the larger islands from very early times. In Jamaica they were the
remnant of the Spanish slaves who ran away on the arrival of the
English, with accessions from deserters at later periods; in Surinam
some of those who had been sent into the forest to prevent their capture
by French corsairs. In both places they maintained their independence,
and ultimately made treaties with the colonial authorities, greatly to
their own advantage. In Essequebo and Demerara they were kept down by
subsidising Arawak Indian trackers, who hunted them from savannah to
forest, and from forest to swamp, killing and capturing them almost as
fast as they ran away. In the smaller and more settled islands the
runaways were generally recaptured at once and severely punished as a
warning to others. There the more daring plotted insurrections which
often caused much trouble for a few days until suppressed. They did not
last long, for the negroes were wanting in the power of combination,
because they all wanted to be leaders. Then there was generally some
faithful slave or white man's mistress to give the warning, which
sometimes caused such prompt action that the outbreak did not occur at
all. Yet with all that the danger was serious, and one that could hardly
be coped with by forts and batteries.
As early as the year 1649 a plot for a general rising in Barbados was
discovered through the information of a bond-servant. All the whites
were to have been murdered, but fortunately the ringleaders were
arrested before the time fixed and eight of them condemned to death.
Then in 1676, under the leadership of a Coromantee, it was arranged that
on a certain fixed day, at a signal to be given by blowing shells, all
the cane-fields should be set on fire, the white men killed, and their
women retained by the negroes as their wives. This also was frustrated
by information received from a house negress. Hearing two men talking
of the matter, she made inquiries, and learnt of the plot in time to
inform her master. Six of the prisoners were burnt alive and eleven
beheaded, while five committed suicide by hanging themselves before the
trial. The story was told in a pamphlet entitled, "Great Newes from the
Barbados, or a true and faithful account of the great conspiracy." Yet
again in 1693, after a fearful epidemic had much reduced the number of
the whites, a third conspiracy was set on foot. The Governor was to have
been killed, the magazine seized, and the forts surprised and taken.
When the plot was nearly ripe two of the leaders were overheard
conversing about it and instantly arrested. They were hung in chains for
four days without food or drink, promises of pardon being made if they
revealed their accomplices, which they did at the end of that time, with
the result that some were executed and others cruelly tortured. We might
go on to tell also of the abortive insurrection of 1702 and several
others, but as there were never any very serious risings in Barbados, we
must proceed to other colonies.
In Jamaica several abortive attempts at general insurrections were made,
some of them assisted by the maroons, who continually received
accessions to their numbers from desertion. These people also made
incursions on their own account, which led the Government to offer L5 a
head for every one killed, the reward being payable on the production of
his ears. In 1734 they destroyed several plantations and killed a
hundred and fifty white men, which led to an attempt at suppressing
them altogether. Captain Stoddart therefore took a detachment of
soldiers into the mountains to the maroon town of Nanny. Arriving at
night he planted a battery of swivel guns on a height that commanded the
collection of huts, before the negroes were aware of his coming. They
were rudely awakened from their sleep to find the place surrounded, and
in alarm many flung themselves over precipices in their hurry to escape.
Some were killed, a few captured, and the town utterly destroyed. About
the same time a party of maroons from another place were so bold as to
attack the barracks at Spanish Town.
Two years later, under Captain Cudjo, the maroons became so formidable
that two regiments of regular troops besides the island militia were
employed to reduce them. The Assembly also ordered a line of
block-houses or posts to be erected as near as possible to their haunts,
at which packs of dogs were to be kept as part of the garrison. Then
they sent to the Main for two hundred Mosquito Indians whom they engaged
as trackers. This brought matters to a crisis, and Captain Cudjo was
compelled to sue for peace, which was granted. A treaty was therefore
made with them in 1738 at Trelawny town, by which they were to be
considered as free on condition that they captured runaway slaves,
assisted in repelling invasions, and allowed two white residents to
remain in their towns. Thus peace was restored for a time, and the
Mosquito Indians were allowed to go back to their country.
However, Jamaica was not to be free from slave insurrections apart from
the maroons, for in May, 1760, at St. Mary's, the slaves of General
Forrest's plantation fell suddenly upon the overseer while he was at
supper with some friends, and massacred the whole company. They were
immediately joined by others, and commenced a career of plundering and
burning all the plantations in the neighbourhood. Business in the island
was at once suspended, martial law proclaimed, and every white man
called out to assist in putting down the revolt. The negroes, however,
tried to avoid an open conflict, trusting to hide in the forest, where,
however, a large body was discovered and defeated. The maroons had been
sent for, but did not arrive until this action had taken place, when
they were sent in pursuit of the flying rebels. This they pretended to
do, and in a few days returned with a collection of ears which they said
had been taken from those whom they had slain, and for which they were
paid. The story was found out afterwards to have been a falsehood, as
instead of pursuing the fugitives they had simply cut off the ears of
those who had been slain before they arrived. This led the authorities
to think the maroons in league with the revolted slaves and afterwards
to look upon them with distrust. However, by the aid of a body of free
negroes, the rebels were at last captured, to be punished in the cruel
manner so characteristic of the time. Some were burnt, some hung alive
on gibbets, and about six hundred transported to the Bay of Honduras.
Two were hung alive on the parade at Kingston, one to linger for seven
days and the other for nine, during which time it was said "they behaved
with a degree of hardened insolence and brutal insensibility." In the
course of the whole insurrection about sixty whites and four hundred
negroes were killed, and damage done to the amount of one hundred
thousand pounds.
In 1736 a slave revolt took place at Antigua, or rather it was
discovered and anticipated. Five negroes were broken on the wheel, six
hung in chains and starved to death, one of whom lived for nine days and
eight nights, fifty-eight were burnt at the stake, and about a hundred
and thirty imprisoned. These horrible punishments were intended as a
warning to the others, and no doubt they had such an effect on that
generation.
Few of the early insurrections met with any success, notwithstanding
that the negroes largely outnumbered the whites in every colony. At the
most the blacks had a few days' liberty to murder, burn, and pillage,
after which came the terrible retribution. There was, however, one
conspicuous exception: poor Berbice was actually taken over, and every
white man driven from the plantations.
The Dutch were noted nigger drivers, and although the English were
unable to boast much of their humanity, they stigmatised the Hollander
as a cruel master. If a negro was obstinate, the Englishman threatened
to sell him to a Dutchman or Jew, but the worst threat of all was to
give him to a free negro. Whether this bad character was deserved or not
is doubtful, but it is quite certain that the criminal law of the
Netherlands permitted "the question" when a prisoner would not admit his
guilt. This, however, was applicable to white as well as black, there
being no particular slave code in the Dutch colonies.
What was the immediate cause of the great rising of 1763, in Berbice,
was never exactly ascertained, but vague complaints were made of
ill-treatment by certain planters. It commenced on the 27th of February,
on an estate in the river Canje, and from thence spread like wildfire
over the whole colony. The population consisted of, besides the free
Indians, 346 whites, 244 Indian slaves, and about 4,000 negro slaves.
The garrison was supposed to consist of sixty soldiers besides officers,
distributed at several forts and posts, but owing to sickness only about
twenty were fit for duty when the rising took place.
An epidemic of fever and dysentery had prevailed for two years among
both whites and slaves, weakening the former in such a manner that they
had no courage to contend with the revolted negroes, but mostly ran away
to Fort Nassau when they heard of the rising. Almost out of their senses
from fright, they urged Governor Hoogenheim to abandon the fort and
colony at once. Only one of the councillors stood by the Governor, and
it was as much as these two could accomplish to prevent even the
soldiers from running away. As for moving against the rebels, this was
impossible, for not one of the colonists would follow Councillor
Abbinsetts in his attempt to do something. Their fright even affected
the officials and soldiers in such a manner that the Governor could
hardly escape their importunities to be allowed to leave.
Four vessels lay in the river, two merchant ships and two slavers, but
even their crews were sick, and the captain of one so utterly broken
down that he could not attend to his duties. The Governor tried to get
them to go up the river and do something, but they were almost as
frightened as the colonists. Only in one place were the negroes opposed;
a few whites taking refuge in the block-house at Peereboom, some
distance above the fort, where their way of escape was cut off. But for
want of a little assistance they were compelled to make terms with the
negroes. Under the agreement the whites were to be allowed to go down to
the fort in their own boats, but as soon as they began to embark the
negroes fell upon them, men, women, and children, massacred some and
took others prisoners, a few only managing to get across the river.
Among the fugitives was a lad named Jan Abraham Charbon, whose story
gives a graphic picture of the alarm and consternation produced by the
insurrection, and of its results on himself.
He was the son of a planter, and the alarm was brought to the estate at
night by a faithful slave. The plantations below were all in the hands
of the rebels, who were burning and murdering on both sides of the
river. The whites from several neighbouring estates gathered together
and decided to make a stand at Peereboom, hoping for assistance from
Fort Nassau. They got to the block-house early in the morning, to the
number of thirty whites, with a body of faithful slaves, who had not
yet deserted them, although they did so later.
Soon after their arrival the insurgents surrounded the house and
attacked it, the whites making a successful defence until seven o'clock
in the evening. Then one of Charbon's slaves came forward and asked if
they wanted peace. On receiving a favourable reply the leaders on both
sides came to the agreement above-mentioned. Next morning the whites
were fired upon as they went to embark, and Charbon was wounded.
However, he jumped into the river and swam across, hiding himself in the
jungle, where he came upon another fugitive named Mittelholzer.
For eight days the two wandered about the forest, losing their way and
almost dying from hunger and thirst. They dared not approach the river
for fear of the negroes. Once they came upon the back of a plantation
and hurriedly gathered a few cobs of Indian corn, immediately afterwards
running back into the bush to eat them. While lying down a negro with a
sabre passed quite close without seeing them, but presently another with
a gun peeped into the bushes and caught sight of them. On this
Mittelholzer ran out with his drawn sabre and so furiously attacked the
rebel that he cut off one of his hands, captured his gun, and put him to
flight. However, this audacity did not save him, for he was captured
soon afterwards, Charbon managing to escape into the forest. Alone the
boy wandered about for six or seven days, until, again becoming
desperate from hunger, he returned to the same plantation, to fall into
the hands of the negroes. He was stripped of his clothes, put in the
stocks, flogged, and threatened with death, but was finally spared on
account of his youth, and because the rebel chief, "King" Coffee, wanted
a secretary to write letters to Governor Hoogenheim, proposing terms.
Meanwhile the poor Governor hardly knew what to do. He sent to Surinam
and Demerara for assistance, but while awaiting this the military
officers informed him that the fort was untenable against even a single
assault. The wooden palisades were so rotten that a strong man could
pull them down easily, and then the building was of wood and could
easily be fired. He was ultimately obliged to destroy it and retire down
the river, where he at first took possession of the lowest plantation,
Dageraad, hoping to remain there until assistance arrived. But even here
the rumours of an attack by the rebels made the people clamorous to be
allowed to leave, and Hoogenheim had to retire to the mouth of the
river, where there was a small guard-house, or signal station, near the
site of what is now New Amsterdam. Thus the last hold on the plantations
was given up, and the whole colony abandoned to the negroes.
A month passed before the first arrival from Surinam. All that time the
Governor and a few whites waited day after day, sometimes almost in
despair. The vessels had, at the request of their captains, been allowed
to leave, carrying with them some of the people, while others had gone
off to Demerara. This desertion was almost necessary, as the food supply
was very limited and of a poor quality--cowards were useless, and
therefore no objection was made to their departure. Hoogenheim was at
last somewhat relieved by the arrival of the English brigantine _Betsy_
with a hundred soldiers from Surinam, and with this small contingent he
at once began to retrace his steps with a view to recover the colony. He
went back to Dageraad, and in a day or two after was attacked by seven
hundred negroes, who fought from early morning to noon, when they
retired after suffering a great loss in killed and wounded. It was after
this battle that young Charbon arrived with a letter bringing "greetings
from Coffee, Governor of the negroes of Berbice." The rebel chief said
that as the negroes did not want war, he would give His Honour half the
colony, while he himself would govern the other half and go up the river
with his people, who were determined never again to be slaves. No notice
was taken of this, and Charbon, who had been warned to bring back an
answer at his peril, was too pleased to get back to his white friends to
again wish for his post of secretary.
Even now the Governor's situation was not only perilous, but most
pitiful. St. Eustatius sent two vessels, but almost as soon as they
arrived the men were attacked by sickness, and instead of being a help
they had to be nursed, even the Governor himself taking his part in the
necessary attendance. At one time there were not enough healthy soldiers
to relieve guard, but fortunately Coffee had no means of knowing this,
or all would certainly have been over with them.
It was not until December that a fleet arrived from the Netherlands, and
then a horrible vengeance overtook the rebels. There was not much
difficulty in subduing them, especially when a large contingent of
Indians was sent overland from Demerara to drive them from the forest.
In March, 1764, the trials began with a hundred ringleaders, fifty of
whom were sentenced to death. Fifteen of these were burnt, sixteen
broken on the wheel, and twenty-two hanged. The following month they
executed in similar ways thirty-four, and later again thirty-two. The
chiefs were burnt at slow fires, punishment which they bore with the
utmost stoicism. One named Atta, however, told the bystanders that he
only suffered what he deserved. Finally, in December a general amnesty
was proclaimed, which made the negroes cry out with joy, _Dankje!
Dankje!_
Berbice was of course utterly ruined for a time. The plantations were
overrun with weeds, the buildings in ruins, and many of the slaves
missing. Of the whites only 116 remained; the rest were dead from
sickness, had been killed by the negroes, or had fled from the colony.
The loss in killed was small, as the general fright prevented any show
of resistance. What would have happened if the whites had fallen into
the hands of the rebels was shown in one or two flagrant cases. One of
the colony surgeons was said to have been flayed alive on the ground
that he had poisoned the slaves by forcing them to take medicine. One
poor girl who had been captured at Peereboom was compelled to submit to
the embraces of King Coffee and driven mad, while another committed
suicide to prevent a similar degradation. About eight hundred slaves
were missing, most of whom had been killed, as very few managed to
escape to the bush.
[Illustration: MARCH THROUGH A SWAMP.
(_From Stedman's "Surinam."_)]
Behind the coast of Guiana is a long stretch of swamp, which in slavery
times was the general resort of runaways. For miles extends a grassy
plain like a meadow, the sedges entirely covering the two to four feet
of water which would otherwise give it the appearance of a great lake.
Except through the various streams that drain it, access is almost
impossible during the rainy season, and even the Indians care little to
explore its recesses beyond fishing in the canal-like creeks. However,
here and there are little islands or sand reefs, and on these the
runaway slaves took refuge. First, perhaps, a murderer would escape and
hide himself for a time until the hue and cry had abated, returning now
and again to the plantation at night for the purpose of getting
provisions from his friends. Then others would follow, until a party of
twenty to a hundred, with their wives, had established a little village.
Towards the end of the last century a number of these communities of
bush negroes had been formed in Demerara, and their depredations became
so common that regular expeditions were sent against them, guided by
Indian trackers. In 1795 they joined with the slaves to raise a general
insurrection, but special measures were taken so that they were almost
suppressed for a time.
Before this they had formed a line of stations for seventy miles from
the river Demerara to the Berbice. Every camp was naturally surrounded
by water, and by driving pointed stakes in a circle, and leaving the
entrance to wind through a double line under water, they were made
almost impregnable. To reach them the attacking party had to wade up to
their middles through perhaps a mile of ooze and water, to be cut with
razor grass, and all the time at the mercy of the negroes. Only during
the dry season was anything like success possible, and even then the
negroes generally saved themselves by flight.
Many of the slaves were friendly with the runaways, but they were much
feared by the more timid. On one occasion a negro went to cut wood at
the back of a plantation in Demerara and came suddenly upon the outpost
of a camp, probably the entrance to the concealed path which led to the
little sand reef. In walking along he stepped upon a bush-rope, and
immediately after heard a bell ring above his head. Before he could get
away a ferocious bush negro stood before him and demanded his business,
but the poor slave was so frightened that he ran home and reported the
occurrence to his master. Some of the slaves went so far as to enjoy
hunting runaways--in fact, there was little love lost between the two
parties. One of these was offered his freedom as a reward for the
assistance he had given in an expedition, the Government engaging to
purchase him of his owner provided they both consented. Tony, however,
did not wish to leave a good master, and refused, stipulating, however,
that he should retain the right to accept the kind offer at some future
period. When his master ultimately left Demerara, some years afterwards,
Tony claimed his promised freedom and got it.
While the bush negroes in other parts of Guiana were kept within
reasonable bounds, those of Surinam, like the maroons of Jamaica, had
never been conquered. Treaties were agreed to by them in 1749 and 1761,
but disputes continually occurred, with the result that the colonists
were always more or less in fear of their raids. Then they carried off
most of the slaves whenever they attacked a plantation, until their
number became so great as to be a real danger. In 1773 the authorities
in the Netherlands resolved to make a special effort to conquer them,
and for this purpose raised a corps of all nationalities which was put
under the command of Colonel Fourgeaud.
That soldiers should be brought from Europe for such a service shows the
utter ignorance of the Dutch authorities. If the colonists themselves
could not put down the bush negroes, how could it be expected that this
would be effected by fresh troops from a cold climate, who had no
knowledge of the country, the mode of fighting, or the difficulties of
travelling through the bush and swamp?
Commissioners had visited them at different times to arrange the
treaties, but there was generally something wrong with the presents
(virtually blackmail), or else they were given to the wrong parties. In
1761 the chief Araby had insisted on the commissioners binding
themselves by his form of oath. This was done by each party tasting the
blood of the other. With a sharp knife a few drops were drawn from the
arm of each person into a calabash of water with a few particles of dry
earth. After pouring a small quantity of this mixture on the ground as a
libation, the calabash was handed round from one to another until all
the company had taken a sip. Then the gadoman (priest) took heaven and
earth--exemplified by the water and clay--to witness the agreement, and
invoked the curse of God upon the first who broke it, the company and
crowd of negroes around calling out _Da so!_ (that is so, or amen).
Yet, after all this solemnity, quarrels soon arose again. One chief with
his sixteen hundred people had come to terms, but these did not bind his
neighbour, who perhaps had half as many. The different chiefs were not
united in any way, and it followed, therefore, that, after thousands of
guilders had been spent on one, the others made incursions to get a
share of the good things for themselves. To the colonists they were all
bush negroes, but among themselves they were as distinct as if they had
been different nations. Even when at peace, and when the chiefs had
received gold-headed canes as symbols of authority, they would often
call at the outlying plantations and demand rum or anything else they
fancied, which the whites dared not refuse.
The immediate occasion for the special corps from the mother country was
an insurrection of the slaves in 1772, who, after plundering and burning
some of the plantations, and murdering their owners, fled in great
numbers to join the bush negroes. The whole colony was a scene of horror
and consternation--the colonists expected the rising to become general,
and took refuge in Paramaribo, thus leaving their plantations
unprotected. However, it was soon checked, mainly by raising a body of
three hundred free negroes, called rangers, who were expert
bushfighters, and therefore thoroughly well fitted to cope with the
rebels.