Jamaican Maroons secure a treaty after decades of resistance

The statute defined enslaved Africans and their descendants as property and restricted movement, testimony, and legal recourse. It entrenched racialized status in colonial law and helped make...

A group of enslaved people set fire to a building and attacked white residents in an organized revolt. Colonial authorities crushed the uprising, executed several participants, and imposed harsher...

The asiento contract granted the South Sea Company a monopoly to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish America for thirty years. The contract treated the forced migration of people as a diplomatic...

Enslaved people, many of Akwamu origin, seized the Coral Bay fort and began a sustained uprising against Danish colonial rule. Breffu and other insurgents became leaders in a struggle that lasted...

Spanish authorities established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose north of St. Augustine, accepting Black people who escaped English Carolina if they converted to Catholicism and served the Crown....

Enslaved people began a major armed uprising near the Stono River and moved south, seeking freedom in Spanish Florida. Colonial forces violently suppressed the revolt and lawmakers tightened...

The assembly enacted a sweeping code that restricted movement, assembly, education, and independent economic activity among enslaved people. It followed the 1739 Stono uprising, which is covered in...

After fires and rumors, officials arrested and prosecuted Black residents and poor white people in what became known as the 1741 conspiracy. Many were executed or transported. The episode reveals...

In 1750 the trustees’ restriction on slavery gave way as settlers and planters pressed for plantation labor. Enslaved Africans were brought into the colony in growing numbers. This reversal shows...

An uprising associated with the Akan leader Tacky began at St Mary, Jamaica, and expanded into a broad anti-slavery war. Insurgents attacked plantation infrastructure and sought to overthrow the...