This statue in Barbados celebrates the 1816 rebellion of enslaved Africans
Liberal news reports about Hurricane Dorian have concentrated on the devastation and destruction of the life and property of the working class in Abaco. But another history needs to be told. People in Abaco, like those in the rest of the Bahamas and the Caribbean, have a long history of struggle against oppression.
The rebellions of enslaved people in Antigua, Jamaica and, Haiti inspire working people around the world today. These rebellions teach us that the human spirit is never finally crushed, and that solidarity is more important than technology.
The rebellion in Haiti resulted in the defeat of Napoleon’s forces which European powers had been unable to do. Slaves initiated the rebellion in 179. By 1803, they succeeded in ending slavery and French control over the colony.
Rebellions in the British colonies increased after the end of the legal trade in enslaved Africans by British ships in 1807 and the end of the US trade in 1808. Rebellions in Barbados in 1816, in Demerara in 1823, and in Jamaica in 1831 encouraged the movement in Britain to abolish slavery. In 1834, Britain ended slavery in its colonies in the West Indies and Africa. However, slavery remained in the territories controlled by the East India Company and Ceylon until 1843.
Slave Revolts in the Bahamas
In the aftermath of the American Revolution, many white people who were loyal to Britain moved to the Bahamas and brought their enslaved Africans with them.
Many enslaved Africans joined the British armed forces during the Revolutionary War under Lord Dunmore’s promise of freedom in return for fighting for the British. They knew that they were legally free and had experience with arms. Many of them went to the Bahamas where they joined fugitive slaves in the struggle for survival.
Everywhere chattel slavery was established, a constant state of war took place between enslavers and enslaved. Daily acts of resistance, runaways, and raids by maroons—encampments of runaway slaves—occurred constantly in the Bahamas. The first recorded rebellion of enslaved people in the Bahamas took place in Spencer’s Bight, on the island of Abaco in 1787. This was followed by revolts in other islands.
In 1830, Pompey led the most famous revolt in Exuma in the Bahamas in response to a plan to move 77 enslaved people from their homes in Exuma to Cat Island.
In 1840, the Hermosa, a US slave ship sailing from Richmond to New Orleans, wrecked in Abaco, a British territory where slavery was illegal. The Bahamians forcibly freed the ship.
In 1841, slaves aboard the Creole rose up in revolt, and ordered the captain to take them to the Bahamas. The US government demanded that the rebels be put on trial. The British governor in the Bahamas insisted on holding the trial there. The court found the rebels not guilty and declared that enslaved people had the right to do whatever they deemed necessary to get free. In the end, 128 enslaved Africans were freed in what has been called the most successful slave revolt in US history—and one that is never found in the history books.
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