The Demerara Rebellion was one of the most significant slave rebellions in the Western hemisphere. It began on August 18, 1823, in the British Crown Colony of Demerara-Essequibolocated in current day Guyana. The rebellion involved more than 10,000 enslaved individuals. The revolt was largely nonviolent. The causes of the revolt can be attributed to the harsh treatment of the enslaved on the sugar cane plantations and the false belief that Parliament had passed a bill decreeing freedom for the enslaved in the colony but it was not enforced by the planters.
The leaders of the rebellion were Quamina Gladstone and his son Jack , a cooper on Plantation Success, one of the largest estates in the area. Quamina envisioned the revolt as a bloodless, peaceful demonstration and a general strike, The rebellion began on the evening of August 18, 1823 and continued for two days. The participants had different ideas about the objectives of the revolt than their leaders. Almost immediately, they seized all firearms on Plantation Success and imprisoned all the whites. Their intent was not to release them until all their demands were met. Similarly, actions were taken on thirty seven plantations and insurgents joined the revolt to protest against the unfair treatment by the planter class. .
In a period of twenty-four hours, the news of the revolt spread to almost all the plantations. It spread from the eastern end of the colony to Georgetown, the colony’s capital in the West. The colony’s governor John Murray received advance warning of the revolt from an enslaved house servant. Murray declared martial law in the colony. He also deployed troops to quell the rebellion.
Over 200 insurgents confronted troops led by Lieutenant Colonel John Leahy at Bachelor’s Adventure Plantation. Leahy ordered the insurgents to lay down their arms and return to their plantations. When the rebels refused, the troops opened fire, which led to a massacre. Leahy’s troops freed all the whites who were captured and killed those who refused to follow his orders.
The British punished the insurgents unmercifully. They were hunted down and killed, two hundred were beheaded to serve as a warning to others. A few days later, an Amerindian hunter found Quamina hiding near the Chateau Margot plantation and killed him. Jack Gladstone was deported to Saint Lucia. And the rebels spared from death received thousands of lashes and were forced to work in extremely tough environments.
The Demerara Revolt led to a number of changes in the treatment of the enslaved in the colony. An ordinance designed to provide religious instruction and introduce standardized work hours was passed. It also included the guarantee of some civil rights for the enslaved. The whipping of females was abolished. Rights of marriage and property ownership were established. Most important, the right of manumission was guaranteed by law. These laws however were generally opposed by plantation owners. By 1833, slavery was abolished in the British colonies.
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This post was previously published on historianspeaks.org.
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