34. [Caribbean Echoes] Susannah Andrews: Jamaican Matriarch to Footy Legends and Mining Startups
What connects a VFL “Champion of the Colony” to a woman born enslaved in Jamaica?In 1919, Richmond footballer Vic Thorp won the league’s highest honour for the second time — the equivalent of today’s Brownlow Medal. But just a century earlier, his great-grandmother Susannah Andrews was enslaved in Jamaica, before gaining her freedom.This episode uncovers Susannah’s remarkable journey: from enslavement, to freedom, to becoming matriarch of an Australian family that would include football legends and mining startups.We hear from her descendant Garry Chapman, who discovered Susannah’s story while sifting through his father’s papers. Jamaican historian Suzanne Francis-Brown — a regular on the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? — helps us reconstruct Susannah’s life as an enslaved, then free, woman living with a Jewish merchant in Kingston.So how does one woman’s survival ripple through generations? And why does remembering Susannah’s life matter for how we tell Australian history today?VoicesGarry Chapman taught in both primary and secondary sectors and worked in both government and independent schools over a career of 42 years. He is the author of over 50 published books, written for children and teachers. Garry developed an interest in his own family’s history when he found a folder full of notes in his late father’s belongings. It contained a photo of his great great grandfather, George Brydon Brandon with ‘Jamaica?’ written on the back. This planted a seed, and Garry has spent the ensuing years trying to fill in the missing pieces of his ancestors’ stories, uncovering the fascinating tale of Susannah Andrews in the process.Historian Dr Suzanne Francis-Brown has worked as a journalist, lecturer in media and communications and museum curator. Her research interests include heritage interpretation, enslaved families, and enslaved runaways in Jamaica, and she has published Mona, Past and Present: The History and Heritage of the Mona Campus, University of the West Indies (2004) and the co-authored The Old Iron Bridge, Spanish Town, Jamaica, (2005), as well as several works of youth fiction. She was curator at the University of the West Indies Museum from its founding in 2012 to 2019. Dr Francis-Brown has featured many times on the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? Credits This series was produced on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eeora Nation and Burramatagal people of the Dharug nation. Narrator, writer, and producer: Sienna Brown Sound recordist, writer, and producer: Ben Etherington Supervising producer: Jane Curtis, UTS Impact StudiosExecutive producer: Sarah Gilbert, UTS Impact StudiosSound designer and engineer: John Jacobs SupportThe research for this series was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia: Poetics and Decolonisation (DP220101256). We are also grateful to the
Australia