THE month of August has always been known as “Freedom Month” to Guyanese because of the many “freedom events” which occurred in that month.

The most important of such events was of course the emancipation of the plantation slaves in the early days of August, 1834 and from that year onwards, Emancipation Day has been celebrated with joy and gusto. The next most important event to Emancipation Day was the Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823. Because of the bitter-sweet nature of that rebellion and because of the terrible loss of life, it was not much commemorated. This year, however, on its 195th Anniversary, President David Granger who is a historian in his own right, decided to commemorate it as he has done since coming into office.

The commemoration was done with dignity and with the use of a historic event, to creatively show how it could have positive ramifications for the present. The event took place at the 1823 Monument at the Kitty seawall which is just over the road from the bronze bust of former President LFS Burnham. President Granger was the guest speaker and in attendance were Dr. Barton Scotland, Speaker of the National Assembly, the Diplomatic Corps, and a large and appreciative audience. There were appropriate cultural performances including renditions by the Guyana Police Force band.

The President, in placing the rebellion in its historic context remarked: “The Demerara Revolt was suppressed but it ignited the flame of freedom. News of the bloody suppression and the revolt created outrage in Britain. The Revolt rolled in the passage of the Emancipation Act 10 years after. The Co-operative Republic of Guyana has designated the 20th August as Demerara Martyrs’ Day in homage to the victims of the Demerara Revolt.”
In addition to the irrepressible desire for freedom which the plantation slaves of Demerara shared with those of Berbice and Essequibo, there were other factors which fueled the revolt: The slave trade had been abolished in 1809 and this meant that no new slaves, no new labour, was brought to the plantations. This resulted in the present work force having to work longer hours which included Sundays and in the nights. This work regime became unbearable.

A large proportion of the slaves had become Christians and they subscribed to the Christian ideology that all men were equal in the sight of God and that slavery was an abomination against God’s wishes. This ideology was subversive of slavery and slave society. Supportive of this teaching was the Congregational Church Missionary, Rev. John Smith, an Englishman, who despised slavery and became very close to his slave congregation of Bethel Chapel at Success plantation. Quamina was a close friend of Rev. Smith and was the senior Deacon of the chapel. In addition to their Christian teaching of freedom, the slaves deeply resented that they were forced to work on the one day of the week, which for generations, had always been allocated as a day of rest and when they could attend the chapel.

Lastly, the British Government had passed into law a number of measures to ameliorate the conditions of the slaves, but the planter class and the local Governor, who himself was a slave owner, had withheld putting these measures into force. This dishonest action of the planters caused the rise of a widespread rumour among the slaves that the British Government had already granted Emancipation, but that the planters were illegally withholding it. The slaves planned an uprising to assert what they believed to be their rights and the intellectual leader of this revolt was Quamina, the senior Deacon of Bethel Chapel. His son, Jack Gladstone, was the leader in the field.

Eleven thousand to 12,000 slaves were involved. Except for the Haitian Revolution and the 1831 Jamaica Rebellion, the Demerara Slave Rebellion was the largest which ever occurred in the Americas. The revolutionaries were very humane and never hurt any of the white population, and even their oppressors on the plantations who were merely placed in stocks so as to avoid them strengthening the militia. On 18th August, the slaves armed only with cutlasses and pikes, confronted 300 well-armed and well-trained soldiers under Col. Leahy supported by the local militia. After a ceremonial warning by Col. Leahy to disperse, his men shot into the crowd killing 200 persons.

The crowd dispersed and returned to their plantations but Col. Leahy’s men hunted down others and killed more than 40 persons, including Quamina. Rev. John Smith whom the planters hated was tried before the courts, found guilty of planning the revolt and sentenced to death. He died in prison and was secretly buried in an unmarked grave so that no one would know where his grave was. Rev. Smith’s death awakened the conscience of the people of Britain and helped in furthering the Emancipation Act. President Granger aptly described the Revolt as “one of the most significant in dismantling the slave mode of production in the Caribbean”.

For far too long, national anniversaries and events such as Emancipation Day, Demerara Martyrs Day, Enmore Martyrs Day, Indian Arrival and other Arrival Days have been treated as partisan events of concern to an individual segment of the population. It is our view that these anniversaries of national importance should be recovered from the segments which have taken possession of them and returned to the nation. Such a process of national cohesion and nation-building must involve all the political parties, the Department of Culture, the various religious organisations and the media.