Bussa's rebellion

Bussa’s Rebellion was a violent uprising of enslaved people on the island of Barbados in 1816. The rebellion was likely led by an enslaved African man named Bussa. The rebellion began on the evening of Sunday, April 14, with insurgents burning fields of crops and later clashing with government soldiers. However, by April 17, the colonial military had quashed the rebellion, killing about one thousand enslaved fighters including Bussa. The event led to a rise in the anti-slavery movement and contributed to the eventual emancipation of Barbadian slaves in 1834.

Background

Barbados is an island in the eastern part of the Caribbean. The exact details of its early history are not certain, but archaeologists have found evidence of human occupation there dating from more than 3,500 years ago. These residents were Amerindians who likely migrated to the island by canoe from the land known today as Venezuela.

Starting in 1492, European explorers began searching North, Central, and South America. They looked for wealth, resources, and land, as well as people to convert to Christianity. The first Europeans known to arrive in Barbados were Portuguese sailors who named the island Los Barbados, meaning “the bearded ones,” likely in reference to the stringy, beard-like vines on trees. The Portuguese influence did not last long, however.

In 1625, English explorers under Captain John Powell landed on the island. By this time, few, if any, native people were still living there. The Englishmen subsequently claimed Barbados as an English colony under the control of King James I. Within two years, Powell and his crew began to settle on the island. By 1639, the Barbados colonists had established a basic parliamentary government on the island and were drawing in many new residents.

The first party of English settlers had included eighty colonists and ten enslaved people intended to carry out most of the labor. Although that was a small group of slaves, it established the precedent for slavery in Barbados. These enslaved individuals did a tremendous amount of the physical work needed to turn the still-wild land into a thriving settlement full of highly profitable cotton and tobacco plantations.

Barbados quickly became one of the most economically successful English colonies. Many people considered its tropical environment perfect for growing tobacco and cotton. Tobacco proved to be a major international seller and the profits made from it allowed the colonists to later start producing sugar as well. Sugar ultimately became the top product of Barbados and brought significant wealth to many of its colonists.

Overview

The essentially agricultural economy of colonial Barbados needed many workers to perform arduous tasks under difficult conditions. Slavery was a common practice at the time, and English colonizers brought large numbers of enslaved people to the island. Many of the earliest enslaved people were British and Irish indentured servants or prisoners. However, the ever-increasing demand for labor led colonizers to adopt the practice of enslaving people from Africa, particularly from the regions now known as Ghana and Nigeria.

Between 1627 and 1807, slavers shipped about 387,000 Africans to Barbados through the notorious Middle Passage ocean route. This huge number offset the population demographics, meaning that the Barbados colony had a majority of Black people. These people immediately began creating their own way of life to cope with their terrible condition of servitude. Many African cultural elements, such as dancing and drumming, reemerged in Barbados.

Many of the Africans deeply resented their situation and took steps not only to retain their cultural identity but also to initiate resistance. In some cases, enslaved people ran away, faked sickness, sabotaged farm equipment, or even attempted to kill their masters. A major slave rebellion in Haiti in 1791 had shown the power of unity between enslaved people. However, the chances of such a rebellion in Barbados seemed unlikely. The Barbados colony had a strict law enforcement force. In addition, the land was mostly deforested, meaning insurgents would have few secretive places to gather or hide.

Regardless, in 1815, a faction of enslaved men and women in Barbados began slowly creating a plan to revolt. They hoped that, by attacking plantations and killing or exiling their European owners, the Black people of Barbados could gain freedom and take control of the island. The rebels were from several plantations across a wide area of land. Their leader was a man named Bussa, sometimes rendered as Busso or Bussoe. Little is known about him except that he was from Africa and had likely been captured and sent to Barbados in the late 1700s, meaning that he was likely a mature man with long experience in servitude. Bussa was reportedly advised by a man named Washington Franklin and a woman named Nanny Grigg.

On Sunday, April 14, around eight o’clock in the evening, the rebellion began. The fighters had chosen to attack during the Easter holiday for a variety of reasons. Since it was a feast in the Christian tradition, most of the European residents would be occupied with masses, meals, or other celebrations. In addition, at that time of year the sugarcane would be tall enough to hide in and maneuver behind, and the harvesting season was near, meaning that a rebellion then might economically damage the colony.

The rebellion started in St. Phillip, a parish in the southeastern part of the island, and spread to several other parishes, including St. John, St. Thomas, and St. George. Fighters set fire to sugarcane crops as they moved. European colonists responded quickly by declaring martial law and summoning the island’s military forces into action. These military forces included local militiamen as well as the First West Indian Regiment, a British force including Black people, including those who were formerly enslaved.

Led by Bussa, the rebels battled the military forces on April 16 in St. Phillip but to little avail. By the next day, the military had ended the rebellion and killed Bussa. In all, almost one thousand Black Barbadians lost their lives in the battle, with 144 more executed and 123 slated to be shipped to other colonies. Although the rebellion was costly, it destroyed almost a quarter of the sugarcane crop and proved that the enslaved population was a force to be reckoned with. It also sent shockwaves through many nations, bolstered the Abolitionist movement, and led many people to reconsider the institution of slavery. Following emancipation in Barbados in 1834, officials erected a memorial statue showing an enslaved man breaking his chains, which is widely but unofficially considered to be a representation of Bussa.

Bibliography

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McNaught, Lilian. “The 1816 Barbados Slave Revolt.” University of Exeter, Sept. 2017, ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/31536/McNaughtL‗TPC.pdf. Accessed 7 Aug. 2020.

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