Cap 110 is a memorial dedicated to slavery, erected at Anse Caffard (where the colonist Jean Caffard lived) at the initiative of the municipality of Le Diamant (Martinique) for the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1998. Its designer, Laurent Valère, is a Martinican born in 1959. A self-taught artist, he works in painting and monumental sculpture.
The orientation of Cap 110 is that of the Gulf of Guinea, from where the ship likely came. This 110° orientation also gave the memorial its name. The triangular shape is a reminder of the triangular trade.
Morne Larcher is a volcanic peak located in the communes of Diamant and Anses-d’Arlet in Martinique.
Martinique is a French island located in the Caribbean Sea, specifically in the Lesser Antilles archipelago. Martinique is a unique territorial collectivity of the French Republic. It lies within the volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean Sea, between Dominica to the north and Saint Lucia to the south.
By Dr. Isaac Newton
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. Aug. 5, 2026: Professor C. Justin Robinson’s The Business of Slavery: From Africa to the New World is much more than a history of the Atlantic slave trade. It explains how slavery became one of the world’s most organized and profitable economic systems. Governments, banks, businesses, courts, churches, merchants, and investors all helped create a system that treated human beings as property instead of people. The numbers tell a heartbreaking story. About 12.5 million Africans were forced onto slave ships. Only about 10.7 million survived the journey across the Atlantic. Millions of others died before ever reaching the coast. When slavery ended in the British Empire, the British government paid £20 million to compensate slave owners. The people who had endured generations of forced labor received nothing. These facts show how institutions can lose sight of human dignity when financial gain becomes the highest priority. Behind every contract, insurance policy, ledger, and legal document stood a man, woman, or child whose freedom had been stolen.
One of the pamphlet’s greatest contributions is that it shifts our attention from individual wrongdoing to institutional responsibility. Slavery lasted for centuries because responsibility was spread across many people and organizations. Merchants transported captives. Banks financed voyages. Insurance companies protected investments. Courts enforced ownership. Governments passed laws. Churches often remained silent or offered religious support. Each group performed what seemed like an ordinary task, yet together they sustained one of history’s greatest injustices. That lesson still matters today. Forced labor, human trafficking, unfair supply chains, environmental injustice, and some uses of artificial intelligence remind us that modern systems can still place efficiency and profit ahead of people. These problems are not slavery, but they reveal the same danger. When people become invisible inside a system, injustice can slowly become accepted as normal.
Emancipation Day is more than a celebration of the end of slavery. It is also a reminder that freedom must be protected, strengthened, and expanded. The true story of emancipation is not found only in government records but in the lives of formerly enslaved people who built families, schools, churches, businesses, farms, and communities after receiving neither land nor financial support. Their achievements remain one of history’s greatest examples of courage, resilience, and determination. Their story also challenges every generation to ask difficult questions. What forms of human worth are becoming invisible in today’s economy? What evidence are we leaving behind that future generations will examine with the same honesty that we now bring to plantation records? If entire societies once accepted slavery as ordinary business, what practices today deserve closer moral scrutiny before they become tomorrow’s regret?
The way forward calls for more than annual ceremonies. It requires informed citizens, ethical leaders, and strong institutions. Schools should teach the economic and moral history of slavery so young people understand both the cost of injustice and the value of freedom. Governments should strengthen transparency and accountability. Businesses should ensure that their supply chains respect human dignity. Universities should expand research on economic justice and social mobility. Faith communities should continue shaping moral character and public responsibility. Caribbean nations should invest boldly in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, innovation, and opportunities that help every citizen flourish. Emancipation is not simply a date on the calendar. It is a continuing responsibility to build societies where human dignity is protected, opportunity is widely shared, and justice is visible in everyday life. Reparations give moral expression to historical truth. They acknowledge that wealth accumulated through the denial of humanity leaves obligations that time alone cannot erase, and that justice reaches its fullest meaning when memory is matched by repair.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Isaac Newton is a leadership strategist, governance scholar, and author specializing in institutional excellence, ethical leadership, and human development. Educated at the University of the Southern Caribbean, Oakwood University, Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard, he writes on leadership, governance, and the development of people and institutions. He is the author of Fix It Preacher, Face Life Squarely, and Intimate Intimacy; coauthor of Steps to Good Governance and Daring to Hope; and coauthor of the forthcoming works When Nations Kneel and The Belief Code.
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