LIST OF SLAVE RESISTANCES AND REVOLTS BETWEEN THE
SIXTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES
-- Africa and Unity,
by Vincent Bakpetu Thompson pp. 317-319
DATES
1519
Revolt of Maroons (escaped slaves) led by Henriques against the Spanish
in Hispaniola (present day Haiti)
1522
Slave Revolt in the Spanish island of Hispaniola
1527
Revolt in Porto Rico
1529
Revolt in Santa Maria
1530
Revolt in Mexico
1531
Fourth Revolt in Panama
1550
Revolt in Panama and Peru
1560
Byno Revolt in Central America
1600
Revolt of Maroons
1639
Revolt on Providence Island, first in an English West Indian
Colony
1655
Revolt of 1,500 Maroons in Jamaica
1663
First African Slave Rebellion in Jamaica
1663-1738 Maroons
kept up constant attack on British in Jamaica
1665
Slaves in Jamaica were in constant state of revolt in Jamaica
1674
Revolt in Barbados
1679
Revolt in Haiti
1679-1782 Maroons in
Haiti organized.
1685
African Slave Revolt in Jamaica with many fleeing to the mountains and
joining the Maroons. A consequence was the proclamation of martial law for
several months
1687
Slave Revolt in Antigua
1690
Slave Revolt in Jamaica (i.e. the Maroons of Trelawney)
1691
Revolt in Haiti
1692
Conspiracy in Jamaica in which six Irish servants were allegedly
involved
1692
Revolt in Barbados
1694
Two uprisings in Jamaica
1695
Palmares: revolt in Brazil
1702
Revolt in Barbados
1711
Negroes fight French in Brazil
1715-1763 Revolts in
Surinam
1718
Revolt in Haiti
1719
Revolt in Brazil
1726-1728 British and
Maroons in fierce battle in Jamaica
1728
Slave conspiracy in Antigua brutally crushed
1730
Maroons defeat British soldiers
1732
British captured Maroon settlement but were defeated a year
later
1733
Revolt in St. John (one of the Virgin Islands)
1734
Maroon War in Jamaica
1737
Slave Revolt in Antigua in which free Negroes are said to have assisted
DATES
1739
British Treaty with the Jamaican Maroons guaranteeing them freedom and
the possession ‘for themselves and posterity for ever all the lands situate
lying between Trelawney Town and Cockpits’ amounting to 1,500 acres
1744
Serious Revolt in Tobago
1745
Conspiracy among slaves in Trelawney (Jamaica)
1754
Slave insurrection in Crawford Town (Jamaica)
1760
Revolt in Jamaica led by Tackey - Aid of Maroons sought in its
suppression
1762
Insurrection of ‘Wild Negroes’ of Crawford Town (Jamaica)
1763
Revolt in Black Caribs
1763
Serious Revolt of Negro Slaves in Dutch Surinam
1765
Year of many slave rebellions in Jamaica
1765
November – the Coromantyns rebelled in Jamaica
1765
Jamaica slaves working in Honduras rebelled and killed their
masters
1766
The Coromantyns in Westmoreland rebelled
1768
Cruel punishment of slaves who conspired to rebel in
Monstserrat
1769
Cruel suppression of slave revolt in Jamaica
1770-1771 Serious
slave revolt in Tobago
1770
Discovery of Slave Revolt Plot in St. Kitts
1772
Slave Revolt in Surinam
1773
Slave Rebellion in Jamaica described as a ‘Negro Rebellion’
1776
Slave conspiracy and revolt in Jamaica
1779
Haitians help the United States Revolution
1780
French Treaty with Maroons
1790
Vincent Oge’s revolt in St. Dominique
1791
Another revolt in St. Dominique
1791-1803 Haitian
Revolution
1795
Beginning of the Maroon war in Jamaica
1796
Revolt in St. Lucia
1800
Gabriel Insurrection in Henrico County, Virginia
1801
Negro revolt in Guadeloupe and expulsion of the Governor
1802
Extensive insurrection in the northern part of North Carolina
1802
Slave revolt in Jamaica
1807
Slave revolt in Jamaica after slaves felt cheated by the abolition law
which they mistook for emancipation
1811
Slaves of John Patish above New Orleans carried out an insurrection which
was only suppressed by troops
1816
Slaves in Fredericksburg, Virginia, joined an uprising
1816
Revolt of slaves in St. Phillip’s Parish, Barbados
1819
Attempted revolt at Augusta, Georgia
1822
Revolt of Denmark Veasey in Charleston, South Carolina
1823
Serious Slave Revolt in Demerara (Guyana)
1823
Slaves in Jamaica revolted
1823-24
Period of continuous unrest among West Indian slaves
1828-1837 Revolts in
Brazil
DATES
1831
Revolt of Slaves in Antigua due to suppression of Sunday
markers
1831
Revolt in Jamaica under the leadership of Samuel Sharpe, an adherent of
the Baptist Church. (The most serious in the history of Jamaica)
1831
Nat Turner’s Revolt in Southampton County, Virginia
1832
Rebellion in Trelawny (Jamaica)
1837
Mutiny in the West India Regiment in Trinidad led by freed slaves who had
enlisted in the army – led by Daaga, alias Donald Stewart
1840-45
Haiti helps Bolivar
1844
Cuban Revolt
1844-1893 Dominican
revolt
1861
Revolt in Jamaica
1865
A peasant revolt in Morant Bay Jamaica (Morant Bay Rebellion)
1868
The Ten Years’ War in Cuba
1895
Antonio Maceo Afro-Cuban general led the struggle for Cuban
independence
*This list is by no means exhaustive. It is biased in favour of the
Caribbean rather than the American scene. A list of many of the important
American slave revolts has appeared in Herbert Aptheker: ‘American Negro Slave Revolts’,
Science and Society, Summer 1937. However, the present list gives an insight
into the frequency of the outbreaks because of the brutality of the system and
also because of the African rejection of the slave status.
FREDRICK DOUGLASS
April 4, 1857
Those who profess to favor freedom,
And yet deprecate agitation,
Are men who want crops without
Plowing up the ground.
They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
This struggle may be a moral one;
Or it may be a physical one;
Or it may be both moral and physical;
But it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did, and it never will.
Find out just what people will submit to,
And you have found out the exact amount of injustice
And wrong which will be imposed upon them; and
These will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows,
or both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppress.
