Petition launched to stop the set up of a monument to John Newton who visited St. Kitts to sell slaves and later turned Christian abolitionist – Reproduced from email received from Gilbert Léonard
A small Baptist church in St. Kitts has been convinced to set up a monument to John Newton who came here to sell slaves and later turned Christian abolitionist. This is happening at the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sandy Point. An English couple convinced them to do this after the Anglican and Methodist churches in Sandy Point turned them down. About 3 years ago I tried to convince them that this was not a right thing to do in an independent black Caribbean country. Much of the information is being supplied by this couple whose name I cannot remember and they are using the film Amazing Grace as a way of convincing people with no concept of their own history. I thought the whole thing had died down but I heard that the English people are coming here next week to put things in place. I am convinced that Newton abandoned the slave trade because his ventures in it had failed. He took up the priesthood as a means to a regular income. His association with the abolitionists may or may not have been heartfelt but his association with the Caribbean and with Sandy point in particular was as a slaver.
Open letter to PM of St Kitts about Slaver monument in St Kitts.
Dear Sir,
As Afro-descendants victims of the ideology of slavery and of the denial of the permanent fight of our ancestors against their enslavement.
We call upon you to stop this new grossly disguised attack against our integrity: our ancestors did fight and obtain freedom, not the slavers. If one or two slavers changed their minds about slavery, it was not because of the inhumane aspects of slavery; it was either because our ancestors continuing fight against these inhumane practices jeopardized the economical benefits of slavery or because those slavers eventually happened to fear the punishment of God for their ill- doings.
So please, do not allow this Baptist Church to deceive our people, whether it is voluntary or not. Take a swift action and add your name to the list of more and more numerous countries that demand Reparations for this Crime Against Humanity which is constantly denied by the perpetrators while their ideology remains intact and active.
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