By Mohamed Khan

Immediately after emancipation Mr Daniel an Englishman and the owner of plantation Sparta, Fear Not, Coffee Grove and Lima decided to sell his lands to free African slaves on the Essequibo Coast .A group of African free slaves seeing their brothers buying up abandon estates to live on, pooled their money and bought Danielstown for $ 2000 British pounds in 1840. These Africans like many others Africans, had saved money that they earned over time by working on the sugar, coffee and cotton plantations. They were mainly the headmen from the four sugar estates. Shortly after Mr Daniel sold his land, he requested of the new owners to rename the plantation Danielstown in his honour. This was done. He donated his own money to help develop Danielstown for the free Africans slaves so they could live a happy and comfortable life.
Economic circumstances had forced Mr Daniel decided to sell his estates because they became unprofitable after slavery came to an end in 1831.Many sugar, coffee and cotton plantations in particular, faced competition with cheap labour in the USA by other slaves and the owner could not survive in such a situation. Many of the estates were left abandoned. Mr Daniel, the owner of these four amalgamated estates of Lima, Coffee Grove, Fear Not and Sparta decided to sell Danielstown. By this time many other planters realized that many Africans had accumulated considerably savings, so they immediately raised their land prices. In the same manner they sold the front lands of plantation Aberdeen and divided it among Africans who established the village of Williamston.
The Africans were of the view that they had no economic future if they continued to reside on the sugar plantations. They were seeing other Africans buying up abandon cotton and sugar plantations, and these group of Africans from the four estates felt that they too must acquire their own land. Strikes and reduction in wages, forced more and more Africans on the Essequibo Coast to abandon the sugar estates. Some of them moved to existing villages while others who had no savings squatted on Crown lands where they build houses and settle down with their families. In 1880 the Africans who bought the village built an Anglican church where they worshipped and made it into a school for their children. This building was named St Agnes Anglican and it is still standing as a monument.
PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE
Indian immigrants from the neighbouring estates purchased lands in Danielstown from their African brothers and settle among them; they were the first to mix with the African freed slaves on the Essequibo Coast. The Indian immigrants set up businesses of all kinds. One such person was Sadar Mohamed whose father came from Bihar, India, on the first ship with immigrants which landed at Anna Regina. When his mother and father died, he was left alone in the village. He later set up a business which was popular and well stocked; selling Raliegh and Humber bicycles from England and grocery. People from all over the Essequibo would go there to do their shopping because his items were cheap.
He was also the Imaam for Lima Masjid. Another popular Portuguese businessman in the village was Mr IG Rebeiro. Sonny Teerie, Omar Khan, Zeen and the popular radio announcer Mr Ayube Hamid, Omar Khan, had the first aerated factory and a bus service for Essequibians which would commute passengers from Charity to Adventure to board the ferry.
The village was blessed with a post office since the colonial days and it is still standing there servicing the people. It also had a community centre, a pure water supply well; which used to service the residents from Danielstown to Anna Regina and Walton Hall, a Primary and a Kinder Garden school, and an abattoir where animals were being slaughter by butchers. It has a population of 4,000 with all the races living together as one.
As a little boy I attended the St Agnes Anglican school until age 15, when the new Primary school was built at Sparta. The children from this school moved to the new school. The building is now being used fulltime as a church by the community. Danielstown today has a population of about 5000 people of all races. It remains a typical village like Queenstown, Dartmouth and Good Hope which were bought by free African slaves booming with business and agriculture. However, Danielstown is one of the most successful village communities.