This uprising in Jamaica was the largest in the Caribbean in terms of the number of enslaved people involved, illustrating that slavery could not be sustained in Jamaica.Īs was the case in Barbados, the enslaved population believed that emancipation was about to happen: In 1831, free ‘coloured’ people had received legal equality with Europeans, and the enslaved people believed that their turn was next. I would not give a year’s purchase for any island we now have. We hold the West Indies by a very precarious tenure – that of military strength only. They are sullen and sulky and seem to cherish feelings of deep revenge. The disposition of the enslaved persons in general is very bad. In June 1816, a White Barbadian described in a letter the post-rebellion feeling among the slave population: A total of 111 enslaved workers and four free people of colour’ (people of mixed heritage) were executed for inciting the rebellion.Īlthough the rebels had lost the battle, the struggle against slavery continued in Barbados. Martial law was imposed and was not lifted until July 1816. The rebels eventually took over half the island, but within three days the revolt was suppressed by the local militia and the West India Regiment. The rebellion appears to have started on Easter Sunday 1816, around 8.30pm in the south-eastern parish of St Philip and quickly spread to the southern and central parishes. However, the fact that he was a general manager on a plantation suggests that he was a skilled individual and probably an older man – it would have taken years to get to his position and to gain his master’s trust. These mobilised the enslaved workers and spread rebellion propaganda that said that their owners were opposing British efforts to have them freed – if they wanted freedom, they would have to fight for it. Bussa, the head ranger at Bayley’s plantation where the uprising began, was the main coordinator of the rebel groups.
#BATTLE SLAVES JAMAICA DRIVERS#
It was an island-wide conspiracy that involved the head workmen on the plantations – the rangers, carpenters, drivers and domestic slaves – all with the most experience and entrusted with the confidence of their masters. This Barbadian rebellion was carefully planned. Further, all of the enslaved communities in the Caribbean knew of the creation of the new republic in Haiti, which had become, for them, the main symbol of freedom. That means that there was hardly a generation of slaves in this part of the world that did not confront their enslavers with arms in pursuit of freedom.īussa’s Rebellion in Barbados (1816) and the Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica (1831) were led by individuals who were aware of the antislavery campaign taking place in England. There were many highly planned rebellions – there is evidence that, between 16, about 70 of them were organised by the enslaved in British colonies. As a result, each island had its own militia, one of the main functions of which was to quell slave revolts. From the time that Africans were first forced to populate the islands, there was a consistent and forceful demand for freedom and democratic civil rights from the enslaved, long before antislavery campaigners took up their cause in England. There was a constant state of tension in the Caribbean between the enslaved workers and those who governed the islands, and consequently, uprisings were common.
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