Fédon’s Rebellion begins with attacks on Gouyave and Grenville

The Bud arrived at Grenada with 243 people recorded as disembarked after embarking 264. The difference in the surviving figures documents a portion of the human cost of the Middle Passage. The...

The Aeolus arrived with 295 of the 302 captive people recorded as embarked. The seven-person difference is represented in the database as mortality during the voyage. Behind the statistic were...

The Old Dick arrived with 344 of the 349 people recorded as embarked. It had gathered captives at Loango. The shipping data counts those who survived to disembark but cannot restore the names,...

The French National Convention abolished slavery in French colonies. Grenada was under British rule, so this decree did not legally free people enslaved on the island. Its regional example and...

On a later voyage, the Old Dick arrived at Grenada after taking people at Loango. The record reports 350 embarked and 344 landed. The repeated use of the same vessel shows how commercial networks...

On 5 March 1795, acting governor Kenneth Mackenzie issued a bilingual proclamation offering amnesty to rebels who had not committed murder and threatening punishment to those who resisted. The...

British forces attacked Fédon’s fortified camp at Belvedere. The attack failed. Local historian John Angus Martin records that rebels subsequently executed more than 40 British hostages, including...

On 7 June 1796 Grenada’s assembly enacted a law for trying enslaved people suspected of involvement in the ongoing rebellion. It distinguished people said to have acted willingly from those said to...

The preamble says authorities should distinguish enslaved people who willingly took an active part in rebellion from those “in some measure” compelled after enslavers fled to St George’s. This...

Clause II required a captured or surrendered enslaved person to be brought before a justice of the peace for examination as soon as convenient. The justice could examine the person and witnesses,...