Britain passes the law abolishing its transatlantic slave trade

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...

A 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...

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 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...

The Jamaican legislature passed a law requiring a more particular return and enrolment of enslaved people. The measure was presented as a way to guard against illegal imports after the British trade...

The registry required enslavers to submit lists of the people they claimed as property. Jamaica's returns recorded names, ages, sex, colour, African or Creole status and, in some cases, mothers' names...

A register for Spring Garden Estate in Saint George, Jamaica, documents named people, ages and changes in the enslaved population. Such registers make plantation slavery visible through archival...

Armed rebellion spread through Jamaica's western parishes after enslaved workers began refusing plantation labor. Baptist deacon Sam Sharpe had organized a mass strike to demand freedom and wages; the...