Remembering some of Guyana’s most revolutionary Freedom Fighters 

Oct 30, 2022 News

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The Social Edge…

By Kiana Wilburg

Kaieteur News – The freedom fighters of Guyana’s colonial era played a far-reaching role in igniting the hunger for the country’s independence and their contributions continue to be honoured nationwide.

One of the revolts that certainly remain an unforgettable part of this struggle was the one led by Damon.

A monument in remembrance of him was erected in Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast. He was executed October 13, 1834 for his role during a protest against the system of apprenticeship.

The bronze sculpture was created by Ivor Thom and erected July 31 1988.

On the Essequibo Coast, workers protested the apprenticeship scheme and there were sporadic stoppages of work throughout the week starting Sunday, August 3, 1834.

On that Sunday, Charles Bean, Proprietor of Plantation Richmond, joined with other planters to kill sixty-five pigs belonging to his workers.

They slaughtered the animals because they claimed the pigs destroyed the roots of the young canes. But the real reason was to cut off any alternative livelihood for their workers so that the apprentices would remain bound to estate labor.

On Saturday, August 9, 1834 the labor situation worsened dramatically on the Essequibo Coast. About seven hundred workers (ex-slaves) on the plantations between Richmond and Devonshire Castle stopped work and gathered in the Trinity Churchyard at La Belle Alliance.

Planters called for troops, and about forty armed soldiers of the West India Regiment under Captain Groves arrived from Capoey and took up their positions around the church yard. In the meantime, a Richmond laborer, Damon, who by now was one of the leaders of the workers, ran up a ‘flag’ on a pole as a sign of their freedom and independence from the planters.

When the Minister of the church appealed to the crowd to disperse, they argued that since they were free, they did not wish to return to the plantations to be forced to work. They stated that they were taking refuge in the churchyard which belonged to the King.

Charles Bean next tried to address the workers on behalf of the planters, but he only succeeded in inflaming them further by his threats and display of arrogance.

He ordered two rural constables who were present to arrest two of the ‘ringleaders’ (Damon was not one of them), but the two were immediately rescued by their friends. Bean and his fellow planters then called upon the soldiers to open fire on this unarmed crowd. Captain Groves, showing good control, declared that he would take no such action and would await the Governor’s arrival.

The soldiers also did not act because they recognized that this was no mob, but just a crowd of peaceful workers gathered under their make-shift flag in order to show they were free people.

Governor Smyth arrived on Monday August 11, 1834 and the crowd quickly and peacefully obeyed his orders to end the seizure of the churchyard. Damon’s ‘flag’ which flew proudly for a few days in the churchyard was pulled down.

The Governor addressed the workers the next day at Plantation Richmond. He explained the Apprenticeship period which was in force, arrested the Leaders of the demonstration, and ordered the rest back to work. Damon, by this time, was being referred to as the ‘Captain’ and hence Leader of the Unrest.

He and a number of others were taken to Georgetown, tried and found guilty of rebellion. None of these men had threatened a single planter or his property and had not attacked anyone. They had simply stopped working for a few days and assembled under their own flag. Four of them were sentenced to terms of imprisonment and severe floggings while two were sentenced to transportation (to New South Wales, Australia).

Damon was sentenced to be hanged. At noon, on Monday October 13, 1834, Damon was hanged on a scaffold specially erected in front of the new Public Buildings. The Public Buildings – which now house the Guyana National Assembly had earlier been declared open on 3 April 1834.

The Demerara rebellion of 1823 was another tumultuous turning point in Guyana’s fight for freedom during the colonial era. This was an uprising involving more than 10,000 slaves that took place in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana). The rebellion, which took place on 18 August 1823 and lasted for two days, was led by slaves with the highest status.

In part, they were reacting to poor treatment and a desire for freedom; in addition, there was a widespread, mistaken belief that Parliament had passed a law for emancipation, but it was being withheld by the colonial rulers. Instigated chiefly by Jack Gladstone, a slave at ‘Success’ plantation, the rebellion also involved his father, Quamina, and other senior members of their church group. Its English pastor, John Smith, was implicated.

The largely non-violent rebellion was brutally crushed by the colonists under Governor John Murray. They killed many slaves: estimates of the toll from fighting range from 100 to 250. After the insurrection was put down, the government sentenced another 45 men to death, and 27 were executed.

The executed slaves’ bodies were displayed in public for months afterwards as a deterrent to others. Jack was deported to the island of Saint Lucia after the rebellion following a clemency plea by Sir John Gladstone, the owner of “Success” plantation. John Smith who had been courtmartialed and was awaiting news of his appeal against a death sentence, died a martyr for the abolitionist cause.

News of Smith’s death strengthened the abolitionist movement in Britain. Quamina, who is thought to have been the actual Leader of the rebellion, was declared a National Hero after Guyana’s independence. Streets and monuments have been dedicated to him in the capital of Georgetown.

But the most famous slave revolt was the Berbice Slave Uprising, which began in February 1763. On two plantations on the Canje River in Berbice, African slaves rebelled, taking control of the Region. As plantation after plantation fell to the slaves, the European population fled; eventually only half of the Caucasians who had lived in the colony remained.

Led by Cuffy (now one of the national heroes of Guyana) an Akan man from West Africa, the African freedom fighters came to number about 3,000 and threatened European control over the Guiana’s.

The rebellion, which originally began on privately owned estates, soon attracted the slaves on plantations owned by the Berbice Association. The rebels burned buildings and cane fields and attacked and killed a number of Caucasian men and women.

Soon, they reached plantations on the Berbice River, and among the plantations attacked were Juliana, Mon Repos, Essendam, Lilienburg, Bearestyn, Elizabeth and Alexandria, Hollandia, and Zeelandia.

Slaves from these and other plantations joined the rebel forces which moved steadily towards the capital of Berbice, Fort Nassau, located 56 miles up the Berbice River on its right bank.

On March 3, a rebel group, numbering over 500, and led by Cosala, then launched an attack on the brick house at Peerboom which was heavily fortified by the Caucasian defenders. The rebels threw balls of burning cotton on the roof which began to burn, but the defenders were able to put out the fire. During a period of inaction, the manager of Plantation Bearestyn demanded to know why the Africans were attacking “Christians”.

Cosala shouted back that they would no longer tolerate the presence of Caucasians or Christians in Berbice since they (the African rebels) were now in control of all the plantations. After a period of negotiations, the rebels agreed to allow the Caucasians to leave the brick house unharmed and depart for their boats in the river. But as the Caucasians were leaving, the rebels opened fire killing many of them and taking many prisoners. Among the prisoners was the wife of the manager of Plantation Bearestyn whom Cuffy kept as his wife. Cuffy, accepted by all the rebels as the Leader of the rebellion, then declared himself Governor of Berbice, and set up his administration at Hollandia and Zeelandia.

The Berbice Slave Rebellion, which lasted for 10 months, marked the first large scale attempt by a large group of enslaved people to win their freedom in Guyana. Significantly, it was also the first organized attempt to win freedom in the entire American continent.

Despite the division in the ranks and the eventual failure of the rebellion, from it emerged the first group of Guyanese revolutionary fighters.

 

 

 

 

 

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