Jersey’s colonial history
In 2014, a statue of the past Bailiff and Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey, Sir George Carteret, was erected in the centre of St Peter. The Constable of St. Peter, John Refault, stated that the statue represents a “role model for youngsters” and that he should be acknowledged both “locally and nationally”.
Sir George Carteret is praised for providing asylum for Charles II when he was in exile after his father (King Charles I) was executed. As the bailiff, Carteret had Charles II pronounced as King in Jersey. For his allegiance with the royal family, he was rewarded with land in the American colonies, including land that would become New Jersey (named in his honour).
However, for every 120 acres of land, Carteret used 60 acres of land for slaves and servants. This resulted in New Jersey having one of the largest slave populations in the northern colonies in America (around 12,000 slaves). He also invested money in the Company of Royal Adventurers in Africa, which traded in slaves as well as gold and ivory in the 17th century.
The current response to racism
With Sir George’s past coming into the light, people in Jersey have taken action against the monument- vandalising and creating petitions to have it removed.
Furthermore, Jersey residents have shown their support for the Black Lives Matter movement by organising a peaceful ‘kneeling’ protest following the death of George Floyd. Islanders gathered in People’s Park for a socially distanced event marking Floyd’s death and allowing people to show their support in ending police brutality and systematic racism.
Around 1,000 individuals attended the protest on June 6th, with hundreds of others watching and participating from home via live streams on Facebook. After kneeling for 8 minutes and 46 seconds (the amount of time Floyd was pinned down for), 6 islanders spoke out about their worries and experiences of being part of a minority in Jersey.
The event lasted around an hour, due to the lockdown restrictions limiting islanders to 2 hours outside of their homes a day.
However, despite the support shown for the Black Lives Matter movement, protestors in Jersey reported that they received verbal abuse (through the usage of racial slurs and profane language) from other islanders whilst on their way to the event. This highlights the issue that racism and racial discrimination is still prevalent in Jersey, but is not reported or addressed as a public issue. One of the speakers during the event spoke out about this:
Systemic racism is a real thing in our society and everyone should be taking accountability and responsibility. We should be actively working to destroy racism in its lowest form because it’s something that does exist as much as we want to deny it.
Keiran Brown, speaker