1500-1799 | Burning people alive | Gibbeting | Slavery | Torture

Slaves faced death ‘with amazing obstinacy’ following aborted revolt

11 October 1736 In 1735, falling sugar prices combined with a prolonged drought threatened many of Antigua’s British plantation owners with significant financial losses. Their response was to cut rations for their slaves, to raise daily work quotas and to severely flog those failing to meet them. This may explain why in November a group…

1800-1859 | Burning people alive | Ireland

Preparations made to burn Irish convicts alive

9 November 1804 On 9 November 1804, panic erupted among the British garrison of the remote penal colony of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, when they sighted a flotilla of ships, including the 64 gun warship Athenienne, and assumed they were under attack from the French.  The Commandant, Captain John Piper, immediately ordered all…

1500-1799 | Burning people alive | Burning villages | Canada | Civilians slaughtered | Looting and plunder | Massacres

British troops massacre the Abenaki people and burn many in their homes

4 October 1759 In the early hours of 4 October 1759, 142 British troops, under the command of Major Robert Rogers, approached a large Native American settlement at Odanak on the Saint Francois river, some seventy miles south west of Quebec. Noticing that the Abenaki villagers were busily engaged in celebrations, the Redcoats waited until…