Onion Seeds: Children of the Enterprise
Journey of
Discovery
Go on a Journey of Discovery through our shared history, present and future.
Each of the Globes speaks to one of the nine themes of the Journey of Discovery – ranging from Mother Africa through The Reality of Being Enslaved and Echoes in the Present – which give us the opportunity to reimagine our past, present and future.
The World Reimagined is a ground-breaking, national art education project to transform how we understand the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on all.
Future in which all can say: I am Seen
With this commission, I construct and deconstruct identity, revealing layers of history and the complexities of post colonial and Afro Caribbean heritage. Currently my research work is investigating the onion and it’s relationship to Bermuda Archives. I Use the onion as a metaphor for identity. In Bermuda, Bermudian people are affectionately referred to as “onions”, which dates back to the island’s production of the onion during slavery in Bermuda. Black women were “minders” of the onion seed, meaning the main care takers of this cash crop that made Bermuda wealthy. I am using the layers of the onion in parallel with the layers of my Alibii figures, who represent the mothers on board the enterprise ship.
A ship “The Enterprise” en route from Alexandria Virginia to Charleston South Carolina, encountered a storm, and washed on to Bermuda's harbour with cargo comprised of mainly mothers with suckling babies and children aged 5 or 6. More than fifty of the enslaved people on the ship were children, most of which had been kidnapped by raiders from their Washington- Maryland plantain homes. After emancipation in the British colonies, the price of Enslaved people in the south of the US were premium. The children and mothers on board the ship, were to be re-sold into slavery in South Carolina.
The ships Captain was informed that Slavery was already abolished in Bermuda, so in Bermuda waters the people would be considered free. The people were not listed in the ships manifest which only included tobacco, bricks and feed. A legal battle ensued shortly after. The captain argued that the people were not Bermudian, they were American and they ship was not intentionally in Bermuda waters since the boat was headed from one Northern US port to a southern one. A Bermudian organization, The Colored family society heard about the ship, and advocated for their immediate release. All 78 persons on board the ship appeared in court and could decide for themselves if they wanted to remain in Bermuda or return to the ship. All chose freedom except one woman and her five children who chose to return to the US. This Globe is in honor of the Children of the enterprise, who chose freedom for themselves and became Bermudian by way of the ocean.
