History slavery Jamaica
📅 21 December 1767
📍 Jamaica
A statute freed York and Cuffee, whose actions colonial lawmakers said helped suppress the 1765 uprising in St Mary. York was credited with saving his enslaver’s widow; Cuffee with disclosing a conspiracy. The government compensated their enslavers’ estates and owners. This record preserves two named people amid a largely colonial account of rebellion and illustrates the use of selective manumission to reward service to plantation power.
An uprising led by Tacky began in St Mary parish. Enslaved Africans seized weapons at Fort Haldane and expanded the revolt by attacking plantations and encouraging others to join. Historian Vincent...
A 1760 Jamaican act took effect on 1 January 1761 and criminalized practices the colonial state called Obeah. It authorized death or transportation after conviction and also restricted enslaved...
A Jamaican act manumitted Jack, an enslaved man owned by planter Peter Thomas, citing his role in revealing conspiracies and suppressing the recent uprising. The Assembly also ordered an annual...
A Jamaican act freed Jack Pearson, who had been enslaved by the estate of William Ricketts. The statute said Pearson supplied information about a 1760 rebellion in Westmoreland and helped pursue...
A Jamaican statute freed Cato, who had informed colonial officials about the 1760 uprising and helped pursue rebels. The assembly paid his enslaver £70 as compensation. The act records a coerced...
👉 The assembly frees York and Cuffee after the 1765 Whitehall uprising
Current
21 December 1767
A statute freed York and Cuffee, whose actions colonial lawmakers said helped suppress the 1765 uprising in St Mary. York was credited with saving his enslaver’s widow; Cuffee with disclosing a...
The assembly ordered owners to register separate huts in Spanish Town, Port Royal and Kingston and report which enslaved people lived there. It required enclosures and allowed officials to demolish...
A Jamaican statute freed Will, who had been enslaved by the estate of William Jones. It said Will helped investigate the disappearance and murder of overseer Andrew Ross and directed an annual payment...
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...
