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27th February is the most unrecognised historic date in our country but marks the anniversary of one of our most momentous events. It marks the start of the Great 1763 Berbice Slave Rebellion. Right now, most of you would be saying “Wait, isn’t February 23rd the anniversary date?”
While the popular view has always been that this history-making event began on February 23rd on Plantation Magdalenenburg on the Canje river, more careful history research now tells us that both the date and the location are wrong.
The 1763 Rebellion started on February 27th on the main Berbice river itself. Therefore, the revolt on Magdalenenburg on February 23rd was not part of Coffy’s master plan. It was a separate event that was confined to one estate. Most of the revolters escaped to Suriname.
The Coffy-led revolution started four days later on the Berbice River on Plantation Hollandia. The revolutionaries seized control of all the plantations in the upper Berbice above Fort Nassau. That Coffy could have masterminded in secrecy so massive an operation across so many estates testifies to his brilliance as a planner and leader.
What made the Berbice Revolution great?
ONE. it lasted over a year—far longer than was then typical for slave uprisings.
TWO. Coffy established a nation state. A government was formed, with Coffy as governor and appointed deputies such as Atta, Acabre, Acara and Fortyn (appointed Governor of Canje). An army of 600 fighters was trained. Agriculture was organised. Workshops were set up to repair and make arms. Communication among the estates was set up.
THREE. Coffy sought to export revolution from the Berbice basin to the Canje basin and, critically, to the colony of Demerara.
FOUR. There was written correspondence between the liberated Africans and the Dutch governor, an almost unique occurrence in the history of slave risings. Coffy sent his first letter to Governor Hoogenheim to explain the cause and objective of the rebellion and to warn the Dutch of further attacks if they did not leave for Holland as speedily as possible.
Whether February 23 or 27, let us not forget that our Republic Day was inspired by a Great War of Liberation in 1763 in Berbice. This event is rightly seen as the first of the great revolutions of enslaved Africans—an event of such proportions that it threatened to upturn the colonial order of the time.
