On this day, 18th August 1823, an uprising that would become the largest the British empire had seen – involving over 10,000 enslaved Africans – took place in Demerara. Demerara-Essequibo, a Dutch colony up until the early 1800s, when the British seized it, was a region that is now part of modern-day Guyana.
The rebellion started on ‘Success Plantation,’ under the leadership of Jack Gladstone, an abolitionist, and spread like wildfire across more than 50 plantations. That evening, according to researcher Thomas Muhr, the rebels ‘seized arms and confined managers and overseers in the slave stocks for the night.’
Despite their legitimate fury, the rebels treated their oppressors with humanity – something that wasn’t reciprocated.
A few days later, in a bloody crackdown, British forces indiscriminately opened fire – killing over 200 enslaved Africans. Many others were hanged or executed in broad daylight as a clear message from the British empire that any resistance would be quelled with brutal force.