary MacDonald
MACBEAN:
In 1770 on the slave island of Jamaica
There were one hundred Black people
Called MacDonald;
A quarter of the island’s people
Were Scottish.
BLACK HARRIOT:
My daughters have Scottish blood.
Scotland has my blood.
MACBEAN:
There was a network of Argyle Campbells at least 100 strong in Jamaica. Concentrated in the west with place names such as Campbell Town, Argyle and Glen Islay.
LAMPLIGHTER:
My story is the story of Great Britain
The United Kingdom, The British Empire
BLACK HARRIOT:
In 1756 in Liverpool, there was an auction at the Merchants’ Coffee house for: 83 pairs of shackles, 11 slave collars, 22 pairs of handcuffs, 4 long chains, 34 rings and 2 travelling chains.
CONSTANCE:
1760. In London, an iron gag muzzle specially designed for use on Africans was offered for sale by ironmongers.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Chained two by two
Right leg and left leg
Right hand and left hand
Each African had less room
Than a man in a coffin.
ALL:
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Scene 14: Shipping News
MACBEAN (slowly):
Buryed a man slave. Number 84.
Buryed a boy slave no 47.
Buryed a girl slave no 126.
Finally. Into the seas. Moving steadily
And filling. Cyclonic becoming Northwesterly.
Severe Gale 9, Later.
New High expected by same time tomorrow.
LAMPLIGHTER:
By same time tomorrow.
MACBEAN (despondent now):
The moon that night was cleaved in half,
The night the ships landed in the Americas.
The slaves were shined and sold.
When the ships unloaded their slaves,
The ship’s shelves were reloaded with sugar,
Tobacco, rum, heading for London, Liverpool,
Glasgow. Rum weather.
Moderate, not good. Fog thick as syrup.
Visibility poor.
Shannon. Rockall, West or Northwest,
Backing Southwest 6 to 8.
Occasionally very high in the West, sole.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Becoming very Rough.
Rough.
Rough or very rough.
Becoming very Rough.
Rough, very Rough.
Becoming very Rough.
MACBEAN:
And that is the end of the shipping forecast.
Scene 15: Resistance
CONSTANCE:
August 14th 1791. At a Voodoo service in Saint Dominique, a woman becomes possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrifices a black pig, and speaking in the voice of Ogoun, she names those who must lead the call for resistance.
(The women whisper to each other, plotting. Sound of burning, rackling, celebrating.)
MACBEAN:
Made a timely discovery today that the slaves were forming a plot for insurrection. Punishment: Gelding or chopping of half of the foot with an axe.
CONSTANCE:
The passing on, quick – quick, of an idea
Is irrepressible.
LAMPLIGHTER:
I can write it down! I will write it down and pass it on. This is a letter from me to my ancestors.
CONSTANCE:
This is the story of the Lamplighter
LAMPLIGHTER:
First, they wouldn’t let me publish it.
They tried to censor it.
Eventually I managed it.
MACBEAN:
Glasgow. 1792. 13,000 residents put their name to a petition drawn from a non-Conformist movement to abolish slavery. The movement to end slavery in the British Empire in the eighteenth century is likely the first human rights campaign in history.
BLACK HARRIOT:
April 2nd 1792.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Pitt to the House
MACBEAN:
We may now consider this trade as having received its condemnation;
CONSTANCE:
Condemnation
MACBEAN:
that its sentence is sealed;
MARY:
Sealed!
MACBEAN:
that this curse of mankind is seen by the House in its true light;
LAMPLIGHTER:
true light
MACBEAN:
and that the greatest stigma on our national character which ever yet existed, is about to be
BLACK HARRIOT:
removed.
MACBEAN:
And, Sir, I trust, we are now likely to be delivered from the greatest practical evil that ever has afflicted.
BLACK HARRIOT:
the human race –
MACBEAN:
from the severest and most extensive calamity recorded in the history of the world!
LAMPLIGHTER:
Immediate, not gradual abolition!
BLACK HARRIOT:
Watch the fire spread!
CONSTANCE:
A rebellion could start in the north of the island
And move to the south in seconds –
Minutes, the fire of the idea sweeping faster
Than the bush
MUSIC:
(The sound of drums beating.)
BLACK HARRIOT:
We’d see the fire on the other plantations
And that was our sign!
MARY:
The Rebellion in Grenada
BLACK HARRIOT:
And the Rebellion in St Vincent
CONSTANCE:
Tacky’s Rebellion, Jamaica
MARY:
Providence Rebellion
MACBEAN:
Am I not a man and a brother?
LAMPLIGHTER:
Am I not a woman and a sister?
MACBEAN:
Jan 1st 1804. Saint Dominique achieves the only completely successful slave rebellion in world history and becomes the Republic of Haiti.
In exchange for diplomatic recognition by Great Britain, Haiti must agree to pay France 150 million gold francs compensation for the loss of “property”, including slaves.
LAMPLIGHTER:
Schools were closed. Education stopped. Freedom stopped.
MACBEAN:
It took Haiti one hundred years to pay the ‘liberty debt’.
CONSTANCE:
One slave rebellion after another.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Bermuda.
MARY:
Boni Rebellion, Surinam.
CONSTANCE:
New River revolt, Belize.
Fedons rebellion, Grenada.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Getting – closer
MACBEAN:
On the 25th of March at Noon
the Bill to Abolish the British slave trade
is signed into law by George III.
BLACK HARRIOT:
What happened?
MARY:
What changed?
LAMPLIGHTER:
More slave ships sailed the shark filled sea.
CONSTANCE:
More beatings for you, for me.
FX:
(We hear cheering and celebrating in a distant country. Sound of drums.)
BLACK HARRIOT:
The Easter Rebellion, Barbados.
Second Maroon war, Jamaica.
MARY:
Cuffy Rebellion, Berbice.
Tula Rebellion, Curaçao.
CONSTANCE:
Coming soon.
BLACK HARRIOT:
The Demerara Rebellions.
Christmas revolt, Antigua.
St Kitts uprising.
MACBEAN:
Bee it enacted by the kings most excellent majestie that it shall not be lawfull for any negroe or other slave to goe or depart from his masters ground without a certificate from his master, mistris or overseer; and every negroe or slave soe offending shalbe sent to the next constable, who is hereby enjoyned and required to give the said negroe twenty lashes on his bare back well layd on.
CONSTANCE:
Pumpey’s revolt Bahamas.
Uprising, Courland Bay, Tobago.
New year revolution, Dominica.
MARY:
One island after another.
BLACK HARRIOT:
Bring it on!
CONSTANCE:
Closer coming soon.
BLACK HARRIOT:
A tinder spark from one small island
Can easily land on another.
Bring out the conch shells and the horns!
MACBEAN:
Am I not a Man and a Brother?
LAMPLIGHTER:
Am I not a Woman and a Sister?
MARY:
Eventually, on my last legs
At the end of the day,
I was too tired to get away.
I kept the Lord beside me.
Amen.
BLACK HARRIOT:
I had my own spirit. I was never