Hermanus H Post and Plantation Le Resouvenir

Part III
(Continued from July 7)

The missionary John Wray’s arrival to fulfil Post’s desire to have the slaves taught religious education and to read and write brought much censure from other plantation owners who felt that it would lead to revolt.
They accused Post of creating “anarchy, chaos and discontent among the slaves” that would lead to “destruction” of the colony. The planters insisted that if they were teaching the slaves religion, they should teach them “their duties to their masters”. Newspaper articles also arose that warned of the dire consequences of teaching slaves to read.
But Post, his health deteriorating, refused to listen to the protestations and instead sought to have more missionaries appointed to other places in the colony. Post did have some supporters of his cause who also wrote to overseas missionaries and to the colonial council insisting that there would be no endangerment to the colony.
Post also offered land in the city to build a chapel but colonial authorities “refused to cooperate.”

On Le Resouvenir, religious services were initially conducted in a shed, but after a steady increase of worshippers over a year, Post decided to build a chapel on the plantation. In September 1808, the Bethel Chapel was completed and inaugurated, “crowded with people of various colours” said to number around 600.
A house for the missionary building was completed the following year on the plantation. However further expansions would be stymied by Post’s creditors demanding their payments or he would face bankruptcy.
One of the situations Post found himself in was that his plantation did not prosper as well as the surrounding plantations, and one reason suggested was that the better treatment and living conditions of the slaves on his plantation played a role.
After four consecutive years of cotton crop harvest failures, Post had been forced to ask for credit to maintain the plantation and the mission.
Despite these financial difficulties, in October 1808, the first group of children were baptised at Bethel Chapel, and on December 26 that same year, 13 women and seven men took confession, to the tearful delight of Hermanus Post, according to Wray.
But by early 1809, Post’s health began deteriorating rapidly. He was suffering from severe asthmatic conditions and was always in much pain. He soon developed increasingly painful gout and became unable to use his hands and feet. Restricted to his bed, he died April 29, 1809.

Wray described the grief of the plantation population:
On April the 29th, about half after eight o’clock in the evening, he fell asleep in Jesus. The poor negroes spent most of the night in weeping for him, exclaiming, “Oh, my massa, my massa!” A more Affecting scene was, perhaps, never presented. I suppose there were more than 500 negroes of his own, and from other estates, lamenting Their loss. Mr. Purkis and the manager went among the negro-houses, to request them to be still, but in vain. They continued to weep aloud, exclaiming, “My massa, my massa! – My tatta, my tatta ‘! – I was much affected with the language of one poor woman. She said she had [lived] 20 years on the estate, – Not able to do any work, but her massa had Given her everything to make her comfortable.
HH Post was buried Sunday, April 30 at 5 o’clock in the afternoon in the cemetery on his plantation, under a large mango tree. He was carried by eight slaves of whom some were baptized. Despite the heavy rain, there was a large number of “people of different colour” present. There were some songs sung and Wray held a brief sermon. Then on Sunday, May 14, Wray held a special funeral sermon.
Wray had wished Post be buried in the chapel but Post had refused because he (Post) felt it could be considered as pride or self-glorification.
The London Missionary Service carried an obituary for Post in its Annual Report of 1809, describing him as important to the teaching of religion on the colony and calling him a “generous benefactor”.
Tragically, after Post’s death, Le Resouvenir went under the management of Johannes van der Haas, and the treatment of the slaves quickly deteriorated. The whip became enforced and slaves made to work on Saturdays and Sundays when previously Post had given them those days off. (TO BE CONTINUED)