Suspicion could lead to jail before trial

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,...

The commander in chief could direct three or more justices to hold a trial, and those justices summoned five “respectable white persons” from the parish or adjoining parishes as jurors. Three were...

Clause II says a prisoner pleading not guilty could make a “full defence,” personally or through another person. Yet the jury was only three white men, sentences were declared final and conclusive...

Clause II declared the evidence of enslaved people “good and sufficient proof” for or against one another in trials under the act. If a material witness was absent, justices could adjourn for...

Clause IV made an enslaved witness found guilty of knowingly giving false evidence liable to the same punishment as the accused person would have faced, or another punishment the court considered...

Clause II prescribed public execution by hanging for death sentences and required the person to be kept free from intoxication from trial through execution. It left the body’s later disposition to the...