What is Emancipation Jubilee? Click to download flyer
Emancipation Day is the day that enslaved persons were officially free from slavery and apprenticeship. Although the Law of Abolition was passed in 1834, fully fledged freedom was not materialized until 1838 and thus Emancipation Day was a reason for rejoicing and it became a yearly remembrance and thanksgiving
festival.
Emancipation Jubilee is a major celebration organized by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust at Seville Heritage Park, St. Ann to honour our African ancestors and their contributions towards the free society that we now enjoy. The annual event began on July 31, 1997 when the remains of four ex-slaves were re-interred on the Seville property after they were excavated from the Slave Village on the property and extensively studied by Archaeologists at Syracuse University. The following year, one of the remains was repatriated to Ghana and buried there. Since 1997, the JNHT has commemorated the event with a cultural package that showcases the African retentions of our heritage.
The aim of this celebration is to bring greater awareness and acceptance both locally and globally to the many struggles of our fore parents and to exhibit the retentions in our society. The themes and teachings of the event will be conveyed in a positive atmosphere allowing patrons to fully appreciate and recognize the significant contribution that this part of history played in our development as a people, nation and race.
