18 December 1823 Following a mostly non-violent slave insurrection in the British colony of Demerara (now Guyana) in August 1823, in which the plantation owners had been locked into their homes, Governor Major General John Murray imposed a savage crackdown. His troops shot dead at least a hundred rebel slaves in the fields, though some…
17 November 1821 In 1817, the London Missionary Society sent John Smith to Demerara (now part of Guyana), with instructions to preach the word of God at a small chapel at Le Resouvenir. The posting was situated in an area where hundreds of slaves were employed on the surrounding coffee, cotton and sugar plantations. In one…
DROWNED BLACK SLAVES DUMPED IN A MASS GRAVE [ 9 October 1796 ] During the evening of 9 October 1796, the bodies of up to sixty drowned Africans, still bound with fetters and chains, were discovered at Rapparee Cove in North Devon. The locals dumped them in a mass grave as they were mere ‘heathen’…
Britain dispatches troops to Guiana to oust the newly elected government [ 6 October 1953 } On 6 October 1953, the Colonial Office announced that it was dispatching British troops to Guiana. 600 men of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers were already approaching Georgetown, the capital of the colony, on board the British cruiser Superb, while…
