Attacks and flight from plantations increase

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...

Colonial documents report that hundreds of Indigenous people are on the occupier’s side or are being recruited. Hira describes cooperation, rivalry and constrained choices as part of a complex war....

A journal reports that Gaminet, a Maroon, is travelling with Indigenous fighters. This points to contact and possible solidarity between communities resisting colonial rule. The archive describes...

Indigenous fighters burn a house and sugar works; the following day a provision ground is also attacked. These actions affect both colonial production and food supplies. The reports describe damage,...

Heijnsius estimates that hundreds of enslaved Africans have escaped, possibly about a quarter of the population held on plantations. This is a colonial estimate, not a complete count. Mass marronage...

Isaac Meza asks permission to take the remaining enslaved people and goods to Barbados. He says many people have been seized or have gone over to the Indigenous enemy. The letter shows Africans...