'... a liberated slave, now a delegate, is looking up to Clarkson with deep interest, and the hand of a friend is resting with affection on his arm, in fellowship and protection; this is the point of interest in the picture, and illustrative of the object in painting it — the African sitting by the intellectual European, in equality and intelligence, whilst the patriarch of the cause points to heaven as to whom he must be grateful.'
from the description of the painting by the artist, Benjamin Robert Haydon |
Very little appears to be known of Henry Beckford; we see the back of his head in the foreground of a painting of the great Anti-Slavery Convention in London in June 1840, and we hear his voice earlier in Exeter Hall on May 22nd, 1840, when he speaks briefly at the reception for the Rev William Knibb, himself and another ex-slave, Edward Barrett. Beyond that we can pick up a few scraps from his few words on that occasion.
According to Haydon, Beckford had been a slave for 27 years, presumably from his birth. Beckford said that his mother had been sold, in Africa, by her brother, but with no indication of her age when she was sold. At the time of his visit to England he was involved in teaching 110 children, presumably in a Baptist school, since he was described as a deacon of the St Ann's Bay Baptist Church. Beyond this I have found nothing; I hope that someone, some day, may come up with more.
However, I do wonder if possibly I have encountered his son and grand-daughter at a later period. In the mid-1880s, Henry Beckford, a teacher born about 1835, appeared in Port Antonio in some capacity (reputedly as principal before W. H. Plant) at Titchfield Free School. He continued to be involved with the Teachers' Association in Portland in the 1890s, and late in the decade he was elected to the Portland Parochial Board, on which he served, very actively, until 1903. He died in 1911 aged 76, leaving two sons and two daughters, One of those daughters, Albertha Elizabeth, had been born in Montego Bay in 1864, and had made her career in Port Antonio running her own school, which established an excellent reputation, apparently until her death in 1933. One brief reference, to her presence at Dr Robert Love's People's Convention in Spanish Town in 1899, sets her firmly in the tradition of Henry Beckford, the ex-slave and anti-slavery activist, two generations earlier.
Whether these three Beckfords were related or not, their stories are worth telling, as an illustration, if nothing else, of the resilience of the human spirit, and of Black Jamaicans in particular.
Whether these three Beckfords were related or not, their stories are worth telling, as an illustration, if nothing else, of the resilience of the human spirit, and of Black Jamaicans in particular.
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE PUBLIC MEETING HELD
IN EXETER-HALL, May 22, 1840,
ON OCCASION OF THE PUBLIC RECEPTION OF
THE REV. WILLIAM KNIBB, H. BECKFORD, AND E. BARRETT.
IN EXETER-HALL, May 22, 1840,
ON OCCASION OF THE PUBLIC RECEPTION OF
THE REV. WILLIAM KNIBB, H. BECKFORD, AND E. BARRETT.
A public meeting was held at Exeter-hall, on Friday, May 22nd, to receive the Rev. Mr. Knibb, and to hear accounts of the success of missionary exertion in the West Indies. The large room was densely crowded by a highly respectable audience, and several hundreds were unable to gain admittance.
J. STURGE, Esq., of Birmingham, occupied the chair.
The business was commenced by singing; and the Rev. Dr. Cox implored the Divine presence and blessing.
J. STURGE, Esq., of Birmingham, occupied the chair.
The business was commenced by singing; and the Rev. Dr. Cox implored the Divine presence and blessing.
Mr. H. BECKFORD, one of the deacons of the church at St. Ann's Bay, and formerly a praedial slave then rose to address the assembly, and was received with enthusiastic cheering. I heartily rejoice that the Lord God Almighty has kindly brought me to this part of the world - this country of liberty - where you enjoy the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I render to you the thanks which you are worthy to receive for sending that precious Gospel to us, to turn us from darkness to light. It has done wondrous things for us; it has delivered our souls from misery, and broken the chain in which our bodies were bound. Your labours in Jamaica have not been in vain. We rejoice to know that we have had tender hearted friends here; and you will rejoice to hear that, by your instrumentality, hard-hearted sinners in Jamaica are now bowing their knee to the Lord of glory, and asking for mercy. For the last two years I have not met a man or a woman in the district where I live who has not been seeking the way to heaven - I have not met one who has been intoxicated. The poor little children who once were driven like beasts in the woods, are now gathered together by your efforts to receive that instruction which will make them wise unto salvation. We do not forget the dark benighted country of our fathers. We shall raise up missionaries in Jamaica, that Africa may have the Gospel preached to it, and that the inhabitants may cease from selling and murdering each other. They are in darkness and they need the light. My mother was sold by her own brother for a gun, that with it he might go and murder others. The slave-trade will not be abolished till Africa receives the Gospel: but by the assistance of Almighty God we will send it to them. I would rather endure any punishment than again return to slavery. I recollect one day seeing my poor mother flogged and afterwards put in the stocks, but I dared not speak a single word to her or I should have received ten times more punishment. Our chapels were formerly pulled down, but new ones are erected three times their size, and still there is not room for the people. Places enlarged twelve months ago are about to be enlarged again. We ask our Christian brethren to send more labourers into the harvest, and to send us the Holy Scriptures. I have been instructed a little by our missionary that I may instruct others; and I have 110 children under my care. They can now read for themselves, and they learn to pray. I hope to receive further instruction from you, so that I may be enabled to instruct others. When I left, the children shed almost as many tears as would drown me in water. |