African slave uprisings in the Dutch Caribbean and Venezuela

Introduction:

It is interesting to see that from the Dutch Caribbean, only in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao there were many uprisings of African slaves, and to a lesser extent in Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. Slavery in the ABC Islands were mild compared to a lot of islands in the Caribbean and also in Suriname.

It was very easy to buy yourself freedom, Slaves could marry each other, interracial marriages were allowed, no racial segregation, except only for religion since the majority of the white population was Protestant and Jewish. And the majority of the non-whites were Catholic. and you could earn money as a slave, and slaves had their own houses and garden.

So you would think that the Dutch would have abolished slavery very early, right? But slavery is still slavery, doesn't matter if it was less harsh than the other.  As you can see, there were many slave uprisings in the islands just like the rest of the Caribbean, and there were a lot of slaves fleeing to Venezuela (which was more common) who formed their own communities, even an ex-slave from Curaçao, named José Garidad Gonzales was one of the main leaders of a slave revolt in Venezuela.

That is why I included Venezuela in the list, because there have been Africans fleeing from the ABC Islands to Venezuela since the 16th century.

It seems that some uprisings may be related to each other, especially the one in May 1795 in Coro, Venezuela and Curaçao, August 1795 since both leaders had contact with each other. Also interested to see that both Africans and Amerindians were revolting in the 18th and 19th century against the Dutch. I already explained the Amerindian uprisings on my other page about the Amerindians in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao.


Slave uprising in Curacao, August 17th 1795.

Tula 'Rigaud' also known as Captain. 

A slave revolt took place in the Dutch colony of Curaçao in 1795, led by Tula, a local slave, and resulted in a month-long conflict on the island between escapees and the colonial government. It became known as the biggest slave uprising of the Dutch Caribbean. It is known that this happend because in 1795, dissatisfaction grew on the plantations due to the deteriotaded living and working conditions, slaves complained about the scarce food, and the expensive food and other supplies that they needed to buy themselves. They were forced to work on Sundays, which was always a free day so they could go to the markets to buy food and rest.

 This went against the rules about how African slaves should be treated, since they had the rights to earn money, buying themselves free, having their own garden, could marry who ever they want etc. But it seems that the slavemasters wouldnt feed their slaves anymore for some reason, also there was a increase of heavy punishments which were unjustified. Since it was known that if a slavemaster abused their slaves very harsh, the slavemaster would pay a huge amount of money, or was forced to leave the island. In any case, Tula protested against this course of action and point the slave masters that they did not even follow their own rules.

 When in 1795, the Batavian Republic, the Current Netherlands and with it the Dutch Antilles, came under the French regime and it was remored that the slaves on Haiti were released under French rule, he finally thought he had solid ground to claim the same for the slaves of Curacao.

Together with Louis Mercier (Either slave or ex-slave from Haiti or Guadeloupe, who had military skills), Pedro Wacao (Either slave or free person, Black or mix African and Amerindian), and Bastiaan/Sebastián Carpata (Who was a slave from Venezuela, and got deported to Curaçao due to the uprising in Coro, also in 1795, not sure if he was enslaved in Curaçao) and other fellow slaves of the plantation from the area, who thought the same thing about slavery, he began to organizing meetings and within a few days he had formed a small army that was willing to fight for their freedom. It is also possible that Tula was born outside of Curacao and most likley spent time in the French Caribbean.

It is known that Bazjan/Bastiaan Carpata participated in the Slave uprising in Coro, Venezuela. It is has been mentioned that Louis Mercier also took part in the revolt as well. Although this isn't certain. 

He spoke to his fellow slaves and and took the initiative to revolt. From surviving sources about Tula, it appears that he, certainly for a slave, was well informed, was able to speak excellently several languages and made use of different rhetoric. He used arguments from Christian doctrine, politics, and referred to the altered laws of his time. 

This made him a respected leader and also rewarded him the nickname Rigaud, named after the Haitian General Andre Rigaud. It is known that while Tula (maybe) didn't had any contact with Andre, he did had contact with Jose Leonardo Chirino, a born free Venezuelan of African and Amerindian descent, who was the leader of the slave uprising in Coro, 1795 in Venezuela along with Curaçaon born José Garidad Gonzales who was co-leader with Jose Leonardo Chirino.

When, during the confronation with the colonial army, the armed struggle proved necessary to achieve his goal, he did not take this away, but it was not about power, wealth or violence. His main points were the freedom of the slaves and equality of people in general, for which he fought until his death. 

The slave Tula had been preparing the insurrection for some weeks. On the morning of August 17, 1795, at the Knip plantation of slave master Caspar Lodewijk van Uytrecht at Bandabou, Curaçao. Tula refused to go to work and together with about forty to fifty fellow slaves he went to Caspar Lodewijk. 

The enslaved met on the square of the plantation and informed van Uytrecht they would no longer be his slaves, since they had the right to be free.  Caspar told them to present their complaints to the lieutenant governor at Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad. So the group left and went to various plantations such as Knip, where they freed 22 people in jail, but also Port Marie, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas, Santa Martha, San Juan, and Lagun, 

From Lagun, the liberators went to the sugar plantation of Saint Kruis, where they were joined by more rebels under Bastian Karpata. Tula then led the liberated people from farm to farm, freeing more people. They liberated so much slaves that the rebellion went from 40 to 50 people participating, to 2,000 people. It was also known that Tula and the rebels got received help from some Free Blacks, Mulattos, and even White people as well, a woman of European descent named Johanna Lesire of the Plantation Porto Marie helped the rebellious slaves by giving them a place to stay at her home. And Pierre Brion, the father of Pedro Luis Brion also helped the slaves by giving them weapons. 



The slave owners had now retreated to the city, leaving their plantations unprotected. At the same time, a confederate French slave, Louis Mercier, led another group of freed slaves to Saint Kruis, where he took the commandant, van der Grijp, and ten of his mixed race soldiers as prisoners. Mercier also attacked Knip, where he freed more slaves and took some weapons. He then rejoined Tula, locating him by following the trail of destruction Tula had left behind.

Van Uytrecht in the meantime had sent his son on horseback with a note to the governor, and at 7 p.m., the council met to prepare a defense of the colony. Governor Johannes de Veer ordered Commander Wierts of the navy ship Medea, which was in port at the time, to defend Fort Amsterdam. Sixty-seven men, both white and black, under the command of Lieutenant R.G. Plegher were sent against the rebels. They went by boat to Boca San Michiel from Willemstad, and from there on foot to Portomari, where Tula and his followers were camping. When the Dutch military arrived there on August 19, they attacked Tula's group, but were defeated.

At the plantation of Fontein,  the Dutch teacher, Sabel, who became the first white victim of the rebellion due to Pedro Wacao, Pedro Wacao also found more weapons at Fontein.

Sabel was a school teacher and fled the plantations along with other whites, but he came back because he trusted the slaves due to their good nature. However the rebellious slaves under Pedro captured him and tortured him by tie him with a rope on a horse, and he got dragged for many hours.

The next day the suffering from the school teacher was too much so one of the slave leaders killed him out pity and to end his suffering. It is known that Tula and some other slaves became angry because of this pointless violence. 

The governor was notified of Plegher's defeat, and the rebellion was now considered a serious threat to the white community. The governor and the slavers had raised a force of 60 well-armed horsemen under the command of Captain Baron van Westerholt to renew the attack. Westerholt had orders to offer leniency to the rebels if they would surrender. Among this party was Jacobus Schink, a Franciscan priest who served as negotiator and attempted to prevent bloodshed.

Tula was aware of the revolution that had resulted in freedom for the enslaved in Haiti. Tula argued that, since the Netherlands were now captured by the French, they should get their freedom as well. The Colonial Council attempted to counter the rebellion and let the slaves return to their plantations by negotiating. Several envoys were sent to speak with Tula as leader of the rebellion and did here report on. The first one was carried out by Father Schink, when he went into the house were Tula was, he said

 'Toen ik het huis binnentrad, trof ik een neger aan genaamd Tula, voorzien van een degen (soort type zwaard) en men noemde hem kapitein. Veel negers kwamen rondom mij staan en Tula begon te spreken: 'Wij zijn al te erg mishandeld. Wij willen niemand kwaad doen, maar we willen onze vrijheid. De Franse Negers hebben hun vrijheid gekregen, Holland is ingenomen door de Fransen en daarom moeten wij ook hier vrij zijn. Heer Pater, komen alle mensen niet voort uit Adam en Eva? Heb ik er kwaad aan gedaan dat ik 22 broeders verlost hebt uit hun boeien die hun onrechtmatig waren aangedaan? Ach pater, zelfs een dier krijgt een beter behandeling. Als een dier zijn poot breekt, wordt het genezen.

English translation:

When I entered the house, I struck a negro called Tula, equiped with a degen (a type sword) and was called Captain. Many negroes came around me and Tula began to speak: 'We are too badly mistreaded. We do not want to harm anyone, we want our freedom. The French Negroes have been giving their freedom, Holland is occupied by the French, and therefore we must be free here as well. Father, do not all people come from Adam and Eve? Have I done something bad because I freed 22 brethren from their shackles that had been unlawfully done? Ai father, even an animal gets better treatment. if an animal break its paw, it is cured.

This shows the clear leadership that Tula fulfilled and his eloquence. He refers to developments in international politics and draws logical conclusions from this on the situation in Curaçao. 

It is known that the conversation between Tula and the Father Schink was in Papiamento, our main language that is spoken in Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao. 

When Father Schink spoke with Tula, he refused to accept anything less than freedom. Schink also said to Tula that despite the fact that the French took over the Netherlands, the Dutch still hold political control over Curaçao, but Tula responded with 'If that's true, then why aren't there any Dutch ships?' Tula also told Schink that he knew that the slave owners were afraid about what has happened in Haiti. 

And as last he said 'Heer Father, the French freedom has served as a torment for us. If one of us gets punished I was constantly asked in my face if I also seek my freedom, Once I was tied up. I cried without stopping grace for a poor slave. When I finally got released, the blood ran out of my mouth. I fell to the knees and cried to God, Oh God Almighty is it your will that we be so abused?'

While Pater Schinck transferred the proposals of the governorate to Tula, heard Mr van der Grijp – a rider captured by the rebels – the rebels talk to each other in French "Le curé vient ici pour nous cajoler" ("The priest comes here to flatter us"). Schinck also heard that at night in the room next to him were sung softly French revolutionary songs. So it seems that there were French-speaking slaves in Curaçao, this isn't unlikely since there have been many slaves from other islands sent to the Dutch Caribbean and vice versa.


Schink reported back to Baron Westerholt, and the latter decided to get more reinforcements and attack. He attempted a last negotiation, but when he was turned down by the rebels, he ordered that any slave with a weapon be shot. In the ensuing fight, the rebels were defeated. Ten to twenty of them were killed, and the rest escaped.

The rebels began a guerrilla campaign, poisoning wells and stealing food. On September 19, Tula and Carpata were betrayed by a slave. The Dutch elite put a bounty on the heads of the slave leaders, Slaves who handed over the insurgents would get money and their freedom, and Free people of colour would get a huge amount of money. 

They were taken prisoner, and the war was effectively over. (Louis Mercier had already been caught at Knip.) After Tula was captured, he was sentenced to death because he had to make a false statement that he wanted to kill all the whites on the island, after protracted torture he confessed that he was inspired by the French Revolution and the liberation of the slaves. He was publicly tortured to death on October 3, 1795, almost seven weeks after the revolt began. Bastiaan Carpata, Louis Mercier and Pedro Wacao were also executed.  In addition, many slaves had been massacred in the earlier repression. After the revolt had been crushed the white Curaçao government formulated rules that provided some rights to slaves on the island.

Also it seems that there were Caquetio Indians involed in the slave uprising, altough some of them were being attacked because two slaves thought that they were spying on them for the Dutch. Here is the report from what happend that day:

The report of Van Westerholt, 5 October 1795, narrated that the rebellious slaves of Banda Abao were drawn to the St. Christoffel Mountain and that they had burned ' houses in that neighborhood of the St Christoffel Mountain, had broken the warehouses and corn had taken to the mountain. 

Although it was not expressly stated, it is the free people of colour who had their village near St. Christopher, Ceru Bientu, the Indian village. So soms of the rebellious slaves  attacked the Indians. But the countermeasures of Van Westerholt's soldiers had also not taken into account the Indians when they mute the wells or let them poison by throwing dead beasts into it. 

Perhaps that has been the reason, the burning of their houses and the stealing of their corn, that the Indians did not join the rebellious slaves. In any case, there are at least a few Indians abused by the insurgents. On September 25th 
once again, interrogation was taken off by fiscal. answered were Tony, slave to Michael Cambioso, Tula (slave leader) Luis Mercier (slave leader), Martin, and Alexander and these faced the Indians who were being attacked by them.

They had inflicted the Indians ' injuries. The perpetrators who had abused a few Indians were Alexander and Martien. The Indians who were hurt also knew them back. Martien had even offered Tula to bring them ' the head of the Indians who were hurt. But Tula didnt agree with all the violence. He said to the slaves who were attacking people, and burning houses because of anger 'Ta blo ora nos no tin otro moda, nos por uza arma”  which means 'God will punish us if we kill other people, only if we have no other option, should we grab our weapons''


Martien and Alexander stated that they attacked the Indians, because according to them 'they were spying on them, on the road'. So they probably thought that the Amerindians were working together with the Dutch. They actually wanted to cut off the arm of the Indians, but the machete proved not to be sharp enough.

Negative opinions about Tula:

In the delivered documents from 1795, such as the journals of Curaçao and the state. In addition to the several spellings of his name, he has been spoken several times about being 'Rebellion Negroe', 'Chief of the Rebel Negroes' The sources keep calling Tula a Negro and Slave of Casper Lodewijk van Uytrecht.

Most of the time he has been mentioned as 'The head, leader and captain of a murderous gang'. Even the fiscal van Teylingen suggested, after the beheading of Tula to place an inscription above his head stating that Tula was a chief of murderers, looters, and arsonists. As the sources came from the Dutch elite, no positive image was described about Tula. 

Even in the 1920s and 1930s, there were still negative opinions about Tula in the Netherlands. He was seen as a murderer and a rebellious slave who led a 'cruel and irresponsible uprising. Even in Curaçao there was a negative imago about Tula. He wasn't mentioned in most school books and people didn't mention him often. 

 For years, it was told that there was nothing to celebrate on August 17th, that it was only a few rebellious slaves who were not even supported by others. But later this all changed, and he started to getting more attention and nowadays has a positive image. He is even one of our National heroes. 

Positive opinion about Tula:

But despite the negative image they tried to portray, there were also positive images (and probably more reliable as well) from Tula. 

Tula was seen as a good person who wanted freedom for everyone and wanted equality for all men and women, regardless of color. He was also seen as a brave and a smart man who encouraged his fellow brothers to armed themselves up against the Dutch soldiers, since the Dutch were attacking them with their fire arms. He was also known to hate pointless violence. According to Father Schink who had a conversation with Tula said that Tula was:

'' Extremely meek ', ' non-violent ', ' quiet ', ' very intelligent ', a strategist. 

Dominee Bosch who visited Curaçao in 1816 spoke with people who knew Tula, they told him that he was of 'strong stature' and 'Eloquently'. 

He is even now considered one of the national heroes of Curaçao, and being one of the most important persons from the Dutch Caribbean. 




My opinion: I find it very frustrating about the fact that we were actually free in 1795. The African slave population in Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, Saba, and Suriname should have had their freedom. All of us belonged to the Netherlands and since the French abolished slavery (although not willingly of course), and took over the Netherlands, we belonged to France now. 

But yet the Dutch said that we should listen to them and not the French. Thank God and Tula, if Tula didn't know about this at all then nothing would have happened. Even though it had failed, there were still turmoils on the islands afterwards. 

In 1814, the Netherlands signed an international treaty to stop the trade in slaves, but still didn't abolish slavery until on July 1st 1863. We waited 68 years to be free, while we should have been freed way earlier.


Slave revolt in 1750 of newly arrived African slaves in Curacao

On Sunday, July 5th, 1750, there was a slave uprising in led by newly arrived African slaves named Maisa, Kwaku, Santa, Jananiru, Kwau and a woman named Amba with a hundred of others slaves. They were from the Akan ethnic group, from present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast. 

When the slaves were at Plantation Hato, they began to rebel. They killed 59 slaves, only one white person was killed. It seemed that there were tensions between the newly arrived African slaves, and the Creole slaves (the ones who were already born on the island). This was documented by the then W.I.C Governor Isaac Faesch who had sent a group of White soldiers and Free Blacks to suppress the rebellion. 

After this defeat, a group of slaves preferred to put an end to their lives, of the 32 rebels who were captured, 13 were sold to other islands and no less than 39 people were executed. Three years later, the leaders of the 1750 uprising were executed.


Slave uprising in 1716 of newly arrived African slaves in Curacao.

In 1716, Maria was arrested on suspicion of participation in a rebellion. A group of slaves of the Santa Maria plantation murdered the factor, Christiaan Muller, on September 15th of that same year. His wife saw one of the slaves with blood on his shirt coming out of the field and entering the house of Maria.

Shortly thereafter, a dozen slaves with knives stormed the house of the factor, where his family and some slaves stayed. The wife of Christiaan Mullers fled with her children, after which the rebellious slaves outside the plantation murdered a member of the WIC, along with his wife. In the house the slaves found firearms which they could use. 

However, the news of the uprising spread quickly, so a manhunt was soon started which allowed ten slaves to be arrested within a few days, one of them being shot. In the interrogation of the slaves, the name Maria emerged. 

According to one of the insurgents, Tromp, he said that he lived in the house of Maria and that she was his wife, But that she had nothing to do with the rebellion or the murders. After being tortured, he said that Maria had known everything, even the other slaves who were tortured said that Maria had told them that Christiaan Muller had to die.

Maria wanted him dead because of the death of her previous husband, whom she felt that Christiaan was responsible for. When she heard that he was dead, she said 'That is good, well, go on!'. The leader of the rebellion, Agathia stated (probably under torture as well) that Maria told the insurgents to kill all the whites so that she could steal the money and buy herself free. 

Although it is not known if it's true that Maria indeed intended to kill all the whites, so she could use their money to buy herself free, as far as documents suggests there was no master plan, no strategy, nothing. They just wanted their freedom.

Maria, even when she was tortured, still believed that she was innocent. However, from the confessions of the slaves the Fiscal believed that there was enough evidence to condemn the 9 suspects, with one of them being Maria to death. On November 9th 1716 she was executed. 

Slave uprising in 1774 in Curacao.

The one started in 1774 indeed started more as a mass maroonnage. All 72 slaves of the Plantation De Fuijck attempted to board a large canoe heading to Coro, however the escape failed and only five slaves managed to cross in a smaller canoe.

 The others withdrew in the kunuku (countryside), but eventually surrendered or were captured by Free Blacks. 

This time, there were no mass executions, but the plantation owner sold 25 slaves to Saint-Domingue (What is nowadays known as Haiti). Since the 16th century hundreds of African slaves from Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao were fleeing to Coro, Venezuela which most of the time was succesful. 

The 1796-1800 turbulence in Curacao.

One may well wonder whether the outrageous public executions in 1795 really served to pacify the slave population, and even more if the justice meted out convinced the free population of the legitimacy of colonial rule. The following years were certainly not characterized by an absence of attempts to subvert the extant order.

The picture, however, becomes blurred with many objectives and rivalries surfacing at the same time beyond the issue of slavery – Dutch colonial Orangists against the local pro-French Patriot party, increasing tensions within this Patriot party, the strategic interests of both France, Britain, and the United States in Curaçao, perhaps a Haitian drive to export revolution, and Venezuelan revolutionaries taking refuge in Curaçao.

 The way all these elements converged in Curaçao only underlines how much the island was embedded in a wider Atlantic network, precisely because of its long-standing status as a free trade zone and the ties its inhabitants had developed around the region.

Metropolitan developments mattered too, as they had in Saint Domingue before. The Netherlands, a republic since its inception in sixteenth century, had oscillated between periods of genuine republicanism and periods in which Stadholders of the House of Orange enjoyed near-royal powers.

In the 1780s, liberal protest against Stadholder Willem V ushered in deep conflicts between Orangists and liberal ‘Patriots’. When a liberal revolution was aborted in 1787, several protagonists were forced to go into exile to France and other countries.

The smouldering divisions came to the fore again after the French Revolution and particularly the French occupation of the Netherlands and the establishment of the Batavian Republic in 1795, making the tides turn in favour of the Patriots. In colonial affairs, the Patriots did not demonstrate much revolutionary fervour.

 In the debates on colonial matters in 1796-1797, the National Convention discussed the legitimacy of the slave trade and slavery, but the assembly did not support the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, and the ending of slavery as such was explicitly rejected.

 Between 1795 and the British take-over in 1800, therefore, Curaçao was governed by a Dutch governor representing a French puppet state, a Batavian Republic with no revolutionary intentions in the Caribbean. Its local representative since 1796, Governor Johann Rudolf Lauffer, had even fewer such inclinations.

The local elites were divided among themselves as to their loyalty towards France or the exiled House of Orange.

 This was the case in 1795 and even more so in the following years, a division which continuously undermined colonial rule. Indeed, the absence of harsh retribution to Patriots after the 1800 British take-over might reflect an awareness that more internal rivalry within elite circles might elicit another round of unrest among the free coloureds and slaves.

 Possibly the ranks simply closed again to establish order and guarantee the continued existence of slavery.

 One of the leading Patriots in the 1795-1800 years, the Dutch naval officer Albert Kikkert – who would be appointed the first governor of Curaçao after Dutch rule was reinstalled in 1816 – now found himself serving Willem I, the first Dutch monarch of the newly-established Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The turbulence of 1796-1800 was therefore more complicated than the slave revolt of 1795. At first, there was the 1796 coup d’état analysed by Karwan Fatah-Black in this volume. News of the French take-over of the Dutch Republic and the creation of the Batavian Republic had been part of the arguments used by Tula and his fellow insurgents.

First ancien regime Governor Johannes de Veer retreated and was replaced by a politically non-descript local bureaucrat, Jan Jacob Beaujon, who was substituted by a seemingly more outspoken pro-French, ‘Patriot’ governor, Johann Rudolf Lauffer – all in the same year of 1796.

As Karwan Fatah-Black argues in this volume, Lauffer’s appointment reflected complex dynamics within the white elites, not just between Orangists and Patriots, but equally within Patriot circles, over issues that ultimately centred on trade and economic interest.

It is evident that sectors of the free coloured population had their own stakes in the 1796 power games, mainly with a view to improving their own representation in local politics.

Both Jordaan and Fatah-Black provide ample evidence of white concern that political instability would lead to another round of social unrest and ultimately revolutionary upheaval and, therefore, anxiety about free black and coloured agency.

As it turned out, free coloureds did indeed engage in manifestations of open and sometimes violent protest. But there is no indication whatsoever of organized cross-class and cross-colour activity in 1796 aiming at radical political change, let alone the abolition of slavery.

 Free coloured and black militias had not demonstrated any revolutionary zeal to this end during the 1795 slave revolt, helping to crush the revolt instead.

One year later, antislavery was not an issue. So what about the turbulence in 1799-1800? In December 14th 1799, three Frenchmen were ousted from the colony, suspected of a revolutionary conspiracy directed from Saint-Domingue and aimed at starting a massive revolt that would eradicate slavery throughout the Caribbean, beginning with Curaçao.

The story does not end here. From July through September 1800, Curaçao was first visited then partly occupied by predominantly black troops from revolutionary France’s colony Guadeloupe.

There was apparently widespread local support among the slaves, but not from the free black and coloured population. The participation of several French, Haitian, and Guadeloupean military leaders, including the revolutionary French commander Bresseau and future Haitian President Alexandre Pétion, is well-documented.

So is the participation of members of the local criollo elite, including the future admiral serving under Simón Bolívar, Luis Brión. At the height of the affair, early September 1800, some 1,200 French Caribbean troops were beleaguering Willemstad, while apparently many rural slaves had joined the cause, having been promised liberté and égalité. In Willemstad the slaves refused to work, adding to the panic of the governor and his entourage.

Governor Lauffer desperately tried to keep the self-proclaimed protectors out, in particular the majority of black troops. Unable to defeat his adversaries, Lauffer decided to request British assistance, a request readily honoured by the nearby frigate Nereide. A few days later, two North American frigates joined the British, for the same cause. On 23 September the colonial French troops evacuated hastily, leaving many prisoners behind.

 It remains a puzzle why the French ‘revolutionaries’ backed down so easily against what was not an overwhelming British majority.

In any case, most foreigners were quickly banished from the island, local white participants were forgiven, and there was apparently no strong repression of either the black and coloured free population or of the slave population.

In stark contrast to the aftermath of the 1795 revolt, there were few executions and not the type of exemplary state terrorism displayed five years earlier.

The British would continue to occupy Curaçao throughout most of the Napoleonic Wars (1800-1803, 1807-1816), returning the island to the Dutch only in 1816. Trade with the turbulent French colonies came to an immediate halt.

In the subsequent period Curaçao experienced no more slave revolts or international conspiracies linked to either the Haitian Revolution or to the independence wars of Spanish America. Slavery was only abolished in 1863, by metropolitan legislation.

The 1799-1800 events have been glorified as a worthy sequel of both the Haitian Revolution and the 1795 revolt on Curaçao, as an inspiring story of local cross-class and cross-colour solidarity supported by the revolutionary zeal of Jacobin France and SaintDomingue.

Thus, Venezuelan historian Roberto Palacios honoured the alleged protagonist in Curaçao, Frenchman Jean Baptiste Tierce Cadet, for his Jacobin ideals and his firm belief in the ultimate consequences of the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity: the instalment of a ‘genuine revolutionary government’ in Curaçao, which would legislate ‘absolute racial equality’ and the abolition of slavery

and the abolition of slavery Archival research does not support this heroic reading of the fin de siècle turmoil. Earlier on, David Geggus and Anne Pérotin Dumon had questioned the idea that Toussaint Louverture was seriously working on a pan-Caribbean revolution: even if he had the will and the means to do so, it would have run against his own domestic interests and priorities and his strategy to appease the British.


In the basis of fresh archival research, Jordaan in this volume demonstrates that the very idea of a region-wide revolutionary conspiracy starting in Curaçao was most likely fabricated by Curaçaoan Governor Lauffer for reasons of personal and political interest. This is not to say that there was no revolutionary conspiracy at all.

Tierce Cadet, a representative of the French government who had lived on the island since 1784, had indeed been at the centre of a revolutionary circle on Curaçao, entertaining direct contacts with Venezuelan revolutionaries as well as French agitators.

And indeed attempts may have been made to attract Governor Lauffer to this camp. Lauffer, however, had no interest whatsoever in either becoming involved in Haitian rivalries or in jeopardising his relations with Britain – much less was he interested in slave emancipation. His pro-French leanings, which had helped him stage a coup against his Orangist predecessor in 1796, had clearly withered after his APPOINTMENT.

The central issue, however, is that whatever hopes the free blacks and coloureds and, even more, the slaves in Curaçao may have nurtured in this period, there was no real concerted French and/or Haitian effort to bring about a social revolution on the island. As Jordaan concludes, France was the significant player, not Haiti.

And revolutionary France was still primarily a colonial power interested in maximising its regional role.

Hence, the 1800 invasion was not so much a question of spreading the ideals of the revolution, but rather simple (and, as it would turn out, failing) geopolitics: a pre-emptive take-over of the island before the British or even the Americans would attempt to do so if 1796 was not much more than a coup d’état, and if the debunking of the 1799-1800 turbulence is indeed justified, then we are back to the 1795 slave revolt as the most dramatic landmark of slave agency on Curaçao.

 This uprising seems a textbook example of the thesis forwarded by Eugene D. Genovese in his classic From rebellion to revolution (1979).The French and hence Haitian revolutions, Genovese affirmed, were turning points in the history of slavery and slave revolts in the Americas. Before, mainly first-generation African slaves rebelled, without a clear political strategy in mind; afterwards, there was an increasing number of slave revolts dominated by Creole slaves throughout the Americas, all aiming at ending slavery and using the rhetoric of universal human rights.

In various publications and again in this volume, David Geggus has convincingly questioned the validity of Genovese’s thesis. Ironically it seems that precisely Curaçao, not mentioned at all in From rebellion to revolution, would have provided a strong supporting argument for an otherwise untenable thesis.

First-generation Africans revolted in 1716 and 1750 with, it appears, no determined strategy or links to revolts elsewhere. Most likely Creole slaves formed a majority in the aborted massive slave marronage in 1774, but again there is no evidence of explicit ideological underpinnings.

The context of the series of conspiracies and revolts in the period 1795-1800 is dramatically different. The most likely mainly Creole leadership of the 1795 revolt was explicitly inspired by the ideals of the French and Haitian revolutions, and within days a wider enslaved constituency was built up to this end.

There are some indications that support was not entirely limited to the slave population. On the other hand, the suppression of the revolt was partly the work of the black and coloured militias and even slaves – though of course the great majority of the island’s slaves were no party at all in either the revolt or its repression. The 1799-1800 events involved a remarkable ensemble of ‘revolutionary’ actors: enslaved and free residents of the island; whites, blacks and coloureds; French and French Caribbean agents, some members of the local criollo elites, a few Dutch military men. Inspiration may have come not only from Haiti and Guadeloupe, but equally from Tierra Firme, where similar revolts had occurred or were in the making as Ramón Aizpurua demonstrates in his contribution to this book – and to some extent it may also have worked the other way around, with ideas being transmitted from Curaçao to Coro on the Spanish Main to neighbouring Aruba.

This was a world of strong interconnections indeed. There is ample archival evidence for revolutionary interaction between Coro and Curaçao in the late eighteenth century, and of slave leaders who had spent time in Coro, Curaçao, and even Haiti.17 One objective, however, never surfaced in Curaçao, not during the times of the Haitian and subsequent Spanish American independence wars nor, for that matter, in the following two centuries: a struggle for sovereignty. The island was, and is, simply too small and without (post)colonial tutelage too much at the mercy of Venezuela to nurture such ambitions.

The evidence of any long-term impact of the 1795-1800 revolutionary upheaval is mixed. We may assume that the spirit of 1795 continued to live among the enslaved population and possibly sections of the free coloured citizens for the next five years, particularly into the 1799-1800 rising.

 But at the same time we should account for the absence of any slave revolts in the nineteenth century. There are some possible explanations. Shortly after the 1795 revolt, colonial authorities proclaimed the first encompassing set of decrees stipulating ‘reasonable’ treatment of slaves.

This was not enough to keep slaves from again demanding full freedom a few years later. But perhaps the absence of a new round of extraordinarily cruel retribution in 1800 as well as these new laws may have kept the enslaved from fighting their bondage once more.

Other factors may have served to pacify the enslaved Black Curaçaoans. While the hope for freedom raised in 1799-1800 may not have waned, the cold truth was that the revolutionary auxiliaries from Haiti and Guadeloupe did not stand up to fight the British, but hastily evacuated the island. Under the British occupation, links with Haiti and the remaining French colonies were probably severed.

We have no indications of any new outside interest in igniting slave resistance in Curaçao. Moreover, as Geggus indicates, throughout the region revolutionary fervour faded as Napoleonic France re-instated slavery in its remaining colonies, while Haiti became increasingly isolated.

Next, the number of slaves on Curaçao itself shrank by almost fifty per cent between 1789 and 1816, making the enslaved population a minority of the insular population for the first time since early colonisation. Perhaps large numbers of slaves were sold off in the region.

This, too, may have limited the slaves’ confidence to succeed in any type of revolt.18 Afterwards, there was the sale of over 4,000 slaves to other Caribbean colonies in the 1819-1847 period. There is a correlation between years of poor harvests and high numbers of slaves sold, and this must have been the most important factor. Yet one may speculate that owners were particularly interested in selling off precisely those slaves they suspected of rebelliousness.

 Indeed, prior to 1819, only the export of ‘bad, stubborn, thievish and for the Colony extremely dangerous slaves’ had been admitted by the local authorities and was indeed practiced.

As for colonial rule, the relatively low frequency of slave resistance after 1816 both in Suriname and in the Dutch Caribbean islands may have helped the king and his entourage and, after the establishment of an elite liberal democracy in 1848, Dutch Parliament to continue to neglect Caribbean slavery.

Tula’s revolt and its aftermath, in spite of its eloquently expressed humanitarian claims, most likely passed virtually unnoticed in the metropolis.20 Pieter Emmer (2010:107-8) suggests that the Curaçao revolt, or whatever other slave resistance in the Dutch Caribbean, did not contribute to the abolition of slavery in the Dutch Caribbean at all.

On the contrary, the absence of dramatic slave revolts seemed to suggest that there was no urgency in abolishing slavery at all. One may argue with this bold thesis. But certainly there is no indication of after-the-fact glorification of the 1795 revolt encouraging the Dutch to think of the Caribbean slaves as humans worthy of freedom, much less of being treated as equals.

Perhaps the link with the abhorred Haitian Revolution (would) even (have) had an adverse effect. It would take until 1863 before the Dutch abolished slavery, and another century before Tula’s revolt became the central topos in Curaçaoan nationalist discourse.

The contemporary canonical version of 1795 tends to underline the rightfulness of the slave revolt, the crucial influence of the Haitian Revolution, and the brutality of colonial suppression.21 The 1796-1800 sequels seem largely unknown.

Hence, the prevailing idea of the fin de siècle revolts provides a simple picture of enslaved but revolutionary blacks against repressive ancien regime whites.

This rendering not only brushes aside the support of at least some free blacks and coloureds and even slaves in the crushing of the slave revolt, but equally the vital, though in the end fruitless, role of whites and free blacks and coloureds in the events of 1799-1800.

The reality was one of imperfect solidarity within the slave population as well as within the various ‘colour communities’. Far more nuance is appropriate – and need not deconstruct the 1795 revolt as a central topos in Curaçaoan nationalism.



Aruba, Slave resistance and some revolts.

Virginia Dementricia

  In Aruba, there was a slave woman named Viriginia Dementricia, she was a twin and was known to have 'special powers' because of it. 

She came from a family which consisted of 7 children. Her mother was Maria Theodora and her father was unknown. Her family was owned by Jan Van der Biest, a Dutch protestant settler who had twenty slaves. 

Virignia was a field worker and probably lived in Barbolia, Aruba. As a teenager, Virignia was turning into a rebel and started to oppose her master. 

On March 1859 she stole clothes from him, he gave her up, and she must come to court. She receives a penalty of 14 days of forced labor on the public road. Four months later she does this again, and again she was punished for it. Forced labor for two months on the field of her master, On November she tries to run away, but that failed, again she was forced to work on the field of her master for a month. 

In July 1860, she was convicted of trying to flee, false accusations and disrespect.  For eight days she had to sit in a cell in Fort Zoutman, but once she got out of jail, she was arrested again. This time because of street noise and resistance to the police. Because of this they gave her corporal punishment. 

Van der Biest decided to sell her to a slave owner in Curaçao. This also happened to her brother, Juliaan. In any case, she was bought in Curaçao by J,A Jesserun who paid 140 guilders. Eventually, slavery was abolished in 1863 and Virginia was given the surname Gaai. Four years later she had a son named Marcelino Martin Gaai in Willemstad. And that was the last thing that was known from her.

Also, there was in 1750 a rebellion of African slaves in Aruba, the sister of a military commander, her child, and two female slaves were killed.  In 1829 there was a slave owner named Pieter Lampe, murdered by his slave Johannes, probably because he was forced to go to a secluded spot to work.

Also, on June 15th, 1795 was a slave uprising of 30 slaves, led by Tico. Tico said that he doesn't want to work anymore, and that freedom was arrived for the African slaves. It is possible that this happened at the same time when the Indians were rising up against the Dutch, that coincidentally also happened on June 1795, although the date is unknown. 

Because of this uprising he was caught and brought to Curaçao where he spent several months in prison, later he was forced to work in Fort Amsterdam since nobody wanted to buy him. It is not known if it had something to do with the Curaçaon uprising on August 17th 1795. Since the Curaçaon uprising was planned months prior to the event, it could be possible.


Bonaire
There was also a slave uprising in Bonaire which happened in 1834. Although it was small, it was known that this happened near Rincón, and that the Free Blacks and Amerindians were telling the African slaves to rise up  against the Dutch. The Africans slaves stole sheep and set fire to stores. The government told that the Blacks and Indians should be moved to another neighborhood and the revolt was crushed. 

Sint Eustatius, Saba, Sint Maarten.

The three islands had a large problem with marroonnage, many slaves were fleeing the islands to look for freedom elsewhere. Also Sint Eustatius had a slave uprising in 1844. (more information coming soon!)



Venezuela

Josef Garidad Gonzales

JOSÉ LEONARDO CHIRINO was a free Zambo, who had strong links with Dutch traffickers along the coast of Venezuela. He lived of contraband. It is known that he had contact with Tula, the main leader of the slave uprising on August 17th 1795 in Curaçao. 

JOSEF CARIDAD GONZALES was an African belonging to the Loango nation, of Congolese descent. Who settled down at a very young age in Coro after fleeing Curaçao. There he assisted others who fled insular slavery. He too had, just like José Leonardo Chirono, contact with Tula. 

The Coro and the Falcon region, like all the Vénézuelan and Colombian coast, were territories where the runaway enslaved Africans or maroons of the neighboring islands such as Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire, among others, took refuge. One should also remember that in August 1795 a Revolution took place in Curaçao under the leadership of Tula, Pedro Wacao, Bazjan Karpata and Louis Mercier. That struggle was crushed by the Dutch colonial forces. By then Holland was a satellite state of France and known as the Batavian Republic. 

A rebellion of African descendents broiled at Coro in 1795. That region predominantly dedicated itself to sugar production. There too the planters did not want to apply the new Black Code "Carolino"of 1789.

They succeeded in obtaining an interdiction of it in 1794. More than three hundred blacks and ‘pardos’ were reported to have taken part of that rebellion led by two freedmen, Josè Leonardo Chirino and Jozef Caridad Gonzales. 

The origin of the uprising revived the actions of the African Cocofio, who since 1770 spread the rumor in this region of the existence of a cedule which suppressed slavery. After his death in 1792, that constant hammering on the liberty of the slaves were taken up again by African maroons coming from the Dutch, French and English colonies. Several hundreds of those maroons fleeing the foreign colonies sought refuge in the Coro region of Coro, where there existed different passages opening the way for the insular runaway enslaved Africans. 

On May 10th of the year 1795, the region of Coro was widely taken. Several haciendas were looted, the white proprietors who tried to resist were killed. The insurgents spread themselves out in the city of Coro to plunder it. They openly proclaimed their objectives:

1) Application of the “French law”, meaning the establishment of a democratic républic;
2) Freedom of the enslaved Africans and abolition of slavery;
3) suppression of the duties paid for the indigenous people (demora) and the taxes such as “alcabala”; 
4) Elimination of the white aristocracy .

On the one hand, these struggles laid the basis for the activities which occurred some years later when Franscisco de Miranda and afterwards Simón Bolívar and others who belonged to the eurocentric aristocracy decided to get themselves involved in the liberation process, which finally led to independence without total abolition of slavery in the territory presently known as Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. For example, in Venezuela slavery was abolished in 1850 while Simon Bolivar died in 1830 in Santa Martha, Colombia.

On the other hand, José Leonardo Chirino and Josef Caridad Gonzales represented the social categories of exploited and humble people, who wanted an ideological rupture with the metropolis. They demanded in one blow independence, abolition of slavery as well as an end of racism. Their consciousness in favor of international solidarity confirms that they belong to the first in the row of precursors of Caribbean integration for peace and equality.


Maroons of Aruban, Bonarian, Curacaon descent in Venezuela. 

It is not known how many African slaves made and survived the dangerous passage in fragile canoes from Curaçao to the Venezuelan coast. Archives in Coro from 1690 mention the presence of 14 run-away slaves from Curaçao. According to a current investigation project (April 2006, Millet and Ruiz Vila), there was already a district of ‘African negroes’ or loangos in 1585, which was called The Guinea, founded by people originating from Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire.

 Most of these run-away slaves were born in Africa and were called ‘people from Guinea’, but also loangos, after Luango on the coast of West Africa.
According to Paula’s definition, a maroon is a slave who liberates him/herself for a short period (petit marronage) or permanently (grand marronage) from the slavery system to which he/she legally belonged. This form of resistance existed on all the islands.


According to a royal decree of April 17, 1575, there was a village in that year with the same name of La Guinea in the mountains of Coro and it extended from Curimagua till Coro. Another source mentions that in 1761 there were 400 of these Curaçao maroons living in the south of Coro in the district known as Los Ranchos.

 It is the same district that was called La Guinea by the inhabitants. The families were known for their dance ‘al son del tambu’ with songs from faraway countries in their own language.

On the border on this forgotten district of La Guinea, lies the district of Curazaito. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Curazaito was known for the tambu, or loango tambu and the singing in Papiamento.

 There is still a vivid legacy of the tambu singers, originating from Curaçao, as the famous like Maria Chiquitin. It is maintained by the legendary Olga Camacho and her group Camachero.

From the present investigation in Coro, it becomes clear that La Guinea was the first settlement which was considered a residential area or barrio and that the adjacent district of Curazaito is of a later date. The habitants of La Guinea sympathized with the revolutionary ideas coming from Haiti, via Curaçao.

At the end of the 18th century, Curaçao was a center for revolutionary conspiracy. That was not surprising, because for quite some time there had been an intensive, commercial relation between Curaçao and Haiti. Thus, Haiti sold coffee to Curaçao, while Curaçao ships called at the ports of Haiti with materials and dry goods. 

These comings and goings of people between the two counties facilitated the spreading of revolutionary ideas. Besides, there were many Haitian refugees in the island of Curaçao and slaves from Haiti were also sold to the plantations in the island. This probably explains that French-speaking slaves participated in the Curaçao slave revolt in 1795.

In Venezuela, it was turbulent from 1770, because also of a black magician, called Conofio, who was traveling throughout the country in search of a decree in which it was supposed to have been declared that all slaves were free. After his death in 1792, his struggle was continued by freed and run-away slaves, among whom Curaçao maroons. 

The liberation movement was led by the ‘Zambo’ Jose Leonardo Chirino, supported by a run-away slave from Curaçao, who enjoyed great prestige in Venezuela, Jose Caridad Gonzalez. This resulted on May 10, 1795 in the great slave revolt at Hacienda Macanillas in the mountains near Coro. Chirino proclaimed the “French Laws”, the liberty of slaves and the abolition of the tax.

Jose Caridad Gonzalez

It is known of Jose Caridad Gonzalez that he was ‘negro from an important ancestry’ who, in addition to his native tongue, Loango, also spoke Papiamento, French and Spanish. He was a man of wide reading and was addressed as ‘Doctor’. This ‘Doctor’ helped many slaves flee from Curaçao. 

He mediated regularly in favor of the black population in conflicts concerning landownership. Caridad Gonzalez knew, just as the leader of the Curaçao slave revolt, Tula, and the leader of the Venezuelan revolt, Jose Leonardo Chirino, the ideas of the French Revolution. Caridad Gonzalez and Chirino maintained contacts with Haiti, where the state of Haiti was proclaimed in 1794 with the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Chirino, as a freeborn son of a black slave and an Indian, regularly came to Haiti and Curaçao and also contacted Tula.


The insurgents, contrary to insurgents in Curaçao three months later, were only armed with sticks and machetes. The revolt was crashed the following day and the wounded and captured freedom fighters were decapitated without any trial, among whom Jose Caridad Gonzalez as the first. Jose Leonardo Chirino escaped and was after a trial hanged in Caracas on December 10, 1796 after a trial.


From Dutch documents on the slave revolt of 1795 in Curaçao, we also know that one of the principal leaders of the Curaçao slave revolt, Bastian Carpata, together with nine other slaves, were imprisoned in Coro and deported to Curaçao. It had also been mentioned that Louis Mercier, was also in Coro with Bastian Carpata, although this isn't been proved. 


This probably happened just before the revolt of August 17 in Curaçao, for a slave by the name of Jean Forcade was sentenced to imprisonment, because he had failed to inform the Dutch authorities that he had seen Bastian Carpata in Venezuela.


This fact, that prof. Jandi Paula found during former research, caused sensation last week during our presentation in Coro, by Commemorating the 1795 Uprising of Jose Leonardo Chirino, organized by the Afro-Venezuelan Network. It is just one of the fragments needed to practice the archeology of the repressed memory