Slavery Archives

The Beginning of Rebellion: The Hidden History of the 1521 Santo Domingo Slave Revolt

by History Guild | Jun 3, 2024 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
As the Age of Discovery slowly transitioned into the Age of Colonialism, the Spanish Empire, or more accurately its citizens, began importing African slaves into its new colonial holdings in North America and the Caribbean.
Only 30 years after Columbus had discovered the Americas, on the island of Hispaniola (now modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), the very first colonial slave revolt occurred.

Why Did Britain Change its Stance on Slavery?

by History Guild | Feb 20, 2024 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
By the 1730s, Britain was the largest slave-trading Empire in the world. It is estimated that between 1640 and 1800, private British citizens across the Empire transported 3.1 million Africans as slaves.
Yet less than seven years later, the British parliament officially abolished slavery. And they didn’t stop there. The British government then proceeded to pressure allies and other European nations such as Portugal, Spain and France to also abolish slavery, and devoted significant Royal Navy resources to intercept and arrest slaving ships off the coast of Africa.

The dark history of slavery and racism in Indonesia during the Dutch colonial period

by History Guild | Sep 14, 2023 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
The region near Medan is famous for its Deli tobacco, and colonial planters researched how to boost tobacco production. Behind the golden age and success of Dutch research, I found enormous human casualties that built plantations in North Sumatra. Widespread racism and slavery occurred in plantations managed by colonial companies.

Slavers in the family: what a castle in Accra reveals about Ghana’s history

by History Guild | Aug 22, 2023 | Historical Sites, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
The Castle is situated on the West African coast, formerly and notoriously known as the “White Man’s Grave”. The castle’s origins can be traced to a lodge built by Swedes in 1652. Nine years later, the Danish built a fort on the site and called it Fort Christiansborg (“Christian’s Fortress”), named after the King of Denmark, Christian IV.

When France extorted Haiti – the greatest heist in history

by History Guild | Nov 27, 2021 | Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
Much of the reparations debate has revolved around whether the United States and the United Kingdom should finally compensate some of their citizens for the economic and social costs of slavery that still linger today.
But to me, there’s never been a more clear-cut case for reparations than that of Haiti.

Reckoning with slavery: What a revolt’s archives tell us about who owns the past

by History Guild | Nov 9, 2021 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
During the revolt, former slaves organized a government and controlled most of the colony for almost a year. The Dutch either fled altogether or holed up on a well-fortified sugar plantation near the coast. A regiment of European soldiers sent from neighboring Suriname mutinied and joined the rebels they had come to defeat. But obligated by treaties, indigenous peoples such as Carib and Arawak fought on the side of the Dutch. The revolt ended when the rebels, out of food and arms, were overpowered by enemies who had received an infusion of men and supplies from the Dutch Republic.

Slave revolt film revisits history often omitted from textbooks

by History Guild | Oct 28, 2021 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Armed with machetes and pitchforks and uttering chants of “Freedom or Death,” hundreds of men and women made their way along a 26-mile route along the River Parishes of Louisiana.
The spectacle – which I witnessed in November 2019 in St. John the Baptist Parish, in the heartland of Louisiana’s sugar cane and oil industries – was a reenactment of what historians believe was the largest slave rebellion in United States history, the 1811 German Coast Uprising.