Colonial authorities report growing divisions among settlers

On 15 December, Indigenous fighters attack plantations in several areas. Sugar works and settlers’ property are destroyed, and colonial residents are killed. The attacks show organized resistance to...

Johannes Heijnsius arrives to take up the governorship. He sends patrols to search for the fighters, but they return without finding them. The occupying government tries to regain the initiative,...

The colonial militia begins building a fort at Graskreek on an abandoned plantation. The defensive post is meant to protect plantations along the Commewijne. Its construction shows how the occupiers...

Indigenous fighters set fire again to John Browningh’s partly rebuilt plantation. According to the colonial report, they shout that the Europeans who came by ship should leave by ship. The call...

Heijnsius reports that attacks continue, sugar production has almost stopped and many enslaved Africans are fleeing plantations. Their departure undermines the forced labour on which the colony...

Eight canoes carrying about 250 Arawaks under the leadership of Warray arrive from Berbice. The Dutch government wants to deploy them against Carib fighters. Hira shows that the Arawaks did not simply...

The Arawaks return without carrying out the attack on the Caribs that the Dutch wanted. Colonial accounts call this unwillingness; the events also point to independent diplomacy and a relationship...