The 1823 Demerara Revolt — then a British colony — was one of the largest slave uprisings in the Caribbean, involving an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 enslaved people across more than 60 plantations along the East Coast Demerara. Its suppression was swift and brutal: the colonial militia killed over 200 rebels, and its leader, Quamina, was hunted down and executed. The revolt's reverberations reached London, where the subsequent trial and death of missionary John Smith galvanized the British abolitionist movement in ways the uprising's planners could not have anticipated.
The 2023 commemorative marks the revolt's bicentennial.
The 1823 Demerara Revolt — then a British colony — was one of the largest slave uprisings in the Caribbean, involving an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 enslaved people across more than 60 plantations along the East Coast Demerara. Its suppression was swift and brutal: the colonial militia killed over 200 rebels, and its leader, Quamina, was hunted down and executed. The revolt's reverberations reached London, where the subsequent trial and death of missionary John Smith galvanized the British abolitionist movement in ways the uprising's planners could not have anticipated.
The 2023 commemorative marks the revolt's bicentennial.