Arianna Maharaj Caribbean Studies 8/12/2020

Module 1 Essay #1
Using examples from the Caribbean, explain how Caribbean people throughout history
have responded to oppression.

Throughout Caribbean history, Caribbean people have responded to oppression in many

different ways. Firstly, one must understand what is meant by oppression. Oppression can be
defined as, “Unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power.” Throughout history in the
Caribbean, persons responded to oppression by both active resistance in the form of revolts,
maroonage, and revolution, and passive resistance by means of sabotage, infanticide, and
suicide.

Firstly, a revolt was an active form of resistance that the Africans enslaved were involved in, it
is a violent action taken against a plantation owner or ruler. There were four major revolts that
took place. The first was, 1733 slave insurrection on Saint John in the Danish West Indies which
started November 23, 1733. In this revolt 150 African slaves (present day Ghana) revolted
against the owners and managers of the island’s plantations. The fort in Coral Bay was captured
by the Akwamu slaves and took control of most of the island. Denmark had ended the African
slave trade in the Danish West Indies on January 1st 1803, but slavery continued on the islands.
Second revolt was known as the Tacky’s Rebellion which was an uprising of Akan (then referred
to as Coromantee) slaves that occurred in Jamaica from May to June 1760. This uprising was
inspired by the successful resistance of the Asante Queen Nanny and the Jamaican Maroons
during the First Maroon War of the 1730s. The third revolt was the Berbice slave uprising which
was a slave revolt in Guyana that began on February 23rd 1763 and lasted till December. The
fourth was, the Baptist War, also known as the Sam Sharpe Rebellion, the Christmas Rebellion,
the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831-32, was an eleven-day
rebellion that started on December 25th 1831.

Secondly, maroonage in the Caribbean comprised of enslaved Africans who escaped the
plantations and went into hiding away from plantation owners and had set up free villages as a
type of active resistance to oppression. The Maroons were in: Jamaica, where they were most
popular for (Cockpit county Jamaica), Las Villas Suriname and Cuba in the Hammer-pit

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 mountains. The main reasons as to why they were in these three countries were because it was
very large and as such, they were able to move far away from the plantations, also they had
known the territories better than their enemies. The enslaved Africans were experts at Guerrilla
warfare, which is the use of small groups of people with inferior weapons to fight a large group
with superior weapons. The tactics used in guerrilla warfare are: ambushes, sabotage, raids. The
purpose was not to defeat but to destroy the enemy’s will to fight. This took place in the timing
of which the Cuban and Haitian Revolution took place.

Thirdly, revolution was an active way in which the Caribbean people responded to oppression.
A revolution is an overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. There
were three revolutions that took place, the Haitian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution and the
Grenadian Revolution. Firstly, the Haitian Revolution, series of conflicts between 1791 and 1804
between Haitian slaves, colonists, the armies of the British and French colonizers, and a number
of other parties. Through the struggle, the Haitian people ultimately won independence
from France and thereby became the first country to be founded by former slaves. Next, the
Cuban Revolution, armed uprising in Cuba that overthrew the government of Fulgencio
Batista on January 1, 1959. The revolution’s leader, Fidel Castro, went on to rule Cuba from
1959 to 2008. Lastly, the Grenadian Revolution took place on March 13, 1979, Grenada’s prime
minister Eric Gairy was ousted in a coup organized by the New Jewel Movement and led by
Maurice Bishop. In 1979, the socialist New Jewel Movement had overthrown the corrupt and
unpopular dictator Eric Gairy in an almost bloodless coup.

Next, sabotage was a passive form of resistance during African enslavement in which they
would deliberately damage tools, equipment and other property belonging to the planter. In
circumstances where all authority had been stripped away, these actions were undertaken and,
while they may not significantly cripple plantation operations, they served to make the helpless
believe that to some degree they could still control the events of their lives. Such actions, indeed,
proved costly to the planters.
Additionally, infanticide was another form of passive resistance and it can be described as the
intentional killing or deliberately killing infants. The Tainos and Kalinagos committed infanticide
during slavery to prevent their children from being part of this act of slavery. They would kill

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 their child after birth. Denied the planter a continuous source of slaves so that the enslaved labor
supply always had to be replenished by the slave trade.
Lastly, suicide was another passive from used by both Tainos and Kalinagos and the enslaved
Africans. This was done as an act of rebellion as many had to cope with harsh conditions as well
as poor health and hygiene and the way they were treated. By committing suicide, it would affect
the plantations maintenance and as such the labor supply will always have to be replenished.
In conclusion, the Caribbean people responded to oppression in many forms being both active
and passive. Active resistance in the form of revolts, maroonage, and revolution, and passive
resistance by means of sabotage, infanticide, and suicide.

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