By Mohamed Khan

SPRING Garden was amalgamated with Aurora in 1876, but it did not remain for long under cane cultivation. The owner of one of the abandoned plantations within the amalgamated sugar industry of Aurora, in the south on the Essequibo Coast, decided to sell it to a group of 21 former African slaves.Those Africans, like many others, had saved money that they had earned from overtime work done over the years, and since much of the money they saved was in the form of coins, they had to transport the payment in wheelbarrows to the seller, who in turn sold Good Hope to them.

They divided Good Hope into sections, retaining 21 of those sections for themselves and selling the rest to their African brothers for a profit.

These 21 former Africans slaves pooled their savings and created their village communities. Establishing small settlements provided the new Afro-Essequibian village an opportunity to grow and sell food, an extension of a practice under which they had been allowed to keep the money that came from their sale of any surplus produce.

By this time the planters on the Essequibo Coast realised that many freed Africans had accumulated much savings, so they raised their land prices. Some planters made quick money by selling portions of their estates to African labourers.

The owner of Good Hope, for instance, divided the front lands into lots, and sold them for between $100 and $200 each. Thus by 1840, a thriving “proprietary” village of Africans had developed in that area.

In a very short time, other villages were established throughout Essequibo Coast. Some of the slaves who had no money squatted on Crown lands. Most significantly, many former slaves rapidly departed their plantations.

The end of slavery in Essequibo had several ramifications. Some ex-slaves moved to towns and other villages, feeling that their field of labour was degrading and inconsistent with freedom.

Good Hope village faced administrative problems after it was bought during the 1840s. The 21 freed Africans possessed no experience in cooperative management, and since they had used up their savings to purchase the land, they had nothing left for maintaining the roads, bridges, sluice gates and drainage canals. As a result, the condition of the village deteriorated.

With poor sea defence, the public road along the coast at Good Hope became the principal and often sole defence against the sea. Because of flooding and erosion, the roadway was extremely difficult and expensive to maintain.

After some years, the subsoil drainage became inadequate to cope with the volume of water, and was easily silted up. The plantain disease was also proving to be a scourge to the farmers. Since they depended on it as their primary food, the disease was transmitted from healthy plants by way of their shovels in cutting the plantain suckers and replanting.

Its effect prevented the regeneration of their suckers after four years of fruit bearing, and it also made the land unusable for some five years subsequently.

Today, Good Hope, located on the apex of a pagasse and clay subsoil that was created when the Supenaam Creek changed its course to the Atlantic from east to west about 3000 years ago, is the beginning of the Essequibo road from the south of the coast, on the left bank of the Supenaam Creek.

Good Hope now has a population of 3000 people, some of whom belong to the forebears of the 21 former slaves who had pooled their money to buy the village. It exhibits a well laid out scheme, which is developing rapidly.
The village is the main in-transit point by ferry leading to Wakenaam, Hog Island, Parika and Georgetown.

Good Hope has all the basic amenities, inclusive of a modern ferry stelling, where two Chinese ferry dock and off–load passengers and cargo; a speedboat service; schools, play field, health centre, good roads and streets, shops, and a modern market.

Most of the people are self-employed. They are into speedboat operation, cash crop farming, logging, rice farming and gold mining.

Good Hope was declared a land registration area by late President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. Many ex-slaves and their off-springs are buried in Good Hope cemetery.
A monument was constructed in 1865 in memory of the 36 children who took over the village and managed it. Some names which are inscribed on it are Samuel Ashley, Alexander Dash, Solomon Dash and Hubert Dash, Israel Bascom, Josh J. Hill, W.W. Schroeder, Thomas Horne, and James T. Cordis.