The strike develops into organized resistance

On 17 August, enslaved people at Knip refused to work. A later colonial notice identifies worsening working conditions as the immediate trigger: Sunday labor, longer hours, and insufficient food. Hira...

Governor De Veer receives Van Uytrecht’s message and convenes the Colonial Council. The authorities immediately treat a collective refusal to work as a threat to the plantation system. The workers had...

The rebels recognize Tula as their leader; Bastiaan Carpatta and Toussaint are also named. The oath and shared rituals strengthen solidarity. Archival records describe the drink as evidence of...

On the way to St. Kruis, the rebels open plantation prisons and free fellow fighters. They also open stores and take food and livestock for their own use. These actions directly challenge daily...

Tula sends Mercier back to Knip to bring those who stayed behind into the revolt. Mercier succeeds in mobilizing them and finding weapons. Other messengers seek support and information in the upper...

Captain Van Westerholt sets out for Porto Mari with a military detachment. The colonial state quickly organizes armed suppression and also deploys free Black and mixed-race men in an earlier...

Father Schinck meets Tula at Porto Mari and hears his demand for freedom and equality, drawing on France’s abolition of slavery and its occupation of the Netherlands. Tula argues that all people...