Montserrat slave rebellion of 1768

Montserrat slave rebellion of 1768
Part of slave revolts in North America
Map of Montserrat (19th century)
Date	1768
Location	Montserrat 16°42′N 62°12′W / 16.7°N 62.2°W / 16.7; -62.2
Goals	Liberation
Resulted in	Rebellion suppressed
Parties
Enslaved Africans Montserratian slaveowners
Lead figures
Cudjoe
Outcome
Death(s)	9 executed
Location within Caribbean

Part of a series on
North American slave revolts
Attack and capture of the Crête-à-Pierrot (Combat et prise de la Crête-à-Pierrot, March 1802) in the Haitian Revolution by Auguste Raffet, engraving by Ernest Hébert
Context Atlantic slave trade Maroons Slavery among indigenous peoples Slavery in Canada Cuba Haiti Latin America Bahamas New France New Spain British and French Caribbean British Virgin Islands United States colonial US
Before 1700 1521 Santo Domingo Slave Revolt (Santo Domingo) 1526 San Miguel de Gualdape (Spanish Florida, victorious) 1548–1558, 1579–1582 Bayano Wars (Real Audiencia of Panama, New Spain, suppressed) c. 1570 Gaspar Yanga's Revolt (Veracruz, New Spain, victorious) 1601 Acaxee Rebellion (New Spain, suppressed) 1616 Tepehuán Revolt (New Spain, suppressed) 1680 Pueblo Revolt (Santa Fe de Nuevo México, New Spain, victorious)
18th century 1712 New York Slave Revolt (British Province of New York, suppressed) 1730 First Maroon War (British Jamaica, victorious) 1730 Chesapeake rebellion (British Chesapeake Colonies, suppressed) 1731 Samba rebellion (Louisiana, New France, suppressed) 1733 St. John Slave Revolt (Danish Saint John, suppressed) 1739 Stono Rebellion (British Province of South Carolina, suppressed) 1741 New York Conspiracy (British Province of New York, suppressed) 1760–61 Tacky's Revolt (British Jamaica, suppressed) 1768 Montserrat slave rebellion (British Montserrat, suppressed) 1787 Abaco Slave Revolt (British Bahamas, suppressed) 1791 Mina Conspiracy (Louisiana, New Spain, suppressed) 1795 Pointe Coupée Conspiracy (Louisiana, New Spain, suppressed) 1795 Curaçao Slave Revolt of 1795 (Dutch Curaçao, suppressed) 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution (French Saint-Domingue, victorious)
19th century 1800 Gabriel's Rebellion (Virginia, suppressed) 1803 Igbo Landing (St. Simons Island, Georgia, victorious) 1805 Chatham Manor (Virginia, suppressed) 1811 German Coast Uprising (Territory of Orleans, suppressed) 1811 Aponte conspiracy (Spanish Cuba, suppressed) 1815 George Boxley (Virginia, suppressed) 1816 Bussa's Rebellion (British Barbados, suppressed) 1822 Vesey Plot (South Carolina, suppressed) 1825 Great African Slave Revolt (Cuba, suppressed) 1831 Nat Turner's rebellion (Virginia, suppressed) 1831–32 Baptist War (British Jamaica, suppressed) 1839 Amistad, ship rebellion (off the Cuban coast, victorious) 1841 Creole case, ship rebellion (off the Southern U.S. coast, victorious) 1842 slave revolt in the Cherokee Nation (Indian Territory, suppressed) 1843–44 Ladder Conspiracy (Spanish Cuba, suppressed) 1849 Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion (South Carolina, suppressed) 1859 John Brown's raid (Virginia, suppressed)
Notable leaders Carolta Charles Deslondes Denmark Vesey François Mackandal Gabriel Prosser Gaspar Yanga Jean Saint Malo Jean-Jacques Dessalines John Brown Joseph Cinqué Madison Washington Marcos Xiorro Maria Nanny of the Maroons Nat Turner Toussaint Louverture Tula
v t e

The Montserrat slave rebellion of 1768 was an unsuccessful slave rebellion in the British colony of Montserrat in the Caribbean Sea that took place on 17 March 1768.

Anglo-Irish colonists began to settle Montserrat in the 1630s following tensions with English colonists in nearby Saint Kitts^[1] and started importing African slaves in 1650 to work on the island's cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane plantations.^[2] By the late 1760s, as a result of dwindling provisions, labour shortages, and increasingly strict oversight, slaves faced worsening living conditions.^[3]

By 1768, slaves outnumbered white colonists by three to one,^[1] and black and creole Montserratians, led by the slave Cudjoe, decided to stage an uprising against the plantation owners.^[3] 17 March was chosen as the day of the uprising as the rebels knew that their Anglo-Irish enslavers would be drinking heavily for St Patrick's Day.^[4]

The rebels planned for domestic slaves at Government House to seize any weapons held there^[5] while other slaves would arm themselves with rocks, farm tools, clubs and homemade swords,^[1] but the plot was disclosed by a slave to an Irishwoman,^[6] leading to a successful quashing of the rebellion.

Nine rebels, including Cudjoe, were hanged,^[4] and his head placed on a silk-cotton tree as a warning to slaves considering another revolt.^[5] Thirty other rebels were imprisoned and then sold to other islands.^[5]

The uprising was forgotten until 1971 when Montserratian scholars discovered references to the rebellion and began to publicise it. In 1985, the Government of Montserrat declared 17 March a national holiday.^[5] St Patrick's Day is now the centrepoint of a ten day festival honouring the rebellion and its members.^[4]

In 2018, Montserratian playwright Chadd Cumberbatch wrote and directed a new play, 1768, as a theatrical re-imagining of the uprising to mark the 250th anniversary of the events.^[7][8]

• Bush, B. (1990) Slave Women in Caribbean Society 1650-1838, Heinemann Publishers: Kingston, Jamaica. ISBN 085255 058 8.
• Fergus, H. (1996) Gallery Montserrat: Some Prominent People In Our History, Canoe Press, Montserrat. ISBN 976-8125-25-X.
• Ryzewski, K. & Cherry, J. (2015) "Struggles of a Sugar Society: Surveying Plantation-Era Montserrat, 1650–1850", International Journal of Historical Archeology, 19 (2).