A consolidated Jamaican slave code replaces earlier laws

The assembly passed a law adding a 40-shilling duty for each enslaved African or Black person imported to Jamaica. The measure extended a revenue system that treated forced migration as taxable...

A statute funding British regiments also regulated the importation of enslaved people. It required shipmasters to report cargoes, imposed duties, and created port inspections. It set different rates...

A Jamaican act restricted who could legally manumit an enslaved person. Except for the island’s legislature, an owner had to provide security for an annual £5 payment to the freed person for life...

The assembly confirmed that wills could transfer enslaved people as property, including some wills that did not meet the English Statute of Frauds. It set a future standard for wills to be properly...

A 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...

Trelawny Town Maroons surrendered after fighting the colonial government. The conflict followed long-standing grievances and a dispute over punishment under the treaty system. British forces used...

The Jamaican government officially declared the Second Maroon War over after Trelawny Town Maroons surrendered. The end of organized fighting did not restore the community's position: British...

More than 500 Trelawny Maroons were deported from Jamaica to Halifax, Nova Scotia, after the Second Maroon War. The forced removal separated people from their land and community and followed the...

The British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act, prohibiting British subjects from participating in the transatlantic slave trade. The measure restricted the forced transport of Africans into...

The British trade ban took effect, ending legal British participation in the transatlantic slave trade. In Jamaica, this did not end slavery or plantation labor. Enslaved people continued to be...