UPRISING OF ENSLAVED AFRICANS IN BARBADOS APRIL 14-1816
Murphy Browne © Wednesday April 13 2016
“At eight o’clock in the evening, on Easter Sunday, the 14th of April 1816, a heap of cane-thrash was fired on Bayley’s plantation: this was the signal to revolt; it was promptly repeated by the setting on fire the thrash-heaps and cane-fields on every estate in the upper part of the parish of St. Philip. The fearful reality now burst upon the White inhabitants, and they awakened to the peril of their situation. The storm burst upon them wholly unprepared for such an event. The fire spread during the whole night from field to field, from one estate to another.”
Excerpt from The History of Barbados, by Robert Hermann Schomburgk, published 1848.
Robert Hermann Schomburgk was a German who travelled throughout the British colonized areas in the Americas (British Guiana and the Caribbean Islands) and documented his observations. Schomburgk’s account of what is now known as the “Bussa Rebellion” is the first published account of the fourth attempt of enslaved Africans in Barbados to free themselves from chattel slavery.
Unsuccessful attempts had been made in 1649, 1675, 1692 and 1701. The 1649 attempt was the result of enslaved Africans who were overworked and underfed but were expected to work from sunup to sundown and only included two plantations. The second attempt in 1675 was well planned over three years and included the entire island. Unfortunately an enslaved woman named Fortuna informed the White man who owned her. Enslaved Africans were arrested, tortured and executed.
In her 2005 book Sugar: The Grass That Changed the World, South Asian author Sanjida O’Connell writes: “Fortuna warned her master, a planter called Captain Giles Hall, two weeks before the uprising was due to take place. He in turn alerted the governor who asked a dozen officers to look into the allegations. Six slaves were burned alive, eleven others were beheaded and dragged through the streets of Speighstown. A total of 35 men were executed, and Fortuna was rewarded with her freedom.”
Other sources indicate that more than 100 enslaved Africans were killed during the repression of the 1675 uprising. In 1692 enslaved Africans in Barbados again attempted to free themselves of chattel slavery in an island-wide plan; there were hundreds of enslaved Africans involved. When the dust settled more than 200 Africans were arrested and over 90 executed after being found guilty of rebellion. The 1701 uprising ended with an equally brutal response from the British as the uprisings in the 1600s.
Africans had been enslaved by the British on the Caribbean island beginning in 1627. In his 2000 book Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America’s Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It, White American author David M. Robertson wrote about the conditions of enslaved Africans in Barbados and the attitude of the White people who enslaved them: “The slave-generated wealth of Barbados came at an appalling cost in African lives. Throughout the seventeenth century, the island had one of the highest mortality rates for Blacks in the Western Hemisphere and, whether from disease, malnutrition, or torture, more died annually than were imported to work the great sugar plantations. Unlike their English contemporaries in Massachusetts, Barbadians seldom looked inward to their consciences, and so long as the supply of African slaves seemed illimitable, their economy appeared untroubled.”
On Easter Sunday April 14, 1816, the enslaved Africans in Barbados under the leadership of Bussa decided that it was time to seize their freedom. Africans had been enslaved in Barbados by the British since 1627. The island had previously been inhabited by Arawaks who had named the island Ichirouganaim when they arrived from Venezuela in 400 BC; the Caribs in 800 AD.
The first Europeans on the island were the Portuguese who stopped in on their way to Brazil in 1536. The island presumably received its name Los Barbados (bearded ones) from the Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos because of the island’s fig trees, which have a beard-like appearance. The first British ship arrived on the island on May 14, 1625 under the command of John Powell who “claimed” the island on behalf of the monarch James I and named the area on which he landed Jamestown.
On February 17, 1627, Henry Powell landed with a party of 80 settlers and 10 Africans (“stolen” from a captured Portuguese ship) to occupy and settle the island. This expedition landed in Holetown, formerly named Jamestown. The British established a House of Assembly in 1639. White men and women from Britain who travelled to Barbados were given land to establish cotton and tobacco farms. To establish the cotton and tobacco plantations the British needed the land cleared and since they could not do the required backbreaking work in the sun, Africans were enslaved and forced to do the work. Within a few years much of the land had been cleared by enslaved Africans to allow the establishment of tobacco and cotton plantations.
In 1642 the British in Barbados were introduced to large scale sugar production. A group of Jewish slave holders from Brazil arrived in Barbados with enslaved Africans and knowledge of sugar production and sugarcane became a major crop in Barbados. By 1644 plantations were exporting sugar and Barbados at one point dominated the sugar industry in the Caribbean. The planting, harvesting of sugar cane and production of sugar was labour intensive and enslaved Africans were worked to death within a few years and replaced by others.
Enslaved Africans resisted their enslavement in various ways including malingering, breaking tools, self-inflicted injuries, fleeing and armed insurrection. In Haiti the Africans who had waged a war since 1791 against the French enslavers had successfully expelled the French from the island by January 1, 1804. The African victory in Haiti unsettled Europeans everywhere, including those in Britain and Barbados. In 1807 Britain abolished the slave trade which was supposed to end the practice of taking Africans from the African continent to any British colony. Ending the slave trade did not stop the buying and selling of enslaved Africans in British or any other European colonies. Enslaved Africans were still overworked and brutalized by the British in Barbados and elsewhere.
In November 1815 the Barbados House of Assembly rejected the Imperial Registry Bill which would have registered enslaved Africans to prevent them being sold to other territories and prevent smuggling of enslaved Africans. In her 2014 book Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the present day, White American author Carrie Gibson writes: “The Rebellion arose following a misunderstanding over a bill aimed at changing slave conditions. The slaves thought that they were to be emancipated by Parliament under the Imperial Registry Bill of 1815, which had been drafted in response to the confusion over slavery in Trinidad.”
When the Bill was rejected a group of enslaved Africans led by Bussa began to plan a fight to claim their freedom. Bussa, the recognized leader of the uprising, is believed to have been an Igbo man kidnapped from Nigeria. He was a head-ranger on the Bayley plantation where the uprising began and because of his position wielded some influence among the enslaved on the plantation. The triumph of the Africans from Haiti also seems to have caught the imagination of the Africans in Barbados. According to Gibson: “During the unrest, some slaves thought soldiers from Haiti were going to arrive and help them fight the planters.”
On the night of Good Friday, April 12, 1816, the leaders met to plan the final preparations for Sunday April 14; Bussa and King Wiltshire, a carpenter from Bayley’s estate; Jackey, a coach driver and Nanny Grigg, a senior domestic slave on the neighbouring Simmonds estate and Washington Francklyn, who was a free person of colour. On Sunday night, Bussa gave the signal and led the attack on the Bayley plantation while the leaders on the Simmonds estate did the same.
Approximately 400 enslaved Africans under Bussa’s leadership set fire to houses and cane fields from Bayley’s Plantation in St. Philip and moved to Christ Church, St. George, St. Thomas, St. Lucy and St. Thomas. The White plantation owners were caught by surprise. The Africans advanced across the land until about half of the island was on fire. After four days the British managed to regain control; Bussa was killed in battle.
In June 1816 a White man living in Barbados wrote: “The disposition of the enslaved persons in general is very bad. They are sullen and sulky and seem to cherish feelings of deep revenge. We hold the West Indies by a very precarious tenure – that of military strength only. I would not give a year’s purchase for any island we now have.”
On August 1, 1834, the British abolished slavery with four years of “apprenticeship” which ended on August 1, 1838 with full emancipation. The slave holders were compensated but no African was paid for a lifetime of working without pay to enrich White men and women. In 1985, the Emancipation Statue was erected at the roundabout in St. Michael to honour Bussa. In 1999, Bussa was named a National Hero of Barbados.
In every generation since the African continent was first invaded by the Arabs and then by the Europeans there have been Africans willing to put their lives on the line fighting for freedom. During the hundreds of voyages between Africa and the Americas there were Africans fighting for their freedom. We may never know the numbers or the names but we must know our history of resistance. Today in the 21st century many Africans are still willing to lay their lives and livelihood on the line as they fight carding, racial profiling, White supremacy and racial micro-aggressions.
BLACK LIVES MATTER!
Murphy Browne © Wednesday April 13 2016
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