MAY 27, 2008 will mark the 200th anniversary of a revolt by African slaves at Fort Augusta in St Catherine, and local amateur historian Kennedy Reid is inviting residents of Portmore and other interested groups to join him on that day in staging a prayer vigil for the Africans who lost their lives.

Reid issued the invitation during a recent presentation on the history of Portmore at the Portmore HEART Academy. Speaking at the Portmore Municipal Council’s third annual Emancipation Celebrations event, Reid told the audience that he especially felt the need to hold the prayer vigil as some two years after the unsuccessful revolt, a vigil was held by the whites for two of their compatriots killed during the revolt.

“I think we should have a vigil for the slaves that died, and I want you (Portmore residents) to join me. We also should (hold the vigil) because the whites had a vigil some two years after the revolt for the two white officers that were killed. But no one has done anything for the Africans,” Reid said.

Describing how the revolt unfolded, Reid told the Sunday Observer that two African slaves, who had been recruited as soldiers in the local British army, encouraged several other slaves stationed at Fort Augusta to revolt alongside them. He said the two soldiers, who had been in the island for a long time, had been trying to get their colleagues to help them revolt, but were having no success. They then decided to try with a few new recruits.

“About a year after they ended the slave trade, there were some slaves that were recruited as soldiers, but what they meant by recruit is that they (the colonists) captured them (the slaves) and brought them here, and indoctrinated them to become soldiers.

The soldiers, who were seasoned, were very proud and saw themselves as better than the slaves in the surrounding areas. But the new ones from Africa were not so indoctrinated,” Reid continued.

“There were two soldiers from the older group who were not so indoctrinated but they couldn’t get anywhere with the other older soldiers, so they decided to talk to the (new) recruits,” Reid told the Sunday Observer. In expectation that the old recruits would assist them once the revolt had begun, the two planners persuaded the new recruits to help them revolt, Reid said.

“They told the recruits their idea that the other (African) soldiers would join if they (led a) revolt. So on the morning of May 27, 1808, after they had finished parading inside the fort – after the drill sergeant turned his back – the (revolters) decided to run out of the fort; about 30 of them.

They ran through the gate with their bayonets, which did not have any bullets, but still had their daggers on the tip of the bayonet, and they ran towards the soldiers parading outside of Fort Augusta.”

Reid said two white officers in charge of the soldiers outside the fort saw what was happening and held the line. He said they “moved towards the (revolters). And the other soldiers on parade watched as the two white officers were pulled from their horses and killed”.

The old recruits then retaliated on the revolting new recruits.

“What happened next was that the soldiers outside began to fire at the revolters, and other soldiers still inside the fort also began to fire at the revolters – having them attacked on two sides. The revolters, realising their impending deaths, began to run into the sea and into the nearby swamps. Some were shot in the sea and some were shot on the spot outside; but some managed to escape,” Reid said.

In an effort to capture the escaped slaves and pacify the local whites that an islandwide revolt was not in the making, the colonial government put a dragnet in place around the borders of the Portmore territory.

“The officers who came afterwards decided to set up a dragnet around the entire swampy area and wait until the revolters came out. And, when they emerged, the remaining revolters were killed. After an enquiry and court-martial that day, seven Africans were executed on the same grounds in front of Fort Augusta,” Reid said.