History slavery Guyana
📅 23 February 1763
📍 Guyana
On 23 February 1763, enslaved Africans at plantations along the Canje River in the Dutch colony of Berbice rose against plantation slavery. The uprising spread across estates and developed into a sustained struggle over control of the colony. Cuffy (also recorded as Coffy or Kofi) became a prominent leader, but the movement included many people whose names were not preserved in official accounts. Dutch records describe the revolt through the lens of colonial authority; reading them critically restores the uprising as organized resistance to enslavement and Dutch rule.
👉 The Berbice uprising begins against Dutch plantation rule
Current
23 February 1763
On 23 February 1763, enslaved Africans at plantations along the Canje River in the Dutch colony of Berbice rose against plantation slavery. The uprising spread across estates and developed into a...
On 25 March 1807, Britain’s Slave Trade Act received royal assent and prohibited British subjects from participating in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. It did not abolish slavery or...
On 18 August 1823, enslaved people on Plantation Success and other estates on the East Coast of Demerara began a large coordinated uprising. Quamina and his son Jack Gladstone were among those...
On 28 August 1833, Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act received royal assent. Its implementation from 1 August 1834 changed the legal status of many enslaved people across British colonies but placed most...
On 1 August 1834, the abolition law took effect in British Guiana and formerly enslaved people were reclassified as apprentices. Most adults were compelled to work a set number of hours for former...
On 3 August 1834, workers on the Essequibo coast resisted plantation demands under the new apprenticeship system. Some understood the August 1 change to mean freedom from plantation labor; colonial...
