# Slave bell > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Slave_bell > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Slave_bell.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_bell > Source revision: 1347325136 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Bell used to regulate the day in slave societies}} A '''slave bell''' is a bell that was rung to regulate the day on [slave plantations](/source/Slave_Plantations) and in slave societies. They were featured in slave plantations throughout the [Americas](/source/Atlantic_slave_trade) and notably in the [slavery systems](/source/Slavery_in_South_Africa) in [Cape Colony](/source/Dutch_Cape_Colony), present-day [South Africa](/source/South_Africa). The structures they were housed in, most often tall pillars and towers, became landmarks on the plantation and could be used to [surveillance](/source/surveillance) the enslaved workers. In some cases, these structures have become a symbolic feature of the architectural style of that region and the architecture of plantation slavery. In South Africa, the pillars of the slave bell is a distinctive feature of the [Cape Dutch architectural style](/source/Cape_Dutch_architecture). In a 1937 interview for [WPA Slave Narrative](/source/Slave_Narrative_Collection) project Charley Williams (b. 1843), who had lived and worked on a cotton and tobacco plantation in [Louisiana](/source/Louisiana) where he was enslaved from birth (circa 1845) until [1865](/source/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) with over 100 men, women and children, described the use of the bells and horns to control the lives and labour of the enslaved people: ".''.. you can hear a old bell donging way on some plantation a mile or two off, and den more bells at other places and maybe a horn...''" "''Bells and horns! Bells for dis and horns for dat! All we knowed was go and come by de bells and horns!''"{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Narrative of Charley Williams (excepts). Interview conducted in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1937.|url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text3/plantationchwilliams.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=The Making of African American Identity: Vol. I, 1500-1865 {{!}} National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox}} The slave bells were used by the enslaved to organise uprisings. In 1839 on Montalvo sugar plantation in the [Matanzas Province, Cuba](/source/Matanzas_Province) the plantation's slave bell at prayer time were used as a signal to attack the overseers and liberate themselves and others by fleeing into the woods.{{Cite book|last=Singleton|first=T. A.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyYsBgAAQBAJ&q=tower&pg=PA103|title=The Archaeology of Slavery: A Comparative Approach to Captivity and Coercion|date=2015|publisher=SIU Press|isbn=978-0-8093-3397-4|editor-last=Marshall|editor-first=Lydia Wilson|location=|pages=|language=en|chapter=Nineteenth Century Landscape of Plantation Slavery}} == Bells used to torture and punish == [[File:Woman wearing iron horns with bells Moses Roper.png|thumb|200x200px|Illustration from A ''narrative of the adventures and escape of Moses Roper from American slavery'' by [Moses Roper](/source/Moses_Roper), 1839|alt=|left]]Bells were also used as a punishment and to prevent people from escaping. In his book ''A'' ''Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper, from American Slavery'' [Moses Roper](/source/Moses_Roper) described the use of "iron horns, with bells, attached to the back of the slave's neck" several feet in height as an "instrument of torture".{{Cite book|last=Roper|first=Moses|url=https://archive.org/details/narrativeofadven00rope/page/18/mode/2up?q=bell|title=A narrative of the adventures and escape of Moses Roper from American slavery|publisher=|year=1839|isbn=|location=|pages=}}{{Cite web|last=Blakemore|first=Erin|title=Historic Bell Helps Ring in New African American History Museum|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/historic-bell-helps-ring-new-african-american-history-museum-180960545/|access-date=2020-08-14|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}} == Cape Colony == [[File:Lanzerac Slave Bell and Manor House.jpg|thumb|200x200px|Slave bell and manor house at the Lanzerac estate in [Stellenbosch](/source/Stellenbosch), South Africa.|alt=|right]] In the [Dutch Cape Colony](/source/Dutch_Cape_Colony) the slave bell had a distinctive architectural-style. It was usually a large bell hung from free-standing tall white pillars or in a white arch.{{Cite web|title=slave bell - definition of slave bell in A Dictionary of South African English - DSAE|url=https://dsae.co.za/entry/slave-bell/e06609|access-date=2020-08-01|website=dsae.co.za}}{{cite book |title=They came to stay: discovering meaning in the 18th century Cape country dwelling |last=Brink |first=Yvonne |page=158 |year=2008 |publisher=African Sun Media |isbn=978-1-920109-39-4 }} After the [abolition of slavery](/source/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833) in the Cape they were continuously used during the [apartheid regime](/source/Apartheid) in [South Africa](/source/South_Africa) as an element of the [Cape Dutch architectural](/source/Cape_Dutch_architecture) style without recognition that they were symbols of oppression and suffering.{{Cite book|last=Coetzer|first=Nicholas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H44GDAAAQBAJ&q=%22Building+Apartheid%22+slave+bell&pg=PA54|title=Building Apartheid: On Architecture and Order in Imperial Cape Town|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-17104-1|location=|pages=53–54|language=en}} == Notable slave bells == === La Demajagua bell, Cuba === {{Main|Bell of La Demajagua}} [[File:Demajagua 2.jpg|thumb|La Demajagua memorial, [Manzanillo](/source/Manzanillo%2C_Cuba), Cuba.|200x200px|alt=|left]] In [Cuba](/source/Cuba), on 10 October 1868, the slave bell at the La Demajagua [sugar mill](/source/Sugarcane_mill), in [Manzanillo](/source/Manzanillo%2C_Cuba), was rung by the mill's owner [Carlos Manuel de Céspedes](/source/Carlos_Manuel_de_C%C3%A9spedes) to called assemble the people he enslaved to tell them that they are free and to invite them to join the fight for [independence from Spain](/source/Cuban_War_of_Independence). This act is seen as the start of the [Ten Years War](/source/Ten_Years'_War).{{Cite web|title=Ruins of La Demajagua Sugar Factory {{!}} Slavery and Remembrance|url=http://slaveryandremembrance.org/partners/partner/?id=P0050|access-date=2020-08-01|website=slaveryandremembrance.org}} In 1947 the Demajagua bell was brought to the University of Havana by law student [Fidel Castro](/source/Fidel_Castro) and other anti-government demonstrators. When the bell was removed by the government, Castro protested against it on national radio, making his name widely known in Cuba for the first time.{{Cite book|last=Coltman|first=Leycester|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esRje8Jo3LMC&q=bell&pg=PA36|title=The Real Fidel Castro|date=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-13339-4|location=|pages=35–36|language=en}} The bell was returned to Manzanillo in November 1947 and was re-installed at La Demajagua in 1968.{{Cite book|last=Hulme|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHV5AgAAQBAJ&q=Demajagua+bell&pg=PT81|title=Cuba's Wild East: A Literary Geography of Oriente|date=2011|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-1-78138-882-2|location=|pages=|language=en}} === The Demerara Bell === A bell, known as the Demerara Bell, was donated to [St. Catharine's College, Cambridge](/source/St._Catharine's_College%2C_Cambridge) in 1960 or 1961{{Cite news|last1=Turner|first1=Camilla|last2=Lyons|first2=Izzy|date=May 8, 2019|title=Cambridge College removes historic bell from view, amid fears it was used on a slave plantation|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2019/05/07/cambridge-college-removes-historic-bell-view-amid-fears-used/|access-date=2020-08-02|issn=0307-1235}} by a former student Edward Arthur Goodland, who worked at [Bookers Sugar Estates](/source/Bookers_Sugar_Estates) in [British Guiana](/source/British_Guiana). The bell was inscribed ''‘De Catharina 1772’'' was from the Anna Catharina plantation on the [West Bank Demerara](/source/Essequibo_Islands-West_Demerara), was found in the [Demerara River](/source/Demerara_River) in the 1950s. The bell initially installed outside the [porter's lodge](/source/Porters'_lodge) at St. Catharine's before it was moved to an accommodation block in 1994 where it was in a prominent position overlooking the centre of the college.{{Cite news|date=2019-05-08|title=University bell removed over slavery link|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-48202399|access-date=2020-08-01}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2019-05-10|title=Bell will be a focus for honest discussion and reflection|url=https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/bell-will-be-focus-honest-discussion-and-reflection|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-08-01|website=St Catharine's College, Cambridge|language=en}} In May 2019 the governing body and students of St Catharine’s College unanimously agreed that the bell should be removed view and would eventually be donated to [Rijksmuseum](/source/Rijksmuseum), [Amsterdam](/source/Amsterdam). In August 2019 it was reported that the Guyanese High Commissioner [Frederick Hamley Case](/source/Frederick_Hamley_Case) had persuaded the college to return the bell to [Guyana](/source/Guyana).{{Cite web|date=2019-08-22|title=Slavery-era 'Demerara Bell' to be returned to Guyana|url=https://www.stabroeknews.com/2019/08/22/opinion/letters/slavery-era-demerara-bell-to-be-returned-to-guyana/|access-date=2020-08-01|website=Stabroek News|language=en-US}} === Manaca Iznaga Tower, Cuba === thumb|200x200px|Iznaga Tower, Cuba|alt=|right Iznaga Tower was the [bell tower](/source/bell_tower) housing the slave bell of the Manaca sugar plantation in [Valle de los Ingenios](/source/Valle_de_los_Ingenios), in [Trinidad, Cuba](/source/Trinidad%2C_Cuba). It is an example of the bell towers that were a common feature on sugar plantations in Cuba, other notable examples are at Angerona and El Padre plantations located in present-day Cafetal del Padre in the [Havana Province](/source/La_Habana_Province). Large Cuban plantations often had several bells that were rung to control the activities of the enslaved people including regulating prayer time, meal times and to warn other plantations of [slave rebellions](/source/Slave_rebellion). The 51m tower was built in 1848, it is constructed of stone and brick and has seven levels. In addition to housing the slave bells it was used as an [observation tower](/source/observation_tower) from which the people enslaved on the plantation were surveilled.{{Cite book|last1=Inniss|first1=Tara A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9hYnO8Mh2t0C&q=tower|title=Sugar Heritage and Tourism in Transition|last2=Jolliffe|first2=Lee|date=2013|publisher=Channel View Publications|isbn=978-1-84541-386-6|editor-last=Jolliffe|editor-first=Lee|location=|pages=|language=en|chapter=The Industrial Heritage of Sugar at World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean}} In 1988, Valle de los Ingenios and neighbouring city Trinidad were declared a [World Heritage Site](/source/World_Heritage_Site) by [UNESCO](/source/UNESCO).{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/460/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-08-14|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|language=en}} ==References== {{reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Slave Bell}} Category:Bells (percussion) Category:Slavery in Africa Category:Slavery in North America Category:Slavery in South America Category:Slavery in the Caribbean --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Slave bell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_bell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_bell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.