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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Removing of Queen Elizabeth I
Preamble: Two years ago this month the governing body known as the General Synod apologised for the role the Church of England played in the abominable African slave trade:
We note that orthodox history records that John Hawkins was Britains first Slave Trader:
In 1564, Queen Elizabeth I partnered with him by renting him the huge old
700-tonne ship Jesus of Lubeck, and he set forth on his second longer and more
extensive voyage along with three small ships. Hawkins sailed to Borburata,
privateering along the way. By the time he reached Borburata, he had captured
around 400 Africans. After Borburata, Hawkins sailed to Rio de la Hacha. The
Spanish officials tried to prevent Hawkins from selling the slaves by imposing
taxes. Captain Hawkins refused the taxes and threatened to burn the towns. After
selling his slaves, Captain Hawkins sailed to a French colony in Florida for a
respite. Captain Hawkins returned to England in September 1566, his expedition a
total success as his financiers made a 60% profit.
Author says, rather Hawkins was the agent, and Elizabeth I the sponsor, making the Queen Britain's first Slave Trader. In this alternate history, we imagine that a more radicalised General Synod agrees to cleanse the Church of England by taking the author's recommended course of action ...
In the light of the apology for the role the Church of England played in the abominable African slave trade, the crimes of one the founding members or the Church, Queen Elizabeth, could no longer be overlooked - claimed the demonstrators. In 1564 Queen Elizabeth started the British Slave Trade in the ill-appropriately named ship, "the good ship Jesus". The moral foundations of the Church were shaken. The apology had inadvertently opened a can of worms. Initially the Church had just admitted to owning slaves and plantations, but subsequently the public found out the Church effectively gave their blessing on the destruction of tens of millions of Africans by declaring Africans had no soul. This gave the British a license to mutilate, rape, kidnap and murder Africans without any fear of eternal damnation. As penance for the crimes of the Church the public demanded the removal of Queen Elizabeth I, Britain's first Slave Trader, from the crypt in Westminster Abbey. The complexity of the shame which has fallen on the Church has been compounded with taunts of "when exactly did the Church become a moral institution", "how many good deeds can out outweigh the malevolence of a genocidal despot", "can we apologise for a crime 200 years later" and "get Elizabeth out, she is rotting the foundations of the church." The final straw came when a national competition was held to effectively mock the Church of England, the number of participants were overwhelming. The most favourite excuses for a Slave Trader at the gates of heaven included:
The ignominy of the mass public outcry has swayed the decision of the Church
to exhume the body of Elizabeth and place it in an unmarked grave, fit for a
criminal.
Author's Notes
Kwame Dallas
Webmaster of I Want To Remember the African Holocaust. Indigenous people have to suffer to build an empire, Africans suffered to build Europe, Native Americans had to suffer to give birth to the mighty United States, Indians suffered to supply spices, Aborigines of Australia had to suffer, the Jews of Nazi Europe, the Palestinians of Palestine and many more. War is ugly, atrocities are common on both sides, but it is the victors who win the license to convey the official version of a conflict. Our aim is to give the victims of oppression a voice. Today, African people in the Diaspora are over represented in prisons, mental institutions, academic under achievement and poverty. The seeds of dysfunction were sown over 450 years of enslavement by Europeans and Arabs. We want to repair the self esteem of Africans today, we want to stop the destruction of Africans today, we want to stop the increasing flow of Africans going to prisons, we want the stop the flow of Africans being sectioned in mental institutions. We want to fund projects which tackle these destructive issues. Also, Guest Historian of Today in Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today. Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting fictional blog.
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the General Synod acknowledged complicity
in the trade after hearing that the Church had run a slave plantation in the
West Indies and that individual bishops had owned hundreds of slaves. It voted
unanimously to apologise to the descendents of the slaves after an emotional
debate in which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, urged the
Church to share the "shame and sinfulness of our predecessors". The Church's
missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in Foreign Parts,
owned the Codrington plantation in Barbados and slaves had the word "Society"
branded on their chests with red-hot irons.
(© Daily Telegraph Newspaper, 09-Feb-2006)
By
February 2006, vigils of over one hundred people had camped outside Westminster
Abbey for thirty-four days. 
