A small white jury was selected by ballot

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,...

Under clause II, a justice could commit an enslaved person to gaol or another secure place if an examination created “just grounds to suspect” guilt or if the person was deemed dangerous and unfit...

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...

Clause II directed people sentenced to hard labor in chains to clear the interior woods and make roads across Grenada, under overseers and a sufficient guard paid at public expense. The provision...