The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 was an uprising involving more than ten thousand enslaved people in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana) on the coast of South America. The rebellion took place on August 18, 1823, and lasted two days. No particular incident sparked the rebellion; the enslaved simply grew tired of their servitude and sought to resist in the most direct way they could.
Planning for the rebellion began on August 17, 1823, at Plantation Success, one of the largest estates in the area. Two leaders emerged during the planning period: Jack Gladstone, a cooper on Plantation Success, and his father, Quamina, a senior deacon at a church led by English Protestant missionary, John Smith. Gladstone and others planned the uprising, but Quamina objected to any bloodshed and suggested instead that the enslaved should go on strike. Quamina and other leaders visited John Smith, informing him of his son’s plans. Smith urged the enslaved to remain peaceful, exercise patience, and wait for new laws that would reduce their suffering. Quamina carried Smith’s message back to the plantations.
Quamina’s call to remain peaceful fell on deaf ears. The enslaved on Plantation Success rebelled the next evening, August 18, 1823, and attempted to seize all firearms on the plantation. They locked up the whites during the night, planning to release them when their demands were met. They did not see their rebellion as a challenge to slavery itself but demanded better treatment for enslaved people in Demerara-Essequibo.
Most of the enslaved remained loyal to their masters. An enslaved house servant, Joseph Packwood, told his owner, John Simpson, about the planned revolt before it began. Simpson, in turn, informed Governor John Murray, who rode out to confront the rebels with the militia. The enslaved demanded their rights, but Governor Murray ordered them to return to their plantations. When they refused, he declared martial law. Some returned to the plantations while others participated in the rebellion.
Only a handful of whites were killed during the Demerara Rebellion. The rebels locked up owners, managers, and overseers on thirty-seven plantations, who did not flee to Georgetown, the colonial capital, when the rebellion began. Large numbers of Christian slaves refused to rebel and helped suppress those who rose up.
Other enslaved people confronted their owners and the military forces sent against them. On Bachelor’s Adventure Plantation, approximately two thousand enslaved people confronted Lieutenant Colonel John Leahy and his militia. When the enslaved refused Leahy’s order to disperse, he commanded his troops to fire into the crowd. Approximately two hundred people were killed.
Although the rebellion ended on Tuesday, August 19, the punishment that came afterward was severe. Hundreds of rebels were hunted down and killed, including two hundred who were beheaded as a warning to other enslaved people. Fourteen rebels were hastily tried and sentenced to be hanged. Governor Murray commuted their sentences and had them deported elsewhere in Caribbean. Jack Gladstone was deported to St. Lucia. His father, Quamina, who had argued against the revolt, was tracked down by dogs and Indians and killed in September 1823.
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Yes. The first one is old and a bit dry but that is just because of the budget and time it was made. the second and third really convey the "after the bomb" society and culture really well. The 2015 one owes everything good about it to the previous films.
Yeah, they're pretty good. There's a lot of detail and love in them. Most post-apocalypse movies just throw junk together and have evil cannibals who are evil because they're evil. The Mad Max world has enough thought put in to it that all the weird shit kinda makes sense. The bad guys have real motivations - In 2 they want the town's gasoline to fuel their fleet of vehicles. In 3 it's a power-struggle between two political leaders in an important trade hub. And Fury Road is Fury Road. All three of them feature characters with disabilities whose society has accommodated them, and they're part of the community without anyone making an issue about it. Fury Road notably does this with both the protagonists and the antagonists - Furiosa has a prosthetic arm. Max has PTSD and a leg brace from an old injury. Joe has some kind of skin condition, and his sons both have a disability - Rictus Erectus is implied to have some kind of developmental disability related to his impulsivity and behavior, while Corpus Colossus (played by Quentin Kenihan) has a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta.
2 features The Mechanic, who is parapelegic, and 3 features Master Blaster; Master is a little person (portrayed by prolific actor Angelo Rositto), while Blaster
spoiler
is implied to have Down's syndrome or a similar condition (portrayed by the enormous Paul Larrson, with Stephen Hayes, an actor who does have Down's, portraying Blasters face during close ups).
The Feral Kid (Emil Minty) doesn't speak, though it's implied he began speaking later in his life.
The series mostly averts the "The strong survive the weak are left to die" eugenicist crap that permeates a lot of post-apocalypse stories, instead showing communities working together to look out for each other. And in a huge departure the "bad guys" in Fury Road aren't shown being straw eugenicists - Corpus Colossus is castellan of Joe's Fortress in Joe's absence, while Furiosa is one of Joe's chief war leaders. Many of the War Boys suffer from cancers caused by growing up in the polluted post apocalypse environment.
Overall it's a very different view on disability than is taken in the vast majority of stories set in a post-apocalypse environment, and frankly in a lot of ways it depicts better attitudes towards disability than in real life, societies where the society works to accommodate a disability because people are too valuable to be held back by indifference or bigotry.
I would go so far as to say that "Mad Max: Fury Road" is one of my favorite films—perhaps not in the top 5, but it's up there.
If you'd told me someone was going to make a 2-hour action chase movie where the characters never stop moving, it keeps you engaged the whole time, and it actually has something to say about the world I would never have believed you before seeing it.