PLEASE ADD (not yet added!): Winston McGowan, The Demerara Revolt, 1823

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* Title: The Demerara Revolt, 1823
* Author(s) name(s): Winston F. McGowan
* ISBN (or ASIN): 976950001-1
* Publisher: Free Press
* Publication Date Year: 1998
* Page count: 34
* Format (such as paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook, etc): paperback
* Description:

This monograph has been published to mark the 175th anniversary of a major revolt on the East Coast of Demerara. On 18 August 1823, about 11,000 to 12,000 slaves from 55 plantations between Liliendaal and Mahican erupted in what was numerically the most massive slave uprising in the history of Guyana.

Dr. Winston McGowan shows convincingly that the fundamental cause of the Revolt was the slaves' desire to be free from the increasingly severe system of bondage which had developed on the East Coast of Demerara in the years immediately prior to 1823. The system was marked, above all, by excessive overwork, apparently the most bitter specific grievance shared by the majority of the slaves. As a contemporary missionary noted: 'a most moderate quantity of work had very generally been expected of them, not excepting women far advanced in pregnancy.'

This situation, understandably, was a source of great discontent and distress to the slaves, making them more prone to revolt.

In this monograph, Dr. McGowan established clear proof that the Demerara Revolt of 1823 played a part, along with other humanitarian, economic and political factors in influencing the momentous decision to abolish slavery in the British Caribbean with effect from 1 August 1834, just over ten years after the Revolt.


* Link to book page: not available

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