Deputy Montfort Tadier has lodged three amendments to his ‘Jersey and the Slave Trade’ proposition, which is calling for a report to be put together on establishing a permanent memorial to Jersey’s historical role in the slave trade.
The proposals also suggest that Trenton Square in the grounds of the International Finance Centre, named after the capital of New Jersey which takes its name from slave trader William Trent, is renamed Benin Square, after the west African country. In addition, Deputy Tadier wants an ‘audit’ carried out of all place names and memorials in Jersey to determine any links to the slave trade.
One of his amendments proposes that 23 August should also become Jersey’s ‘international day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition’.
The accompanying report says: ‘It is important that Jersey talks openly about its links with the international slave trade. That we recognise and teach it as part of our local history.
‘In the same way that Jersey commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day and slave workers memorial day annually, I believe we should also mark international day for the remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition.’
The date of 23 August was selected because it is the anniversary of a slave uprising in the Caribbean in 1791 that is viewed as having played a part in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
In another amendment to his original proposals he has suggested that Trenton Square should perhaps instead be renamed Trenton Lenape Square, in recognition of displaced native Americans in New Jersey.
The third amendment supersedes a proposition he lodged earlier this week, and later withdrew, which suggests an equalities and human rights commission to be established in Jersey.
An amendment was also lodged by Deputy Jess Perchard to Deputy Tadier’s original proposition last month, which suggested that Trenton Square should be renamed to a name suggested by Black Lives Matter Jersey.
She has also proposed that Deputy Tadier’s suggested audit of place names and memorials is extended to include public art and public holidays.
