Cuffy (died in 1763) was an African Akan man, who was enslaved in the Dutch colony of Berbice in present-day Guyana. In 1763, he led a major slave revolt of around 5,000 slaves against the Dutch colonists. The slave revolt was eventually suppressed and Cuffy committed suicide. Today, he is a national hero in Guyana.
Early life
Cuffy was an Akan man born in the 18th century in the Dutch Gold Coast ('Dutch Guinea'), in what is now southern Ghana. At some point he was captured into slavery, and sent across the ocean as part of the Atlantic slave trade. He was sent to the Dutch colony of Berbice (now Guyana), where he and many other African slaves were made to work on Dutch plantations.
Berbice Rebellion
Cuffy lived in Lilienburg, a plantation on the Berbice River, as a house-slave for a cooper (barrel maker). He was owned by the widow Berkey. On 23 February 1763, slaves on plantation Magdalenenberg on the Canje River rebelled, protesting harsh and inhumane treatment. They torched the plantation house, and made for the Courantyne River where Caribs and troops commanded by Governor of Suriname attacked, and killed them. On 27 February 1763, a revolt took place on the Hollandia plantation next to Lilienburg. When Dutch Governor Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim sent military assistance to the region, the rebellion had reached the Berbice River and was moving steadily towards the Berbice capital, Fort Nassau. They took gunpowder and guns from the attacked plantations.
By 3 March, the rebels were 600 in number. Led by Cossala, they tried to take the brick house of Peerenboom. whom Cuffy kept as his wife.
Cuffy was soon accepted by the rebels as their leader and declared himself Governor of Berbice. Doing so he named Captain Accara as his deputy in charge of military affairs, and tried to establish discipline over the troops. Accara was skilful in military discipline. They organized the farms in order to provide food supplies.
Defeat of the rebellion
Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim committed himself to retake the colony. Accara attacked the Dutch three times without permission from Cuffy, and eventually the colonists were driven back. Van Hoogenheim delayed his decision replying that the Society of Berbice in Amsterdam had to make that decision and that it would take three to four months. He was waiting for support from neighbouring colonies; a ship from Suriname had already arrived,
See also
- List of slaves
- Emancipation Statue (Haggett Hall, Barbados)
- Emancipation Park (Kingston, Jamaica)