Description
GREAT BRITAIN / JAMAICA c1841 Sir Henry de la Beche Halse Hall Slavery - Good Conduct Award 45.2mm bronze medal 43.56 grams by W. Wyon (BHM 2002)
Obverse: bust facing right, H. DE LA BECHE
Reverse: fauna, REWARD FOR GOOD CONDUCT / HALSE HALL JAMAICA
For Great Britain the official abolition date for slavery was 1833. The slaves did not receive any compensation as that was reserved for the former slave owners. In December 1835 the estate was owned by the Hibbert family who received £3,523 11s 9d compensation when the 172 enslaved Africans were emancipated. In Wyon's diary he writes that the dies for this medal were prepared in 1841. The timeline does not add up, as his former slaves were emancipated in 1835, and that the Hibbert family was the farm owner. I would suggest that de la Beche gave this medal out to his former slaves. There was a more utilitarian 24mm medal with all the same wording that was completed by T. Saulini, c1823-24 (Roehrs 1554; Brandon 996) that would have been given to the actual slaves.
