Minister of Culture Olivia “Babsy” Grange informed Parliament last week that the Government intends to introduce legislation aimed at removing the criminal records of Jamaica’s celebrated freedom fighters and national heroes. The timing of such an announcement is perfect. It is a National Heroes’ Week commemoration project that has quickly found coalescence between Government and Opposition.

In essence, four of our national heroes — Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, and Sam Sharpe — will have their names cleared from the allegations of criminal acts that have stigmatised their names in our history books.

Minister Grange, in her parliamentary presentation last week, said that: “The view has been widely held that the acts for which these national heroes were convicted were not criminal acts of rebellion or treason, but acts of liberation, with an abundant moral justification carried out on the best traditions of humanity.

“Consequently,” she said, “our heroes ought not to have the stain of a criminal conviction accompanying their role as national heroes.”

She has received the strong support of Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, who expressed her delight that Grange has brought this critical issue to the legislature.

Note of caution here, however, as criminal allegations and wrongful imprisonment have actually added lustre and hero entitlement to the profiles of some because of the suffering and ignominy they have borne on behalf of the people they served. Nelson Mandela, for instance, suffered imprisonment for 27 years. His jail sentence is an indelible part of his legend. And Bustamante would resist any effort to remove his incarceration record, as such undoubtedly contributed to his celebrity status.

And, on another note of caution, as we hear that, in addition to the national heroes, the names of some 1,000 freedom fighters will be included in the proposed Act, there is cause for concern and curiosity as we contemplate just how those names are to be identified, and who, when and where.

The term freedom fighter is generally used to describe a person who plays an active role in any resistance movement dedicated to organised efforts to resist a Government or an unwelcome occupational power. If that general definition is to be applied then we have many hundreds of those persons in and out of our sight who would have fought in the slave insurrections that are a part of our history.

Tacky, for example, who is to be included in the ‘Expungent Act’, had a large number of lieutenants fighting by his side in the Tacky Rebellion of 1760. Names like Quaw, Sang, Sobadou, Fula Jati, Quantee are recorded in the diaries of that time. There are many others whose names will never be known but who should not be ignored if we are to legislate a general acknowledgement for their liberation efforts.

Quite apart from the slavery rebellions we can also look for our freedom fighters in the Morant Bay Rebellion which occurred 30 years after Emancipation and saw some 490 people killed and 600 beaten in a savage reprisal by the plantation government against ordinary people to restore what they called public order.

There victims were never arrested and therefore have no criminal charges against their names. They were hunted down and ruthlessly slaughtered. Parliament will have to revisit the book of Sirach in the Apocrypha to enshrine their memorials: “And some there be, who have no memorial. Who are perished as though they have never been. Their bodies are buried in peace. But their names liveth forevermore.”

Then, as we come closer to the 21st century, this is where we have to be careful, as there are those who we may want to honour arising from the labour and political stirrings that led to the development of modern Jamaica. This is where the choice of names become debatable, especially if a little politics becomes mixed up in it.

Nevertheless, we welcome this move. Not because, as Rev Ronald Thwaites said, the four named are heroes, “but because all available evidence indicates that the criminal convictions against their names represent palpable injustice even at this time”. It’s almost like a re-write of history, and will take painstaking research to get it right. Congratulations to Minister Grange on this long overdue move, a step in the right direction and with all credit due.

A favourite national hero

One of my favourite heroes is George William Gordon. In flights of fantasy I see him walking up to the dais tomorrow to accept his country’s highest national honour from Governor General Sir Patrick Allen. His shoulders would have been broad and his head held as high as those other most deserving Jamaicans who receive their honours beside him.

In another time, and another place, he would have been promptly executed by the governor. In real life, the then governor of Jamaica, John Eyre, hated his guts. It was Eyre who blamed Gordon for the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, and it was Eyre who personally arrested Gordon and had him sent to the gallows.

Sir Phillip Sherlock, in his book

The Story of the Jamaican People, writes: “The heroes of a nation embody its cherished values, expresses its highest purposes, inspires its noblest achievements.”

George William Gordon personifies this description. His role was not fashioned by any accident of history. Like the other heroes and freedom fighters who died at the hands of their colonial masters, he deliberately took the road he trod, knowing well that it could lead to his incarceration and inevitable death.

He was a gentleman who had an absolute passion for helping the poor. Unlike Bogle, Sharpe and Nanny, he was not a physical fighter or a warrior in the true sense of the word. But he was just as brave and outspoken when it came to standing up for the downtrodden.

He was driven by an amazing social conscience. As a member of the House he used his position to highlight the sufferings of the people and worked unceasingly on their behalf. Bogle and he were miles apart, both in physical distance as well as at social levels, yet he threw in his lot with the hero of Stony Gut, and in so doing earned the hatred not only of the governor, but of his peers who derided and jeered as he spoke out on behalf of the poor.

And poor they were. Jamaica today has no idea of the conditions which faced the ordinary people in the 1860s. It was a period which saw the ex-slaves living for the most part in abject poverty. Conditions were almost as bad as it had been during slavery, and a two-year drought prior to 1865 widened the already miserable conditions.

The 400 people who stormed the bulwarks at Morant Bay on October 11, 1865 had been driven to the limits by the victimisation and harsh repressive measure wrought upon the poorer class. The punishment for those captured in the aftermath of the rebellion was flogging, death, or both. One butcher, who was forced to whip, said he whipped from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. Eyre sat in a chair nearby and watched all the beatings and the hangings.

In the midst of this turmoil, Gordon was falsely accused as the instigator. He was tried on October 21 and hung on October 23.

The letter he wrote to his wife from his prison cell the night before his death is a literary gem which deserves compulsory reading and recitation in our schools. It is a testimony to the hallmarks of true heroism and makes Gordon stand out as a leader and martyr. Honesty, strength, and compassion are breathed into every word.

“Say to all my friends an affectionate farewell; they must not grieve for I die innocently. Comfort your heart. You must do the best you can and the Lord will help you….and do not be ashamed of the death your poor husband will have suffered.

“I thought His Excellency would have allowed me a fair trial, but I have no power of control. May the Lord be merciful to him…

“I have only been allowed one hour. I wish more time had been allowed…May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. Your truly devoted and now nearly dying husband.”

Comfort your heart. In a country where foul murder continues to stalk the land, the last words of this gentle giant are an inspiration.

Lance Neita is a public and community relations consultant and writer. Send comments to the Observer or lanceneita@hotmail.com.