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The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance
Abstract
IN October I736, whites in the West Indian sugar island of Antigua were alarmed at the discovery of a slave plot to destroy them. The judges who eventually tried the slaves described the plot as an island-wide affair, probably in existence since November I735, if not earlier.' It was masterminded by a slave named Court, alias Tackey, who belonged to Thomas Kerby, Speaker of the assembly and justice of the peace. Court's chief accomplice was Thomas Hanson's Creole slave Tomboy. The slaves planned to stage a general uprising on the night of Monday, October ii, when the annual ball commemorating the coronation of George II was to be held in the capital town of St. John's, in a house owned by Christopher Dunbar, probably a prominent island figure. Tomboy, a carpenter, was to have tried to get the job of building seats for the ballroom, so as to enable him to plant gunpowder in the cellar for blowing up the governor and gentry during the ball. The blast was to be the signal for several groups of three to four hundred slaves to enter the town and kill all the whites, while other well-armed slaves prevented relief from reaching the beleaguered whites and seized the forts and the shipping in the harbor. The slaves still in the countryside were to abandon the plantations and march to town, destroying as they came. The ball, however, was postponed to October 30, causing the ringleaders to debate whether or not they Should Execute their Plot, by immediately
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In the citing paper
“Moreover, with occasional major exceptions, scholars who have written at length about slave resistance and rebellion in the British Caribbean have tended to emphasize actual uprisings, rather than aborted plots or conspiracies, and the 17th century has generally evoked considerably less attention than the 18th century and preemancipation decades of the 19th”
From Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados (1982) · cites this paper as GASPAR 1978
In the citing paper
“insurrectionary attempts or conspiracies -whether real, imagined, or exaggerated by whites -reflect and reveal a variety of features of the slave society as well as various dimensions of the slaves' sociocultural life.”
From Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados (1982) · cites this paper as GASPAR 1978
In the citing paper
“In any case, the plot, as well as the one in 1692 (see below), was, as in Antigua in 1736 (GASPAR 1978: 319),”
From Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados (1982) · cites this paper as GASPAR 1978
In the citing paper
“Coffee,”
From Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados (1982) · cites this paper as GASPAR 1978
In the citing paper
“That these plots”
From Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados (1982) · cites this paper as GASPAR (1978: 317)
In the citing paper
“Leadership was crucial to slave revolts in general, and again GASPAR'S (1978: 319, 322) observations on the 1736 Antiguan conspiracy can be applied to Barbados, particularly the 1692 conspiracy”
From Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados (1982) · cites this paper as GASPAR'S (1978: 319, 322)
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Slave revolts and conspiracies in seventeenth-century Barbados
Handler, J. S. (1982) · New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids · doi:10.1163/13822373-90002108 · Cited by 56
Metadata
- Authors
- Gaspar, D. B.
- Corresponding author
- Gaspar, David Barry
- Venue
- The William and Mary Quarterly
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1978-04
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 308
- ISSN
- 0043-5597 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2332295442
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The William and Mary Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Caribbean history, culture, and politics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History of Colonial Brazil
- Keywords
- slave resistance, slave revolts, slave conspiracies, sugar plantations, colonial Caribbean, Antigua, St. John's
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/1921837
- The paper
- Gaspar, D. B. (1978). The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance. The William and Mary Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.2307/1921837
