Abolition of Slavery and Apprenticeship in the British Empire, 1834-1838: Emancipation, 173 Years Later

Abolition of Slavery and Apprenticeship in the British Empire, 1834-1838: Emancipation, 173 Years Later . . .
Resistance of one or another type, visibility, and magnitude marked slavery elsewhere. But everywhere slaves who took the insurrectionary road had to display extraordinary heroism in the face of difficulties-— extraordinary even by revolutionary standards.
As the odds and circumstances become clearer, there is less difficulty in understanding the apparent infrequency of slave revolts throughout history and less difficulty in appreciating the extent of the rebels' courage and resourcefulness and the magnitude of their impact on world history.
The greatest slave revolts in the Western Hemisphere, except for the world-shaking revolution in Saint-Domingue, took place in Guiana and Jamaica. Guiana (the territories of Essequibo, Berbice, and Demerara) provided a theater of war between the British and the Dutch, who alternated control, and it offered an extensive hinterland for maroon colonies and guerrilla warfare.
Guiana boasted a slave-free ratio of more than ten-to-one. Taken together, the territories averaged about one significant revolt, not to mention serious conspiracies, during every two years from 1731 to 1823—that is, from the revolt in Berbice in 1731 to the massive revolt in Demerara in 1823. The record is the more striking in view of the relative quiet of the years 1752—1762 during which a firm Dutch-Indian alliance kept the slaves and maroons in check. Berbice exploded, however, during the 1760s, with revolts in 1762, 1763—1764, and 1767.
Essequibo remained stable after the unsuccessful revolts of 1731 and 1741 and the aborted revolt of 1744, and the center of resistance shifted to Demerara in the late 1760s. The principal revolts occurred there during the 1770s: two in 1772; another in 1773; and two others in 1774—1775, which amounted virtually to full-scale civil war between the black slaves and maroons on one side and the whites and Indians on the other. Another serious revolt broke out in 1803, and twenty years later the colony went up in flames. The revolts of 1794—1795 took place against the radical backdrop of the French Revolution, the fall of the Netherlands and proclamation of the Batavian Republic, and the division of the white colonists themselves along political lines, with one party's raising the Tricolor and proclaiming the Rights of Man. Apparently, the slaves were supposed to be too stupid or too cowed to make that message their own.
In 1823 the slaves rose on the East Coast of Demerara. Before the revolt ran its course thousands from at least thirty-seven plantations had taken part, two thousand in one major battle. The rebels demanded emancipation and, apparently with an eye on future labor conditions, a shorter work-week on the plantations. They believed that the "Good King" of England had freed them and that the planters were holding them illegally. Under the leadership of Jack Gladstone, a Christian cooper, and a group of drivers, craftsmen, and even house slaves, they attempted to prevail by nonviolent tactics suggestive of a general strike. Rather than kill the whites, they imprisoned them, executing only two who refused to lay down arms. The white captives subsequently testified to having been treated humanely. This moderation availed the blacks nothing: They were put down in blood. But the revolt stirred English opinion and strengthened the resolve of the emancipationist party to be done with the tyrannical regime in the colonies. Eugene D. Genovese (1979: 33-35)

I find it very upsetting whenever I realize descendants of autochthonous who were hunted, trapped, captured, kidnapped and cargoed across the Atlantic Ocean and enslaved in the English colonies in the Americas state that their ancestors were liberated on August 1, 1834. The simple fact of the matter remains the slaves were not freed until August 1, 1838 following the abolition of the system of apprenticed labor. The British lawmakers ratified Bills in their parliament abolishing slavery, compensating the slave owners for the loss of their property and transformed slavery to a system of apprenticed labour. Thus, the system known as apprenticeship was in all reality a modified form of slavery. It granted partial freedom to the slaves. The slaves were still bounded to the slave owners and to the estates and the primarily production of sugar, Cotton, coffee, cocoa, and ground provision thereon in the colony of British Guiana. August 1, 1838 marks the beginnings of unconditional freedom of Africans in the British Empire. The slave at last was legally freed. The former slave was now considered a peasant and subject of the British Empire.
During the period July 31, 1834 - August 1, 1838 our ancestors were not free. They existed during that four-year period in a fashion similar to a prisoner out on parole in present times and in the recent past in the USA. The British lawmakers catered to special interests - the plantocracy, primarily those in the West Indies. The major focus of the British lawmakers was sugar production and a consistent supply of cheap and reliable labor to ensure plantocracy was appeased and/or satisfied. Therefore, the system of indentured labor was established to replace that of slavery. Germans, Portuguese, Chinese, Africans, East Indians, and Africans birthed in the English-speaking Caribbean basin were sought and they provided the additional source of labor in the colony of British Guiana.
The celebrations in the town of Georgetown, in the colony of British Guiana on August 1, 1838 were “top down” affairs. The colonial establishment set the tone. The governor and members of his administration were the primary dignitaries. The ministers of religion were the focal points in the rural districts. It is likely such a pattern was continued whenever there was a celebration of some memorable event. It is clear that the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation were first major display of the academic talent of Africans in the colony of British Guiana. The jubilee of emancipation as the celebrations was labeled took place on August 1, 1888. Thomas R. F. Elliott was the secretary and main organizer of the celebrations. It seems to me celebrations were held in every district. Tappin Johnson Elliott was the primary mover and shaper of the celebrations in Golden Grove and Nabaclis districts. I do not know whether copies of the program have been preserved. It is obvious that researchers ought to exhaust every avenue to ascertain the program of celebrations held in their district can be accessed. I believe they maybe found in the church records.
The centenary celebrations of the emancipation of slavery in British Guiana were held on August 1, 1938. I am not aware of any major notation being made in the colony of British Guiana on August 1, 1934.
I communicated my understanding of the celebrations of emancipation in the Colony of British Guiana to ACDA. However, they continue to ignore the facts. They insist in promoting misinformation and misconceptions. I challenge the ACDA to acquire the services of Guyanese historians. They must access copies of the newspapers printed in the colony of British Guiana during the first week of August in 1888, 1938 and 1934. Then they would notice the obvious. I hope such actions would permit the ACDA to change its top down articulation of our history.
I would be remiss if I did not champion two causes very dear to me. I am referring to the massacre and burial of 300 -500 slaves in a mass grave at Plantation Paradise on the East Coast of Demerara in mid August 1823. In the spring of 1834 militant African females demonstrated at Plantation John and Cove showing that resistance to oppression is not exclusively a characteristic of males. Africans in the colonies of Berbice, Demerary and Essequebo made several efforts of effect their emancipation by taking up arms against their oppressors. Our representatives were not simply sitting around with an air of content. They were neither dependant on praying to neither God of the Europeans nor dependant on the goodwill of the Europeans to achieve their ultimate goal, self-determination. Our representatives were militant people. They were intelligent. They stood and died for whatever they believed was best solution to their problems.
Those remarkable people were often undermined by traitors in their midst but as you and I can attest today their contributions need not be totally lost to history. You and I are all living memorials of the struggles, the blood sweat and tears of our ancestors. I am confident I stand on the efforts and contributions of primarily Africans enslaved on the East Coast of Demerara, flavored with East Indian indentured labor and European slave owners. I advocate the need Guyanese primarily Africans to make time to emphasize the efforts made by Africans to affect self-emancipation in Guyana. I believe its incumbent upon the living to make every effort to ensure the participants of the Demerara slave revolt are memorialized and remembered with pomp and pageantry during the third week of August. I consider August as African liberation month. I believe plagues must be erected at Paradise and Cove and John on East Coast Demerara. I would love to participate in a movement which focuses on identifying and memorializing events and participants in the African experience in the Guyanese experience especially prior to 1966. I think, in fact I know it is high time our people begin to honor our representatives ourselves. I am absolutely certain you and I must not be dependant on the Government of Guyana, whoever that maybe to identify and define our heroes for us. Africans must be cognizant that no government neither home nor abroad has stood with and/or for the masses of the people of Africa. Most have oppressed Africans. Certainly, they used Africans as launching pads to accumulate personal wealth and notoriety. Thus I am advocating Non-Governmental organizations beyond borders to cater to our agenda as African people...

Selected Bibliography

1. Bryant, Joshua(1824) Account of an insurrection of the Negro slaves in the colony of Demerara, which broke out on the 18th of August, 1823. : Georgetown, Demerara, Printed by A. Stevenson at the Guiana Chronicle Office, 1824


2. Genovese, Eugene D. (1979)From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern World: Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1979


3. Costa, Emília Viotti da(1997)Crowns of glory, tears of blood : the Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823. New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.


4. Payne, Tommy (2001) 10 days in August 1834 : 10 days that changed the world: Brooklyn, N.Y. : Caribbean Diaspora Press, 2001