The Berbice Slave Uprising
Coffy lived in Lilienburg, a plantation on the Canje River as a house-slave for a cooper (barrel maker). An uprising broke out at Madgalenenburg plantation, upper Canje River, on February 1763 and moved on to neighbouring plantations attacking owners. When Governor Van Hogenheim sent military assistance to the region, the rebellion had reached the Berbice River and was moving steadily towards the Berbice capital, Fort Nassau. They got gunpower and guns from the attacked plantations.
By 3 March the rebels were 500 in number led by Cosala tried to take the brick house of Peerboom. They agreed to allow the whites to leave the brick house, but as soon they left, the rebels killed many and took several prisoners, among them the wife of the Bearestyn Plantation owner whom Cuffy kept as his wife.
Coffy was soon accepted by the rebels as their leader and declared himself Governor of Berbice. Doing so he named Akara as his deputy and tried to establish discipline over the troops. Accabre was skillful in military discipline. They organized the farms in order to provide food supplies.
Read more about this topic: Cuffy (person)
Famous quotes containing the words slave and/or uprising:
“Oh, has the foul atmosphere of foreign lands extinguished all your self-respect? Do you come back sordid and sycophantic, and the slave of opinions you would once have utterly detested?”
—Augusta Evans (1835–1909)
“Ours is the old, old story of every uprising race or class or order. The work of elevation must be wrought by ourselves or not at all.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)