Quamina Gladstone, commonly known as Quamina, was an African-born Guyanese man of Akan/Coromantee heritage and the father of Jack Gladstone. He and his son were central figures in the Demerara Rising of 1823, one of the largest uprisings against British colonial plantation rule before emancipation in the British Caribbean.
Quamina was a carpenter who lived and worked at Success plantation in Demerara, an estate owned by Sir John Gladstone. Colonial authorities implicated him in the uprising. After evading capture for several weeks, he was shot dead by colonial forces on 16 September 1823. His body was then taken to Success and displayed in chains on a gibbet as an instrument of terror. Quamina is widely honoured in Guyana as a national hero; Quamina Street in Georgetown bears his name.
Quamina was reportedly born in West Africa, probably in what is now Ghana, around 1778. As a child, he and his mother were trafficked across the Atlantic and forced into plantation captivity in Demerara. His mother died on a plantation in 1817. “Gladstone” was a surname imposed through the plantation system and associated with the estate’s proprietor. John Gladstone, who was an absentee proprietor and never visited Success, acquired a half-share in the estate through mortgage default in 1812 and secured the remaining share in 1816.
Quamina attended services at Bethel Chapel, operated by the London Missionary Society on the neighbouring Le Resouvenir plantation, after it opened in 1808. Under the guidance of the Reverend John Wray, he learned to read and write. In a letter to the London Missionary Society, Quamina explained that the man to whom he was apprenticed had encouraged him to attend the newly opened chapel. Wray observed changes in Quamina after his conversion to Christianity, and Quamina was baptised on 26 December 1808.
When Wray was transferred to Berbice in 1816, the Reverend John Smith succeeded him and was likewise impressed by Quamina. Quamina became known for his concern for others and gained the respect of African Guyanese people in captivity and of free Black people across the colony.
In 1817, Quamina was among five members of the congregation elected as deacons. He became head deacon at Bethel Chapel and served as an important intermediary within the mission community, bringing news about congregants and advising Smith on pastoral matters. The surviving missionary record praises his devotion and reliability, although such descriptions should be read critically: they were shaped by a missionary world that often equated Christian respectability with obedience under colonial rule.
Quamina had several partners over his lifetime and lived for about twenty years with Peggy, a free woman. Like many people held in plantation captivity, he endured violence, humiliation, and forced labour. He was once beaten so severely that he could not work for six weeks. Plantation demands regularly prevented him from attending worship. In 1822, when Peggy became seriously ill, he was compelled to work every day and denied leave to care for her. He returned one evening to find that she had died.
Quamina was close to his son Jack and supported the wider struggle for freedom and justice. By 1823, rumours circulated that Britain had ordered emancipation but that colonial authorities and planters were withholding it. On 25 July 1823, Quamina asked John Smith whether King George had sent an order to free the people held in bondage. Smith told him that any new measures were likely to concern conditions rather than immediate freedom, and urged him to discourage rebellion.
On Sunday, 17 August, Quamina and several others went to Smith’s home after worship. Smith overheard discussion of “new laws.” When he asked about it, Quamina said they had been discussing sending plantation managers to Georgetown “to fetch up the new law.” Smith advised against this course, and Quamina said they would do nothing. Soon afterwards, however, a larger meeting took place at Success Middle Walk, where participants debated strategy. Jack Gladstone emerged as a leading organiser.
The gathering included differing views. Some argued for an armed rising against plantation authority; some proposed a strike or other collective action; and others wanted to wait for clearer information about the alleged freedom order. Quamina urged restraint and opposed killing. The plan that emerged was to begin on Monday evening, confine managers and overseers in the stocks, seize arms and ammunition, and press their demand for freedom. Although the rising included acts of coercion and force, its organisers made substantial efforts to prevent the killing of white colonists and plantation personnel.
The uprising began at Success on the evening of Monday, 18 August 1823, and spread across the East Coast of Demerara, from the plantations near Georgetown towards Mahaica. Historians’ estimates vary, but roughly 9,000 to 13,000 African Guyanese people participated, making it one of the largest anti-colonial uprisings in the British Caribbean. It involved dozens of plantations and drew strength from networks of skilled workers, religious communities, kinship, and communication across estates.
News of the planned uprising had reached colonial authorities. Quamina was detained by John Stewart, the manager at Success, shortly before it began, but was released during the unfolding events. Accounts indicate that Quamina did not take up arms and helped prevent harm to Stewart. On 20 August, colonial cavalry, militia, and regular troops attacked the insurgents near Bachelor’s Adventure plantation. The colonial forces’ superior weaponry enabled them to crush the uprising with devastating violence.
Jack Gladstone fled into the interior after the defeat. Colonial authorities offered rewards for the capture of Jack, Quamina, and other alleged leaders. Jack and his wife were captured at Château Margot on 6 September, following a prolonged standoff. Although many colonists regarded Quamina as the principal leader, Jack had played a major organising role in the uprising.
Quamina remained at large until 16 September, when colonial forces found him in the fields near Château Margot. They ordered him to stop, but he kept walking. He was then shot dead. They reportedly found a clasp knife and a Bible in his pockets; he was not carrying a firearm. His body was taken to Success, where it was publicly displayed in chains from 17 September as a warning to others who might resist colonial rule.
The comparatively low number of European deaths demonstrates that many participants sought to limit lethal violence against planters, managers, overseers, and their families. Yet the uprising itself was not entirely nonviolent, and its suppression was brutally so. Hundreds of African Guyanese people were killed in battle, hunted down, wounded, tried by colonial courts, executed, flogged, or otherwise punished. Colonial records reported about 225 people killed or wounded during the initial suppression, while other estimates place the number killed between 200 and 500. Dozens more were sentenced to death, and colonial authorities displayed decapitated heads and bodies publicly to terrorise the population.
Jack Gladstone was sentenced to death but later received a commuted sentence and was deported to Saint Lucia. The Demerara Rising exposed the violence and instability of British plantation colonialism, intensified public debate in Britain, and helped strengthen movements for full emancipation. Britain abolished captivity in most of its Caribbean colonies through the 1833 legislation, implemented from 1834; coercive “apprenticeship” regimes then continued until 1838.
Quamina is recognised as a national hero in Guyana. In 1985, post-independence Guyana renamed Georgetown’s Murray Street—previously named for John Murray, the colonial principal oppressor of Demerara from 1813 to 1824, who governed during the Demerara Rising—Quamina Street in his honour. A monument to Quamina stands at the junction of Quamina and Carmichael Streets. He is also represented in a mural within the dome of the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) building on Water Street, Georgetown.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quamina
http://kofi1763.webs.com/kwamena1823.htm
http://abolition.e2bn.org/resistance_53.html
http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanastory/chapter43.html
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