Tula and other leaders are chosen

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...

Enslaved people move from Knip toward St. Kruis and seek support from other plantations. Colonial testimonies say preparations had begun about fourteen days earlier and that messengers gathered...

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...

After negotiations fail, colonial soldiers and marines attack the position at Porto Mari. The rebels withdraw toward Grote Berg and Fonteijn. Some are killed or captured. Colonial accounts present the...