Berbice insurgents

Details

Organization Timeline

Coffy sends the governor a warning from the insurgents

📅 8 March 1763

Coffy and Accara sent a letter explaining that the uprising responded to the abuse and withholding of what was owed to enslaved people. Their demands were political: freedom, fair treatment, and...

Governor Van Hoogenheim describes the uprising’s rapid spread

📅 25 March 1763

The governor reported that the revolt had spread across plantations and forced colonists to flee. His dispatch records the scale of insurgent action from an administrative viewpoint. The rebellion’s...

The governor rejects Coffy’s proposal for a negotiated settlement

📅 30 July 1763

Van Hoogenheim replied to Coffy’s proposal that the colony be divided between colonists and freedom fighters. The governor did not accept the insurgents’ claim to land and freedom, instead delaying...

The colonial war council decides to use negotiations to gain time

📅 31 July 1763

Governor Van Hoogenheim chaired a council that decided to keep negotiations open only to delay while reinforcements were expected. This record exposes the colonial government’s bad faith in talks with...

Coffy identifies planter abuse as the cause of the uprising

📅 2 August 1763

In a letter to the governor, Coffy stated that planters and directors caused the war by beating and mistreating enslaved people. His account makes the rebellion’s cause explicit: the violence of...

The governor learns of Coffy’s death

📅 19 October 1763

A colonial report recorded Coffy’s death amid internal tensions among insurgent leaders and the government’s military campaign. His death weakened the uprising, but the struggle continued into 1764....