Destruction of slave wall a crime, say witnesses

| 26/08/2022 | 122 Comments
  • Cayman News Service
  • Cayman News Service

(CNS): The destruction of a stone wall believed to have been built by slaves more than 200 years ago has further highlighted the inadequacy of heritage protection in Cayman. The historic wall was knocked down to make way for a proposed project just off Walkers Road, but witnesses say the demolition was a crime because the wall stood well and truly on property that didn’t belong to those involved in its removal.

A witness maintains that police officers at the scene could have stopped the destruction if they had simply checked the relevant documents. The RCIPS confirmed Friday that this allegation about the officers and the accusation of criminal damage is under investigation as part of inquiries into all the circumstances surrounding this incident.

The destruction of the wall in the Webster’s Estate area hit social media this weekend, once again fuelling calls for legal protection for the country’s built heritage before it is too late and everything relating to Cayman’s heritage is destroyed.

CNS has seen documents that indicate the wall is on land belonging to Sandra Meekins, and she has said that land was purchased by her grandfather in 1920. Meekins is devastated by the destruction and wants to see it rebuilt. However, she is currently overseas due to health issues and was not in a position to take on the neighbours who pulled down the wall.

Meekins was unable to talk on the record to CNS as she is unwell and has now passed the case to her lawyers. But she has confirmed it was destroyed without her permission or knowledge.

Other residents in the small community off Walkers Road who have been trying to help were on the scene when the heavy equipment first arrived on 17 August and began tearing down the wall. They immediately called the police but the officers who responded to the call, who could have prevented the demolition, allowed it to carry on.

Those who watched the destruction have told CNS that the officers tried to arrest them instead, taking the word of the bulldozer driver that he was authorised to tear down the historic wall without making a single check and stood by as it was destroyed.

The RCIPS has said it is now supporting the partner agencies, as the work at the site has been stopped by the planning department, which issued an enforcement notice because there was no permission to clear the land, but not until most of the wall had already been reduced to a pile of rubble.

“Investigations are currently being carried out in relation to offences relating to breaches of the peace that were reported to the police,” the RCIPS told CNS in response to our inquiries, confirming that officers were called out in relation to the issue on the 17 and again on 20 August.

Complaints against the two officers at the scene have also been filed with the Professional Standards Unit regarding the accusation that they stood by and allowed the developer to tear down the wall despite being informed of the situation. The police also confirmed Friday that a report concerning allegations of theft, trespass and criminal damage was also made in relation to the destruction of the wall.

“This report is currently under investigation by police, along with the previously mentioned reports,” a spokesperson for the RCIPS said in a follow-up. “The RCIPS is also reviewing the actions taken by the attending officers.”

Speaking to CNS about the situation, asking not to be named given the tension the situation has caused, witnesses to the incident supplied us with the documents that support Meekins’ position that the wall was firmly on her property. They said that the failure of the authorities at the time of the destruction facilitated the crime, which one witness told CNS sets a terrible precedent if it is not addressed.

“The police officers failed to stop the bulldozer driver based purely on the claims of that driver,” he said.

The driver reportedly told the police officers that the wall was on the land belonging to Lester Harvey, from Harvey Construction, and his family, and that he had been given the job of tearing it down. The police accepted this claim without checking, and despite efforts by one witness to stop the work, most of the wall was eventually crushed.

“This sends a chilling message to all property owners. This means that if someone claims your land is theirs, regardless of the truth, and comes to stake a claim or cause damage, the police won’t help,” the witness warned. “If they allowed it to happen in this case, it could happen to anyone. That is a very disturbing prospect. Whose property will be safe in such circumstances if there are no consequences for this?”

Since the destruction of the wall, Leslie Harvey has said he had no idea that it had historical value and that there was no way for him to know this, but if he had known they would not have destroyed it. However, he still insists it was on his land and he had a right to move it. He told CNS that Lands and Survey boundary markers on the property indicate that the entire wall was firmly on his land and disputes the documents that say otherwise.

Some of the stones of the demolished wall, which are believed to have been carried from the oceanfront by hand by slaves two centuries ago, have already been moved, which relates to the allegation of theft, but some were still on the site as of Thursday afternoon.

As with the two old buildings that were recently demolished, the National Trust for the Cayman Islands said that, yet again, they were not informed that a site of historical importance that is also on its historic register was set for demolition.

“It is unfortunate that not only was the National Trust not made aware of any plans for the demolition of this old stonewall, but we understand that it also came as a shock to members of the neighbourhood and wider community,” the Trust said in a statement issued to the Cayman Compass. “Once again, this has brought to the forefront the need for community educational awareness to encourage respect for, and build pride in, Cayman’s built heritage and sites, and which, along with the legislation to protect such heritage sites, is becoming increasingly crucial.”

The Trust is calling on property owners to check its National Heritage Register to find out if their property is listed and engage with them about relocation or demolition plans for traditional homes or historic places, even if they are not listed.

Following the recent demolition of two old homes on the George Town waterfront this month, the Trust said they are working with the government to advise on how to put protections in place.

Under the current development and planning laws, property owners are not legally bound to alert the Trust about any intention to demolish an old structure. However, if the Trust is notified, a solution other than destruction might well be found.


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Category: development, Local News

Comments (122)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I will have you know that our Filipino nanny is like a family member, a status symbol that we are better than you.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Can someone point to a recent news article about the slave wall? Only hear about it when it is too late. None of our schools teach about the slave wall. To protect our heritage it must begin with educating our children.

    All kids who want to attend college focus on GCSE, CXE, A levels, IB etc. which has no local knowledge content.

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    • Herodotus says:

      The only Cayman history of any significance was the key role played in tax evasion, money laundering and facilitating global crime in the 70s, 80s and 80s. The rest is trivia.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    The developer “said he had no idea that it had historical value and that there was no way for him to know this, but if he had known they would not have destroyed it.” This quote perfectly encapsulates the challenge of preserving history. One man’s ‘ancient wall my ancestors built’ is another man’s ‘old stone wall of no particular note that someone built to mark a previous land boundary before they had survey markers and chain link fence’.

    Someone should work out a rule of thumb that we can mostly agree on of how old / significant / documented something has to be for it to be historic. Its like the difference between a random old painting with no providence and an old painting that can be traced back to a known painter. If actuaries can value a human life and Cayman can agree a number of ‘immigration points’ for citizenship surely we can come up with a rough metric for historical worth also. It may not be perfect, but nothing is and something will be better than the nothing we have now.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    “History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from it. And if it offends you, even better. Because then you are less likely to repeat it. It’s not yours to erase. It belongs to all of us”

    – Unknown

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    • The quote continued says:

      “But history is not based on a false narrative as to the background of an ordinary wall.”

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  6. M says:

    @12:51 – I don’t think my people (grandmother, grandfather, great grand parents) were lying about the slave wall. I find it insulting to suggest they were lying and it is a myth! I think some people here, the new generation, don’t want us to be reminded of our history. They hate us, and that’s why they are promoting modernization of these islands. They can’t stand our culture, conservatism, and our churches. It has to be replaced with ideaologies like lgbtq, atheism, and american secularization.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I don’t think your ancestors were lying. Perhaps the wall was built by slaves.

      But at the end of the day it’s a meaningless wall. Slaves built a lot of structures, I’m not sure they are of historical value just because they were built by slave labour.

      Perhaps a monument with some sort of historical information would be appropriate and go a long way to educating people about the past.

      Leaving some unremarkable wall along a road just because it’s old doesn’t really strike me as “preserving culture”

      Modernization can happen while at the same time respecting and acknowledging the past. Modernization is inevitable everywhere anyway. You can’t stop it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Only in Cayman can people actually link landowners undertaking negligent construction projects to Gay people, atheists and secularism

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  7. Shirley says:

    The term “slave wall” is a generic Jamaican description for a loose stone dyke. It has nothing to do with who built the wall. Ironically many of the commenters on this thread seem to want to adopt the nomenclature, attribute baseless historic significance derived from their ignorance of the provenance of the term and then insult in an offensive manner Jamaican residents.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Thank you 2.04 for your learned contribution to this silly , very silly knickers in a twist posturing by the usual tree huggers…
      I on the other hand am not a Learned person and would simply say …Slave wall my backside.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    So … in the same BOTC that denies that slaves were ever on Cayman … now you are concerned with the destruction of a “slave wall”

    Make it make sense !!!

    CNS: I’ve never met a Caymanian who denies that slavery is part of the history of the Cayman Islands. There was one comment to that effect on this thread but there is no clue where that commenter is from. Certainly, anyone who picks up a history book can learn about it.

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  9. Michelle Lockwood says:

    We need a National Development law to direct the CPA, the NRA and all other organisations that are involved in development on the island. There are two many developments happening that are clearly not in the keeping with history and sustainability.
    I have no idea how this was allowed to happen if it was on someone else’s property. The police should have stopped this pending review of the authenticity of the documents.
    There was a huge win for the environment recently, but we equally near to preserve our history as well as our environment.
    We need a refresh of a lot of laws, including enacting some.

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    • Unknown says:

      All you can hear is CPA CPA, show me where the CPA have any remit under the laws to protect some wall. It’s the national trust. If these things has historic value then pay people for their property and maintain it. Just tired of you all bashing the CPA

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      • Anonymous says:

        Poor CPA, they really are getting hit hard lately fellas!

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      • Anon says:

        The CPA approves this. The National Trust has no jurisdiction and nothing to be able to stop destruction. The CPA authorises it. All the poster was saying is that there needs to be a law in which the CPA can properly refer to.

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        • Unknown says:

          You are a real nutter, go back to any minute of the CPA which I did and show me where they approved such an application. Get real who apply to remove a wall?? I have seen in the minutes lots of applications to erect walls but none to remove. Get a life and find something more constructive to spend your time on. A real Caymanian.

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  10. Hancock says:

    The wall is really quite exciting and of major histerical interest. It is rather like Stonehenge . Where did the rocks come from. Were they local or hauled huge distances from Northside. What about DNA on the rocks. Blood must have been split in building the wall. May I suggest the RCIP investigate. The truth is out there as Scully would say.

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  11. Break says:

    Historic? Cultural significance? Give me a break. At this rate people will be moaning about someone moving a dog turd that has been in situ for a month.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Whether or not you think it’s history is less important than the fact that it was on someone else’s property. Someone who was amenable enough not to object when the neighbors (who took down the wall) wanted to erect a 7 foot high barbed wire fence….after already erecting the same type fence without planning approval on an adjacent piece of land. And the only thing Meekins asked was that the stone wall not be touched and the foliage remain to hide the barbed wire fence…and the one who tore down the wall agreed not to take down the wall. It is all in the planning documents in 2018.

      You have to wonder if the nationality of the bulldozer operator and the police played into the matter. 💭

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  12. Anonymous says:

    “A slave wall”. What complete, unproven myth.

    And those that are knowledgeable about Cayman’s history (at a documented, academic level), would be aware that Cayman had little slave activity. Cayman never had large-scale plantations like Jamaica and Barbados (just some subsistence farming here) so there was no economic incentive to purchase and “keep” slaves. Without mass cash crops like sugarcane or tobacco, the cost to acquire, feed and house a slave and family would exceed any possible income.

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    • Anonymous says:

      That’s good speculation. However there was a census in 1802 which showed exactly how many slaves were in the Cayman Islands.

      The first census of the Islands was taken in 1802, showing a population on Grand Cayman of 933, of whom 545 were slaves. Before slavery was abolished in 1834, there were over 950 slaves owned by 116 families.

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      • Hancock says:

        Wow that is a lot of walls.

        Just wondering how many slave walls in the Brac.

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      • CayT says:

        I guess to own a slave back then was considered a commidity, a useful or valuable thing. You know … like your car, your guard dogs, your tools. The black women were nice for when fair skin elites couldn’t make it with their wives. In fact, in no time, our islands became well mixed thanks to a no-abortion policy.

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    • Anonymous says:

      12:04, what would someone on $6 per hr living in Cayman be called nowadays?

      Our airplanes are the new ships…..

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    • Michael Day says:

      12.04 typically Anonymous, stay off the airwaves as you don’t know much, if anything, about Our history. I could go on about my knowledge of slaves in our Islands but you are not worthy. Stick to what you know please.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I know this was/is the common perception. But it has been tinged with the rose coloured glasses we want to look at the past through. While Cayman had little slave activity, relative to other islands with large-scale plantations, compared to them Cayman had little population/economic activity at all. As always its the relative values that matter. So Cayman had slaves. Not as many in absolute terms as our neighbours, absolutely. But half our population were slaves. – see the 1802 census posted about elsewhere on this thread, and allow some simplification of the maths – And they would have been used for labour, like making walls/fences.

      Was any particular old stone wall made with slave as opposed to non-slave labour? Impossible to say without oral history connected to that particular wall. But that’s immaterial. Its not whether there were slaves here, or if they built a particular rock wall, but that our ancestors did. (As someone else said our ancestors got pretty mixed up. But again not something we want to look at too closely lest it make us feel uncomfortable. Though staying integrated is a good thing.)

      In the interest of fostering our preferred view of our society, both historically and futuristically, lets agree we had slaves here, that slavery is bad and not something we want to repeat, and that history (even if it is old rock walls) is worth preserving lest we forget it. (In this case, lest we forget how hard our ancestors worked.) There is more that unites us than divides us, if we don’t let ourselves get bogged down arguing immaterial details.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Just think of all the hurricanes, Honda Accords, and Honda Civics that has survived!

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Get over it. It never was a slave wall. Caymanians just like chatting. This is just another lie.

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  15. Anonymous says:

    Caymanians, it’s not yours any longer. You killed the goose that laid the golden egg with you “Cayman Kindness”. It’s too late, you all are now just spectators.

    What did you all think would happen?! Or you weren’t thinking about the future or; you didn’t care.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t the people on both sides of this dispute Caymanian?

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      • Anonymous says:

        @7:27pm..not really..we have a lot of people of people that become Caymanians on paper but know nothing of our history and culture nor do they care.

        Being a true Caymanian is lot more that having a piece of paper saying that you have status.

        On the flip side there are a lot of people with this piece of paper that have become the fabric of these island and took the initiative to get to know and be involved in their new home. They came to become part of us not just for what they could take from us to make them rich..sadly those Caymanians are in the minority.

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        • Anonymous says:

          “Being a true Caymanian”

          So if we go back to the early settlor; one party was white and the other black, both from the other side of the world i.e. not from Cayman, what exactly is a true Caymanian?

          Last names normally provide a clue to “true Caymanians” origins but you seem to ignore that part of your heritage almost daily.

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          • Anonymous says:

            The same thing that makes an “American” a “true” American. The same claim that other invaded, “discovered” descendants use as their claim.

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        • Curvy says:

          “Being a true Caymanian…” thus speaks the racist bigots time and time again. “Agree with me because if you don’t you are not a ‘true Caymanian”’ The old “no true [insert nationality]” trope is a hackneyed refuge of the bigoted across the world.

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      • Anonymous says:

        @7:27pm Two distinctly different types of Caymanians..One set that cares about our history, culture and its people..The other set came here to make their fortunes, with little or no respect for our history, culture and our people..

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        • Anonymous says:

          You have conveniently forgotten a third category, which is most relevant here: your “generational” Caymanians who don’t care a hoot for history or culture and just want to make money. There are lots (and lots) of them. And I say good luck to them; it’s their island to concrete over if that’s what they want.

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          • Anonymous says:

            @2:13am..I can assure you these were not generational Caymanians that destroyed this wall..

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            • Anonymous says:

              How many generations do you need to be a ‘generational Caymanian’? Second generation good enough? Third? Or is it just some bullshit moniker used by bigoted morons?

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      • Say it like it is says:

        If we follow precedent, the perpetrator will be on the ne3xt slate of National Heroes.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If time didn’t change we would still have slaves to put that wall back together.

      Maybe progress is a good thing.

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      • Anonymous says:

        We do by the thousands and pay them $6 per hour.

        If they aren’t already putting it back they will be next week.

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Everybody has a price for the Million Dollar Man.

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  17. Anonymous says:

    What happened to the missing NPK 12 jack hammer stolen from Island Paving with the serial numbers rubbed off ???

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  18. Anonymous says:

    Cops in cayman are useless and some of the most uneducated civil service employees we got, you think they can protect a wall when they can’t look after their dogs ….surprised when they are able to spell

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    • Anonymous says:

      I will grant you that a great many are not especially scholarly. However, to tar all cops with the same brush is unfair.

      For someone who didn’t use uppercase for the C of Cayman, didn’t use the ellipsis correctly, and no full stop at the end of the sentence, I think you should consider a career with the RCIPS yourself.

      There are some very smart, and very well educated officers and former officers. Believe me, they feel your frustrations too.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I am sure there are some excellent members of the RCIPS. Unfortunately, they are outshined by incompetent, power-hungry members.

  19. Caymanian says:

    Kiss bye bye to a 200 year old wall. A wall older than the Governor’s House! I remember there is one in Bodden Town too and a slave well.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    I imagine it would be very difficult to document whether the wall in question was built by slaves, although I am aware it is something of a custom to label any loose stone wall as a “slave wall”.

    If one looks at the University College London slave owner database, the only Webster listed is, as you would expect, from Bodden Town, and would have ceased to own his slaves in 1834. And it would seem that his descendant Samuel Webster only moved to George Town in 1900. So one might reasonably infer that a wall on the Webster “Plantation” (the land that now includes Webster Estates) was not necessarily a slave wall.

    I encourage everyone to explore the Cayman listings in the UCL database. Some familiar family names are there and others that have been lost to time. Interestingly, the location of the plantation house celebrated as the birthplace of democracy in Cayman was the home of a family with one of the larger slave holdings. Now a historic site and tourist attraction with reconstructed walls.

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  21. Anonymous says:

    I’m amaze that the National Trust is always after the fact. I thought they are a body governed to protect the national monuments of these islands. How can they be included before the destruction? Maybe employing a field officer? Maybe extend the duties of the Marine Park Officers? Clearly something has to be implemented rather fast than later. The rate development is going, the land housed under national house will soon be sold off to the highest bidder

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    • Anonymous says:

      The National Trust are not ‘a body governed to protect the national monuments of these islands’ or anything similar. Therein lies the problem. That no such body or duty as you envision exists. Which is also why these issues are always after-the-fact. Even if a marine parks officer had been there there would be nothing under the law they could do (no law to protect the ‘national monuments of these islands’). Which is why in this case the protesters and article rightly focused on the Police and ‘trespass’ type laws (in this particular case).

  22. Anonymous says:

    If using heavy equipment to tear down national historic landmarks is the measure, then Mr Harvey deserves a place in Heroes Square. Alongside National Hero Jim Bodden.

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    • Anonymous says:

      National historic landmark? Give me a break. More like national histrionics. Because this wall was a well known landmark – right. Few people knew or cared until someone suggests it was a slave wall – enter the anti development lobby in link step with the anti expat movement “foreign developers destroying our culture “ – even though this has zero to do with foreign developers and there is no consensus that the wall was built by slaves or even as to how old it actually is.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Eye will bring the celebratory cake!!!

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  23. Anonymous says:

    Some people with no reverence for the past need their heads examined. Then again some might suspect their heads contain a brain but in some special cases it contains just a pile of rocks.

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  24. Anonymous says:

    Oh here we go. Almost NO ONE knew of this pile of rocks. It is completely unremarkable.

    Have generations of school children visited the wall?

    Gawd, some people are making this seem like we knocked down an Egyptian pyramid.

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    • Anonymous says:

      As a lover of history, how come I never heard of this wall in the 30 years I worked in Cayman ? If it was of such historical significance, why wasn’t there better public knowledge of this wall, and a suitable plaque or signage to explain to us all ?

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      • Anonymous says:

        3:15, Some history is better left untold.

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      • Anonymous says:

        @3:15am..Maybe you are like most that come here to make their fortunes and leave and didn’t give a damn or have any interest in studying or being involved with our people or culture. I’m guessing after 30 years you made enough to retire in your own country..

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  25. Anonymous says:

    It’s a pile of stones put there by (perhaps unwilling) people a long time ago. You can’t call it a wall or any kind of monument to slavery. It has no value historically or aesthetically. The landowner should be allowed to remove it and build a proper wall in its place.
    However if a neighbor knocked down a wall on someone elses land, thats a different matter and shouldn’t be allowed. But still, slavery has nothing to do with it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I agree.

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    • Anonymous says:

      And you think you know everything. Are you God?

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    • Anonymous says:

      If you own a modern house it won’t be standing after 200 years, the concrete or block will have long crumbled. Things back then were built to last whether by slaves or otherwise. This is history and we can learn from it.

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      • Chris Johnson says:

        My friend I am not sure about that. I certainly agree some old houses have survived in all the many hurricanes. However many constructed buildings or walls have gone because the cement contained sand straight from the beach. The wall I replaced on North Church Street at Red Spot Beach was a fine example. Now certain condos on the beach are suffering from similar problem.
        I have to say though the Glass House did not last long nor the Tower Building. I guess we did not learn from history.

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        • Anonymous says:

          We adopt most American standards including concrete mix. In Europe fired bricks have been used as the standard for housing. I am certain I have read that the American standard for concrete stability is in the region of 60+ plus years average.

          • Anonymous says:

            We have adopted most American standards, but only recently. Chris was referencing the sand used to mix the concrete coming directly from the beach with a high salt content. This caused the steel within the concrete to eventually rust and expand causing the concrete to crack.

            Additionally, with fresh water being a precious commodity, concrete was mixed using brackish water which gave the same result. In fact, I can recall cement being mixed using salt water back in the 60’s when I was growing up. However, this was mostly for building cisterns and instead of steel (which wasn’t readily available), walls were built with a generous supply of beach rock mixed with the cement.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Thought it would be better to remove reminders of an ugly period in history.
      That is probably why the Germans never erected statues of Hitler.
      Move on .

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  26. Anonymous says:

    So disgraceful.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This entire wall borders the Webster’s estate development. So If this wall was the border of the Webster estates development before it was subdivided, how do people like ms meekins claim to own the wall when their land is outside Websters estates? Doesn’t make sense. Not her wall.

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      • Anon says:

        Ignorance is bliss

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      • Anonymous says:

        What’s registered on the land register what the eye of the law will view as correct boundaries.

        Was the “stone wall” a boundary marker for Webster’s land?

        Part of that “stone wall” is also located across Walkers Road on Stone Wall Drive.

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  27. Anonymous says:

    Not to start trouble but it sure seems like you have police officers that are from some other Caribbean Island (not Cayman) and the equipment operators that are also from this same other island, looks like they are following the same nonsense that is happening on the roads now without proper enforcement when the nationality of people meet up.
    What would delaying the project for a couple of days hurt anyone so everything could be properly verified? If the Mr Harvey (stated owner) was such a good neighbor or a caring Caymanian, why couldn’t he have stopped, checked everything and make sure it was all good before proceeding? Why the big rush to haul all the rocks away? I guess this will all be swept under the rug and business will proceed as usual. Will we be hearing any words of wisdom from our esteemed CPA?

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    • Anonymous says:

      According to the boundary markers, the wall was on mr. Harvey’s land. Also there was no rush to haul rocks as they are still there. Maybe learn the facts if you really don’t want to stir up trouble.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Facts? What have facts got to do with it? And where does CPA fit into this?

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      • Anonymous says:

        Whose boundary markers are they 4:42? Seems like a lot of confusion since your side says one thing and the other landowner states otherwise. Will it be to much trouble to get an independent survey to resolve this issue since it involves a historical artifact.

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        • Anonymous says:

          *an historical

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          • Anonymous says:

            Rather depends on whether you are pronouncing the h? Brits tend to. Americans don’t. Like herb. Brits pronounce the h (because there is an effing h.

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          • Anonymous says:

            I wouldn’t worry about a and an. If you know the difference between your and you’re, there and their, and lose and loose, you’re already in the top one percentile.

        • Anonymous says:

          The official lands and survey boundary beacon is the marker that I am referring to. The ones they use to base all surveying off. Encased in concrete and a crime to move.

      • Unhappy caymanian says:

        Absolutely clueless

        Ignotamt

        Obviously you’re a quantity surveyor

        Pictures of the wall destroyed

        Pictures of rock before and after its removal

        Apologies you were on site witness to the volume of Rick removed?

        You took the pictures of the theft of the rock?

        Ignorant

    • Anonymous says:

      He’s from same Caribbean island too but moved here and made a fortune

  28. Anonymous says:

    Very few Caymanians left to give historical guidance!

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  29. Anonymous says:

    1. Nobody has even established whose land it is on. Surely that needs to be determined before anyone sounds off?

    2. What evidence is there that this is a “slave wall”, built 200 years ago? I hope that this isn’t being alleged just to spice up the story.

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    44
    • Anonymous says:

      It’s a “stone wall” that has been erected over 200 years ago. These are facts.

      51
      8
      • Anonymous says:

        Does a “stone wall” make it a “slave wall”? Not necessarily.

        200 years? What evidence do you have of that?

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        8
      • Anonymous says:

        4:09 pm Can you prove that?

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        1
      • Anonymous says:

        Out of interest, I have no idea, how do you know it is over 200 years old?

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        1
        • Anonymous says:

          The 1802 census, which was 220 years ago for the mathematically challenged, show 87 people living in that area, of whom 37 were slaves. Descendants of those 87 inhabitants, of which the aggrieved property owner whose wall was knocked down happens to be one, still live in the area. Stories get handed down from generation to generation, so any more recent construction of the wall would have a more recent story attached to it.

          8
          2
      • Anonymous says:

        Read 10:27pm and tell me it’s a “fact” that it’s as built over 200 years ago.

    • Anonymous says:

      1. That should have been established/resolved before bulldozing the wall.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Seems like the wall demo crowd have lots of supporters. You other people better put a cork in it and accept that the wall is toast and progress takes precedent

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  30. Anonymous says:

    This is indicative of Cayman of today:

    Ignorance, Arrogance & Greed Rule!!

    Thank God I’m on my downhill leg – sorry for my children and theirs!

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  31. Anonymous says:

    Nobody gives a flying f thing anymore, about anything. I really hope the ‘F*** around & find out’ movement takes hold and we start to see a change from the acquired toxic attitude that’s been adopted, it’s time. ⏱

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    3
    • Anonymous says:

      I respectfully disagree, many do care. It’s just difficult to battle from money from oversees, and Caymanians looking to cash in without regard for our homeland. I have no idea if this was of true historical importance, but I am certain that many, many ancestoral Caymanians care little for their heritage – they care about $$$$$.

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  32. Anonymous says:

    When money is involved, nothing else matters. – Today’s World

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