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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast where we examine the

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Speaker 1: past from the present. Today is April. The day was

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Speaker 1: April eighteen sixteen, the largest slave rebellion in the history

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Speaker 1: of Barbados began, though it's often called Busses Rebellion after

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Speaker 1: an enslaved man who may have led it. Busses true

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Speaker 1: role in the rebellion has been debated by historians. Barbados

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Speaker 1: was first occupied by the British in sixty seven. They

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Speaker 1: established large sugar plantations on the island in the seventeenth

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Speaker 1: century and enslaved West Africans to work the land. Society

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Speaker 1: was split into white people, black people, and colored people,

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Speaker 1: and among those groups there were free people, indentured people,

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Speaker 1: and enslaved people. Throughout the seventeenth century and into the

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Speaker 1: early nineteenth century, the population of white people shrank while

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Speaker 1: the number of black people grew. Due to the increase

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Speaker 1: and enslaved people brought to the island, The planter elite

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Speaker 1: held a lot of power, controlling the economy and government institutions,

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Speaker 1: though there was some resistance among enslaved people. Slave owning

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Speaker 1: planters in Barbados did not face the magnitude of resistance

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Speaker 1: that was happening on other Caribbean islands. There are instances

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Speaker 1: of aborted plots and conspiracies among enslaved people in Barbados,

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Speaker 1: but not many records of uprisings that came to fruition.

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Speaker 1: Though there was some fear of black rebellion among white

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Speaker 1: people over the years, they remained complacent due to the

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Speaker 1: absence of any large scale revolts on the island. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: the abolitionist movement was active in Britain in the eighteenth

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Speaker 1: and early nineteenth centuries. The British Transatlantic slave trade was

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Speaker 1: abolished in eighteen o seven, but this didn't immediately in

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Speaker 1: the British slave trade, and enslaved people could still be

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Speaker 1: transported between British colonies. To prevent the illicit trading of

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Speaker 1: enslaved people, in anti slavery society in Britain, called the

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Speaker 1: African Institution, proposed a slave registry. In eighteen fifteen, the

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Speaker 1: House of Commons in England passed a bill requiring the

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Speaker 1: registration of enslaved people. It became effective when colonial legislatures

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Speaker 1: adopted it. Several Islands in the British West Indies adopted

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Speaker 1: the bill, but the Barbados House of Assembly rejected the

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Speaker 1: Registry bill. Planters feared that enslaved people viewed the bill

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Speaker 1: as a ticket to emancipation and predicted uprisings, but a

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Speaker 1: number of factors likely influenced the outbreak of the eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixteen uprising, including the outcome of the Haitian Revolution and

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Speaker 1: the actions of the planters themselves. On April fourteenth, eighteen sixteen,

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Speaker 1: the evening of Easter Sunday, enslaved people from the eastern

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Speaker 1: parish of St. Philip began setting fires on their plantations.

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Speaker 1: The rebellion spread from St. Philip to neighboring parishes such

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Speaker 1: as christ Church, St. John and St. Thomas, where more

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Speaker 1: estates were set on fire. A man named Bussa was

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Speaker 1: likely a leader of the rebellion. Joseph Pitt Washington Franklin

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Speaker 1: also likely had an important leadership role in the rebellion,

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Speaker 1: but very little is known about either of them or

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Speaker 1: anyone else who participated in the uprising. Martial law was

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Speaker 1: declared on April fifteen, three days after the uprising began.

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Speaker 1: Local militia and imperial troops shut it down. Hundreds of

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Speaker 1: rebels were tortured and executed during and in the aftermath

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Speaker 1: of the uprising. Others were deported. The Plantocracy blamed British

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Speaker 1: abolitionist for implying the prospect of emancipation and sparking the rebellion.

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Speaker 1: The Slavery Abolition Act of eighteen thirty three abolished slavery

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Speaker 1: throughout the British Empire, and enslaved people were emancipated in

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Speaker 1: eighteen thirty four. At that point, a so called apprenticeship

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Speaker 1: period began until enslaved people were actually free in eighty eight.

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Speaker 1: I'm Eves Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You would

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Speaker 1: Twitter or Instagram at t v I h C podcast.

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Speaker 1: You can also send us any of your comments or

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Speaker 1: questions via email at this day at iHeart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening to the show, and we'll see

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Speaker 1: you tomorrow. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the

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