THE 1823 SLAVE REVOLT WAS AN EAST COAST UPRISING.

Jan 06, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

One of the last public acts of Forbes Burnham, the former President of Guyana, before his voice failed, was to demand that Murray Street, now Quamina Street, be renamed because, as he stated, Murray was a Governor who had oppressed and inflicted brutality on the local slave population.
Just before his death in 1985, Burnham insisted that Guyana would be unworthy of its Independence if it failed to rename Murray Street. In so doing, Burnham seemed to have had either a very uninformed or a very convenient discovery of the Demerara Slave Revolt of 1823.
Murray Street was eventually renamed Quamina Street in honour of one of the leaders of the 1823 slave rebellion. At least four of the leaders of the rebellion- Paris of Good Hope, Hamilton and Rich of Success and Achiles of Beterverwagting – were subsequently hanged at the Parade Ground in Georgetown and this remains the only connection between the 1823 rebellion and the Parade Ground where some groups are demanding that the monument in honour of the revolt be sited.
The execution of some of the leaders of the revolt at the Parade Ground is the only link that can be established between the revolt and Georgetown. The vast majority of the floggings, beheadings and hangings that followed the uprising took place on the East Coast and especially at Mahaica, where there was a military outpost.
The Demerara Revolt of 1823 was an East Coast phenomenon and the people of East Coast should rightly demand that the proposed monument being erected in honour of that event be located either on the East Coast or in close proximity to where the rebellion began.
The 1823 revolt began at Success on the East Coast of Demerara and the entire uprising was confined to the East Coast plantations. The slaves who worked on the Georgetown plantations had knowledge of the revolt but they did not join it or support it. It would therefore be an insult to the people of the East Coast for Georgetown to claim some special right to have the monument situated in the capital. The 1823 Revolt was an East Coast thing.
Ideally, the monument could be located at Success or Le Ressouvenir which were the epicenters of the start of the revolt. Georgetown should not lay claim to this revolt because this uprising was confined strictly to the East Coast and was not supported by the plantations of Georgetown.
The leaders of the revolt were all from the East Coast and they received support from the missionaries, one of whom, John Smith, was sentenced to death for encouraging disaffection amongst the slaves. He died before the sentence could be executed. It is hoped that he is not written out of the script.
The revolt was not a success and the retaliation by the colonial rulers was brutal and excessive. The authorities had received a tip-off from a slave one day before the uprising about the plans for the revolt and they were therefore able to mobilize armed forces to diffuse the revolt. When they did bring it under control, they inflicted grave and severe reprisals against those involved.
However, the 1823 revolt is of historic significance because it was the largest slave revolt in Guyana’s history, with over 10,000 slaves being involved. It is said that it also helped to hasten the decision for emancipation, because it took place within the context of the pressures being applied by the abolitionists in England and followed closely on the heels of a violent slave uprising in Barbados in 1816.
The 1823 uprising was also said to have influenced the 1831 slave rebellion in Jamaica. Given the relative proximity of these uprisings to the decision to abolish slavery, the 1823 uprising, because of its scale, must be credited with influencing the decision to end slavery in British colonies.
The 1823 revolt must be seen as the most significant slave rebellion in Guyana’s history. The much more heralded 1763 revolt pales in significance and scale to the 1823 uprising which took place exclusively on the East Coast.
For the capital city, therefore, to lay claim to hosting the monument, robs the people of East Coast of being acknowledged for the role their ancestors played in the greatest slave revolt in Guyana’s history.
The people of the East Coast should therefore demand that the monument be located therein.

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THE 1823 SLAVE REVOLT WAS AN EAST COAST UPRISING.

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