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 associated with the movement, which spread across dozens of plantations. Many participants sought freedom and acted amid expectations that emancipation had been promised but withheld by planters. Colonial forces crushed the uprising; official reports and later memorial accounts vary in emphasis, so the event should be read first as collective resistance to slavery.
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...
👉 Enslaved workers launch the Demerara uprising
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18 August 1823
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...
Damon was publicly executed on 13 October 1834 after an Essequibo protest against apprenticeship, the labor regime imposed after legal emancipation. Guyanese heritage accounts identify him as a...
On 3 May 1835, the ship Louisa Baillie brought the first forty Portuguese migrants from Madeira to Demerara. Colonial and Guyanese government accounts connect the recruitment to planters’ anticipation...
