Ebook: Black Rebellion in Barbados: The Struggle Against Slavery, 1627-1838

"This year (1984) marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the formal abolition of slavery in the English-speaking Caribbean and this work is intended to commemorate the occasion.

Black Rebellion in Barbados gives a radical analysis of the multi-faceted, and often misunderstood, nature of black peoples' resistance to slavery in Barbados - the first major slave plantation society in the English New World. The author has pulled together much of the scattered data, both primary and secondary, to produce the first comprehensive account of slave resistance in this society from colonisation in 1627 to emancipation in 1838. He analyses the pattern of resistance in the 17th century frontier society in detail, with special emphasis on the practice of marronage and the 1649, 1675 and 1692 aborted slave uprisings. This is followed by a polemical analysis of resistance in the 18th century creole society, which emphasises the reasons why blacks failed to organise collective rebellions during this period. An abundance of primary data is presented on social structure, demography and planter ideology in order to explain the nature of white hegemony and domination.

Finally, the most detailed research to date of the 1816 slave rebellion and its impactupon the emancipation debate is presented, which suggests that Barbadian slaves, like their counterparts in Demerara and Jamaica who rebelled in 1823 and 1831 respectively, were saying to their owners and the Imperial government, you will either grant us our freedom by law or force us to make it by war. This work is a polemical account of the changing relationships between maturing black radical consciousness and white power in Barbados during the slavery period. It goes a long way towards assisting the process of decolonising the island's general Eurocentric historiography."

(from the back cover)