Historical Organization
colonial courts
colonial courts
Details
Organization Timeline
A new Jamaican law again denies freedom through Christian baptism
📅 5 September 1683The law required tickets for travel and described enslaved people as property available to satisfy debts. It explicitly said that becoming Christian did not make an enslaved person free. Those rules...
Jamaica codifies restrictions on enslaved people in a new slave law
📅 14 December 1696The Jamaican assembly passed an act for the "better Order and Government of Slaves." It required enslaved people to carry tickets to travel away from plantations, authorized punishment for movement...
The assembly limits how recently manumitted people could be tried
📅 23 December 1784A Jamaican act required people who had been enslaved when an alleged offense occurred to be tried under the rules applied to enslaved people, even if their owner later granted manumission. A person...
A consolidated Jamaican slave code replaces earlier laws
📅 1 March 1788A consolidated slave law came into force on 1 March 1788, replacing earlier acts and restating controls on enslaved people. It prescribed severe penalties for flight, resistance, alleged Obeah and...
Grenada renews its special trial law for enslaved defendants
📅 23 August 1791The Assembly continued the 1789 criminal-trial law for another two years and beyond until replacement legislation. This renewal shows that exceptional courts and policing were not temporary...
Grenada confirms enslaved people may testify in cases involving other enslaved people
📅 19 May 1828After court decisions exposed uncertainty in earlier rules, the Assembly made enslaved people competent witnesses for or against other enslaved defendants without requiring registry certificates. This...
Colonial authorities execute Damon after resistance to apprenticeship
📅 13 October 1834Damon was publicly executed on 13 October 1834 after an Essequibo protest against apprenticeship, the labor regime imposed after legal emancipation. Guyanese heritage accounts identify him as a...