STRIPPED of their names, religions, cultures, and identities, over three million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in what was known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Stolen from their motherland, they were auctioned off and sold as slaves to British-owned colonies to work on plantations in the Caribbean.
By the 1760s, there were about 15,000 slaves toiling endlessly across the three colonies of the then British Guiana – Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. Eventually, the slaves had become exhausted of living a life of torture and captivity, and so, several of them banded together and began plotting and planning their escape. Several attempts were made, but the African slaves remained shackled to the inhumane treatment they received on the plantations. Moreover, their attempts to escape in the first place were heinously rewarded as some were flogged, while others suffered amputation or were killed.

CUFFY AND THE RIPPLE EFFECT

However, despite the British attempt to instill fear in the slaves, their determination and strength led to one of the Caribbean’s first and largest slave rebellions. Led by a house slave named Cuffy (or Kofi), the 1763 revolution is recorded as a pivotal move in the abolition of slavery.
Creating a ripple effect, Cuffy, with his two lieutenants Atta and Akara by his side, led 3,833 enslaved Africans to their freedom. Together, the Berbice slaves overran plantation Magdaleneburg, removing the colonial masters, and taking their freedom.
Cuffy had planned the revolt just as two shiploads of people from Africa had arrived at the docks, which significantly increased the number of Africans in the fight to overthrow the 346 colonial masters.

News of the rebellion spread like a forest fire on a hot day and soon enough uproars began at plantations across Guiana and in other Caribbean nations such as Barbados and Jamaica.
Within one month, Africans were in full command of most of the plantations in Berbice. Cuffy then declared freedom for the enslaved Africans, and they managed the plantations for almost a year. Unfortunately, after the plantations were reconquered by the Dutch, Cuffy shot himself in the head, in a bid to never submit to his enslavers.
Although their freedom did not last due to Dutch reinforcements arriving by ships with heavy machinery and artillery to recapture the slaves, Cuffy left a lasting legacy, one that inspired other slaves to fight for their freedom and to never give up until they were free.
The February 23, 1763 Cuffy-led revolution was recorded in European history as the first major revolution by Africans in the western hemisphere and influenced several other revolutions in the west, including the Haitian revolution led by Toussaint Louverture.
To date in monumental form of Cuffy adorns the Square of the Revolution, in the capital city of Georgetown.

DAMON AND THE FALL OF LA BELLE ALLIANCE

After Cuffy’s demise, the fight for freedom did not stop. Eventually, the African slaves gained the rights to liberation on August 1, 1834. However, the road to freedom was no smooth sail, because, despite having the Emancipation Act passed in 1833, the now freed Africans still had to fight to be treated fairly.
They were transitioned into a period of apprenticeship and continued to work with their former masters for miniscule wages. This did not sit well with the ex-slaves who had a different vision of what life would be like after freedom.
What started the fall of La Belle Alliance at Essequibo was a problematic move by the owner of Richmond sugar plantation, Charles Bean, who stirred up trouble by killing the pigs and cutting down the fruit trees that the former slaves had been rearing for their livelihoods. His excuse for this destruction of the ex-slaves’ properties was that their pigs were destroying the roots of his young canes.

In rebuttal to Bean’s destruction, an ex-slave named Damon, led a protest which resulted in some 700 apprentices downing their tools in support of Damon’s cause. On August 3, 1838, they protested the apprenticeship scheme. The following morning, the freed slaves were more than surprised, and became angry when they were ordered by their former masters to return to work; however, the protests continued and by August 9, the labour situation had worsened with ex-slaves from Richmond to Devonshire Castle gathered in the Trinity Churchyard at La Belle Alliance to stand beside Damon. Governor Smyth addressed the workers at Plantation Richmond, telling them that the apprenticeship period was still in force and they should go back to work. He arrested the leaders of the peaceful demonstration.
Pin pointed as the “captain” and “ringleader” of the unrest, Damon was hung in front of Parliament Buildings at noon on October 13, 1834. Although his attempts then were futile, the fight for freedom did not end with him. His resilience influenced many other ex-slaves and served as a warning to other plantation owners that the Africans were a strong and brave people. Also in monument form, the statue of Damon stands next to the Anna Regina Town Hall on the Essequibo Coast. These heroes fought the greatest for us all to be able to experience the freedom and the Guyana that we do today. Happy Emancipation, Guyana.