berbice slave uprising

8/9/2019 Berbice Slave Uprising

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Kenneth R Seecharran History Teacher 1973

Berbice High School, New Amsterdam

In the colonies of Berbice, Essequibo and Demerara, now present dayGuyana, the African slave population grew as plantations expanded.The main concern of the White plantation owners was to extract the

greatest amount of labour from the slaves. Little effort was ever madeto improve the wretched and degrading living conditions under which

they were forced to live. With the harsh treatment and brutalpunishments inflicted on them by their owners, some of them rebelled

while others, from time to time, escaped into the forests. Those whowere recaptured suffered horrible deaths as punishment, meant also

as a deterrent to other disingenuous slaves who might have alsoplanned to escape. Some of those in the colony of Berbice, who

escaped, managed to reach Suriname in the east, where they joinedup with the freed Bush Negro colonies.

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In 1762, a slave rebellion of 36 male and female slaves occurred onBerbice, then a Dutch colony. But after the slaves repelled a militia

force sent by the Governor, Van Hoogenheim, the rebellion was finallyrepressed by a stronger force of the Dutch militia. Some of the slaves

escaped and at least one was executed. But the repressive techniquesof the planters were bringing matters to a boiling point, and just a few

months later, around the 23rd February 1763, a more organised revolttook place. This uprising became known as the Berbice Slave

Rebellion.

The uprising initially broke out at Magdalenenburg, a plantation on the

upper Canje River owned by a widow, Madam Vernesobre. The slaveskilled the manager and carpenter, burned down the owner's house and

moved on to neighbouring plantations, and as far as the Courantyne,to urge support from the slaves there, some of whom attacked their

owners and either joined the others or escaped into the forest.

Very quickly, the rebelling Africans were organised as a fighting force,led by Coffy, who was a house-slave on another Canje plantation,Lilienburg, where the slaves had also rebelled. Coffy had been brought

to this plantation ever since he was a child and was trained as acooper by the owner, Barkey.

On hearing the news of the outbreak of the uprising, the Governor,

Van Hoogenheim immediately sent to the planters in the Canje allavailable military assistance he had at his disposal. This was made upof 12 soldiers and 12 sailors from one of the five ships in the harbour.At that time, the entire colony had only 346 Whites (including women

and children) and 3,833 African slaves. Mulattos who also formed asection of the population generally sided with the Whites throughoutthe period of the rebellion.

The rebellion, which began on privately owned estates, soon attracted

the slaves on plantations owned by the Berbice Association. The rebelsburned buildings and cane fields and attacked and killed a number of

White men and women. Soon they reached plantations on the BerbiceRiver, 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 therebel forces which moved steadily towards the capital of Berbice, FortNassau, located 56 miles up the Berbice River on its right bank. Whenthey attacked the plantations, they seized gunpowder and guns

belonging to the owners.


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The Atlantic slave trade which brought African slaves toBerbice

Meanwhile, those among the White population who managed to escapesought refuge on the five ships in the Berbice River, at Fort Nassau,

Fort St. Andries at the mouth of the Berbice River, and in a brick houseat Plantation Peerboom, about 70 miles upriver on the left bank. Some

others, in panic, fled through the forest to Demerara.

The feeling of hopelessness was compounded by an epidemic ofdysentery which affected the Whites.

On 3rdMarch, a rebel group, numbering over 500, and led by Cosala,

then launched an attack on the brick house at Peerboom which washeavily fortified by the White defenders. The rebels threw balls ofburning cotton on the roof which began to burn, but the defenders

were able to extinguish the fire. During a period of inaction, themanager of Plantation Bearestyn demanded to know why the Africans

were attacking "Christians". Cosala shouted back that they would no

longer tolerate the presence of Whites or Christians in Berbice sincethey (the African rebels) were now in control of all the plantations.

After a period of negotiations, the rebels agreed to allow the Whites to

leave the brick house unharmed and depart for their boats in the river.But as the whites were leaving, the rebels opened fire killing many of

them and taking many prisoners. Among the prisoners was the wife ofthe manager of Plantation Bearestyn whom Coffy kept as his wife.


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Coffy, accepted by all the rebels as the leader of the rebellion, thendeclared himself Governor of Berbice, and set up his administration at

Hollandia and Zeelandia. He selected Akara as his deputy, and setabout drilling his troops and establishing discipline. Two other leaders

who emerged were Atta and Accabre, the latter being very disciplinedand military-conscious. Other military leaders included Cosala and

Goussari. Work gangs among the Africans were also organised to farmthe estate lands to produce food supplies to sustain the population.

Meanwhile, the Dutch Governor, Van Hoogenheim and other whites atFort Nassau, were undecided on what they should do. The Governor

wanted to defend the colony, but the Court of Policy voted forabandonment. Morale was indeed very low. Finally on the 8thMarch

1763 Fort Nassau was abandoned after the buildings were burned andthe cannons spiked. The Whites travelled by boats to Fort St. Andries

which Van Hoogenhiem quickly found to be inadequate, both forhousing and for defense, since there were no provision grounds and

running fresh water. He had preferred to stop at Dageraad, aplantation about 10 miles down the river from Fort Nassau, but the

others did not agree.

At Fort St. Andries, Van Hoogenheim had just agreed to allow the

Whites to abandon Berbice, when an English ship with 100 soldiersarrived from Suriname. Van Hoogenheim immediately withdrew his

decision to abandon the colony and began to re-organise its defense.He dispatched 25 soldiers to Plantation Fredericksburg up the Canje

and left a small group with two ships to guard the mouth of theBerbice River. With the remaining larger group, he along with

volunteers among the Whites sailed up with three armed ships toDageraad.

There Van Hoogenheim fortified the previously abandoned buildingsand arranged the three ships so that their guns would defend this new

defense position. The rebels, led by Akara, immediately launched threesuccessive attacks on the Whites but they were driven back.

Coffy, who did not approve these attacks, immediately after, on the

2ndApril 1763, wrote to Van Hoogenheim saying that he did not want a

war with the Whites. He also proposed the partition of Berbice betweenthe Whites and Blacks with the Whites occupying the coastal area, andthe Blacks the interior.

In the meantime, the Governor sent a group of two loyal slaves andtwo Amerindians to Suriname for assistance. Help was also sought

from Essequibo-Demerara. Stalling for time and hoping forreinforcements to arrive from the other Dutch colonies, he wrote back

to Coffy saying that he had sent the partition proposal to Holland and


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was waiting for a response. Thereupon began an exchange of lettersbetween Coffy and Van Hoogenheim in which the former insisted that

he held the latter in great respect and meant him no harm. However,he did list the names of the planters who were excessively cruel to

their slaves, saying that their cruelty caused them to rebel. He wasprobably using this tactic to divide the Whites and hoping that the

Governor would surrender them to the rebels. Coffy also proposed aface-to-face meeting between the two of them, but Van Hoogenheim

ignored this suggestion.

Coffy's letter stated:

"Coffy, Governor of the Negroes of Berbice, and Captain Akara send

greetings and inform Your Excellency that they seek no war; but ifYour Excellency wants war, the Negroes are likewise ready. Barkeyand his servant, De Graff, Schook, Dell, Van Lentzing and FrederickBetgen, but more especially Mr. Barkey and his servant and De Graff,

are the principal originators of the riot which has occurred in Berbice.

"The Governor (Coffy) was present when it commenced, and was veryangry at it. The Governor of Berbice asks Your Excellency that Your

Excellency will come and speak with him; don't be afraid but if youwon't come, we will fight as long as one Christian remains in Berbice.

"The Governor will give Your Excellency one half of Berbice, and all theNegroes will go high up the river, but don't think they will remain

slaves. Those Negroes that Your Excellency has on the ships - they canremain slaves.

The Governor greets Your Excellency."

Maintaining his delaying tactics, the Governor continued to insist in hiscorrespondence to Coffy that he was still awaiting a response to

partition proposal from Holland.

Meanwhile, by the end of March, the Director General of Essequibo-

Demerara, Laurens Storm van Gravesande had received informationabout the rebellion and he instructed the Commander of Demerara toseek assistance from the Caribs, Arawaks and Akawaios to mount anattack on the Berbice rebels from the south. Gravesande also wrote to

the Zeeland Chamber and the Directors of the Berbice Association inHolland, and the Governor of St. Eustatius seeking military assistance

for the Whites in Berbice. Eventually, two well-armed ships with 158soldiers arrived in Berbice.


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By this time, Coffy lost his patience with Van Hoogenheim, and on the13thMay 1763 he agreed to an attack on Dageraad. His forces

numbered about 2,000 while the Whites had about 150 armed men.The three ships in the river maintained a steady firing of their heavy

guns on the attackers and by mid- afternoon, they were forced towithdraw after suffering a loss of 58 dead. Eight Whites died during

this battle.

After this defeat, Coffy wrote to Van Hoogenheim again offering his

partition proposal which he hoped would bring peace with honour. In avery firm statement, he insisted that "in no case will we be slaves

again."

But the defeat of the Blacks helped to open up divisions in their ranks.Those who had been field-slaves began to express disapproval ofCoffy, who was a house-slave. Atta was the leader of this "field-slave"faction. Tribal jealousies also emerged and fights broke out between

members of different tribes. Creole Blacks also at times attacked thosewho recently arrived from Africa. These divisions seriously underminedthe military strength of the rebels and helped to encourage the Whites

to regroup their forces.

Interestingly, soon after their arrival, a group of Dutch soldiers,including Jene Renaud and Sergeant de Niesse who had mutinied and

deserted the post on the Courantyne, were captured and employed bythe rebels to train the troops and make weapons. Coffy used them fortraining his forces, and some even led small bands of the rebels inguerrilla attacks on plantations controlled by the Whites. (Initially, due

to distrust, some of these Dutch deserters were killed by the Africans).

But from the beginning, Coffy encountered difficulties with his forces

since some sections felt that by defeating the Whites meant that theycould now act as they pleased. Small groups roamed across the

countryside plundering abandoned estates, while some others spentmost of their time drinking rum and dressing up in European clothing

plundered from the plantations.

A number of Creole slaves - those born in the colony - did not

wholeheartedly support the rebellion, and they gave up themselves toplantations which were far removed from the area of rebel activity.

Meanwhile the differences between Coffy and Atta continued to grow

and eventually Atta challenged him for the leadership. The opposingsupporters fought each other and after Atta's faction won, Coffy killedhis own close supporters before shooting himself.


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Atta, now the new leader, appointed Accabre as his militarycommander, and three other leaders, Quacco, Baube and Goussari

rose up among the ranks. But by this time reinforcements werearriving to support the Whites. A combined Amerindian force was

already moving through the forest from the south, and from the 19thDecember 1763 soldiers who had arrived from Holland were moving up

the Canje and Berbice Rivers and taking back control of theplantations. Large numbers of Africans surrendered while others fled

into the forest. Some mounted resistance, but they were quicklysuppressed by the Dutch soldiers. However, in two battles, includingone at Wikki Creek, the African forces were able to score victories.

Atta and Akara were soon after taken prisoner, but Accabre with a

disciplined band resisted the Dutch forces by using innovative militarystrategy. In the end he himself was betrayed by Akara and Goussari,

by then prisoners of the Dutch, and was overwhelmed by the superiornumber of the Dutch soldiers and was captured. When he was brought

before Van Hoogenheim, he proudly admitted his role as a leader ofthe rebellion.

Accabre, Atta, Akara, Quacco, Baube and Goussari, as well as manyother rebels were executed. Between March and April 1764, 40 of

them were hanged, 24 broken at the wheel and 24 burned to death.Others who were rounded up were re-enslaved and put back to work

on the plantations, now back under control of their White owners.

The Berbice Slave Rebellion, which lasted for 10 months, marked thefirst serious attempt by a large group of enslaved people to win their

freedom in Guyana.

Significantly, it was also the first organised attempt to win freedom in

the entire American continent. Despite the division in the ranks andthe eventual failure of the rebellion, from it emerged the first group of

Guyanese revolutionary heroes who initiated the struggle againstcolonial oppression.

Guyana became a republic in 1970, choosing 23rdof February as thedate to commemorate that auspicious day, based on the date of the

Berbice Slave Rebellion. Coffy was named as the national hero and amonument in his honour stands at Durban Park in Georgetown.


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berbice slave uprising

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