The Berbice Rebellion in Guyana

In 1763, in what is now known as Guyana, enslaved African came closer than ever before to overthrowing slavery and establishing their own state. The remarkable story of the rebellion in Berbice is told vividly by Marjoleine Kars in Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast. Berbice, currently a part of the Republic of Guyana, was a Dutch colony since the early seventeenth century. Dutch traders had originally come to barter with the Amerindian population, but later established plantations for the production of sugar and coffee. The colony was relatively small in size (in 1763 there were only 350-400 Europeans and 4,000-5,000 enslaved people who lived on 135 plantations) but played an important part in the history of Dutch colonialism because of the revolt in 1763.
In her book, Kars shows how the revolt had been brewing for a while. The extreme labor conditions, tropical diseases, food shortages and planter brutality resulted in a failed attempt at rebellion in 1762.