HIS list of books and scholarly achievements would require a separate book to chronicle them, so it goes without saying that he has seen it all. Yet, distinguished scholar though he is, Guyana-born historian, Dr. Alvin Thompson, struggled to hold back the tears as he highlighted the brutalities that led to the 1763 Rebellion at a recent lecture.

Providing information on specific cases dating back to the 18th Century, Thompson noted that in the case of Berbice, as elsewhere, the material and social conditions under which the enslaved people laboured is what exacerbated the situation.
In one case, he said, Governor Wolfert Simon Van Hoogenheim, who presided over the colony during and immediately after the uprising, wrote in 1764 that he saw an enslaved man who had been punished by using a saw on his back. The Governor actually saw the man’s skin hanging from his body.
He said Van Hoogenheim also wrote about a seven-year-old girl who had been guilty of indulging in “only trifles and childishness, deserving only a child’s punishment,” but whose manager had ordered her to be punished with 250 lashes and placed in the stocks.
She remained in that constricting position for three weeks without any food, except for what enslaved people had smuggled to her. According to Van Hoogenheim, by then, her body had been “cruelly torn to pieces,” but the manager was still disposed to punishing her further. It was only on his intervention and insistence, Van Hoogenheim said, that the manager released the child.
With examples, Thompson showed how the enslavers in Berbice continued such sadistic practises well into the British period. In one case from the early 19th Century, a British officer witnessed the right hand of a sturdy young enslaved man being chopped off by a judicial order for raising it threateningly against a white person.
Pregnant women were not spared either, said Thompson, who noted the 1817 case of a woman named America, who, at four months pregnant, was accused of insolence. She was stripped naked, tied to four stakes with her belly on the ground, and given 150 lashes by two drivers.
In another even more horrendous case in 1825, Rosa (or Roosje)was five months pregnant (or more, as  the African midwife thought she must have been in a more advanced state of pregnancy, based on the overall development of the foetus)  at the time she was sent to “pick” coffee in the logie or shed.
In any event, the task to which she was assigned usually involved stooping down, but in her circumstances, she had to perform it on her knees. She was unable to complete the job in time, so the manager ordered the driver to whip her.
As Thompson narrated, the driver drew to the manager’s attention the advanced stage of Rosa’s pregnancy, but that did not move him, as he ordered the driver to “Give it to her until the blood flies out.” This happened the Friday; on the following day, Rosa was again sent to the field, but could not perform her task because of the pains in her body.
She was subsequently sent to the hospital, where the goodly doctor on duty concluded that nothing was wrong with her; that she needed to return to work. That is what happened, but somebody was sent to help her.
She miscarried on the following day, and the African “midwife” had to force the baby out of her. According to the midwife, “The child’s arm was broken, one eye out, bruised and sunk in the head, it was a fine male child, quite formed, in every respect perfect.” The doctor examined her on Monday, and according to Rosa, attributed her miscarriage to the fact that she must have been eating green pine (probably an abortifacient).
Thompson pointed out that the slaves’ diets were equally horrifying, and cited a report from Adriaan van Berkel, Government Secretary in the colony in the 1670s, in which Berkel testifies that slaves were given fish once or twice per year, and a cow or horse that had died of itself.
Continuing, Thompson noted that even though the Colonial Government in Berbice laid down specific laws about the quantity of food that enslaved persons should receive in the late eighteenth century, in practise the laws were more frequently breached than honoured, and had to be renewed several times, prescribing more serious penalties against delinquents. In Berbice, as in other Caribbean colonies, enslaved people had to supplement their diets through their own efforts. Even so, their diets were notorious for lack of protein and essential vitamins.
As regards accommodation, Thompson again cited Van Berkel, who observed that “their lodging is a hard board”. Improvements in accommodation had much to do with their own initiatives in building their homes. By the nineteenth century, at least in some instances, they had erected many small but less constricted dwellings. Still, much was left to be desired, since very often they did not have the time or resources to go into the forest to obtain the materials that were needed, and to pay for ancillary services where necessary.
A commission authorised by the British Government in the 1820s to review their situation largely corroborated their complaints.