In the 1730s all arable land on the West Indian island of Antigua was planted in sugar cane, and the islands residents included 24,400 enslaved blacks and 3,800 free whites. In October of that year, whites on the island discovered a plot by the islands enslaved population to destroy them, and by the following February 132 people had been convicted of conspiracy. Of this number, 5 were broken on the wheel, 6 were gibbeted (hung in irons), and 77 were burned at the stake. Among the latter group was Isaac Royall Sr.s driver Hector. Royall received £70 in compensation for his loss. Quaco, another man enslaved by Royall, was reprieved at the Stake, upon his Promise to make Discoveries of great Moment, according to the islands governor. Till I know how well he has made good those Promises, I cannot Say how he is to be disposed of. Quacos discoveries were apparently sufficient that his life was spared and he was banished to the island of Hispaniola. Some historians now think that the panicky British rulers of the island exaggerated the dangers of a lesser plot—and a few doubt any conspiracy existed outside the minds of Antigua’s magistrates. According to Smithsonian Magazine writer Mike Dash, historian Michael Johnson suggests that the very hideousness of slavery predisposes historians to search for evidence of slave conspiracies; after all, who would not have tried to rebel against such injustice and cruelty? To find no evidence of black resistance might lead some to conclude that the slaves lacked courage, rather than—as is the fairer verdict—that they had little hope, and were viciously repressed.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 15:55:38 +0000
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