The Antigua Slave Conspiracy of 1736: A Case Study of the Origins of Collective Resistance

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