Caribbean History Timeline

Date: September 27, 1672
Location: United Kingdom
Category: Slavery, Colonization & Empire

On September 27, 1672, King Charles II of England officially chartered the Royal African Company (RAC), granting it a monopoly on English trade with West Africa, including the slave trade. This new company replaced the bankrupt Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa, established in 1660. The RAC’s charter allowed it to set up forts and factories, maintain troops, and exercise martial law in West Africa. King Charles II himself was a major shareholder, along with his brother James, Duke of York (later King James II). By the 1680s, the RAC was transporting about 5,000 enslaved people annually, primarily to Caribbean markets, playing a significant role in the expansion of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Date: May 1, 1713
Location: United Kingdom, Spain
Category:Slavery

Under the Treaty of Utrecht, Britain was granted the Asiento de Negros, a 30-year contract to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish America. Queen Anne celebrated this as a victory, while King Philip V of Spain had reluctantly agreed to the deal to maintain peace. The South Sea Company, tasked with fulfilling the agreement, could send 4,800 slaves annually to the Spanish American colonies, including Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. This deal sparked mixed reactions: South Sea Company investors and independent traders saw profit potential in the slave trade and associated smuggling opportunities, while the Spanish government worried about threats to their trading monopoly and colonial control. Ultimately, the Asiento proved less profitable than expected due to disruptions from wars and a hefty annual tax of £34,000 to the Spanish crown. These factors contributed to rising tensions between Britain and Spain, culminating in the War of Jenkins’ Ear in 1739.

Date: 1728 to 1740
Location: Jamaica
Category: Slavery

The First Maroon War began in 1728 between Jamaican Maroons and British colonial authorities. Maroons were former enslaved Africans and their descendants who had formed independent communities in Jamaica’s mountainous interior since 1655. Tensions escalated due to harsh colonial policies and increased military presence. Governor Robert Hunter intensified efforts to subdue these communities, deploying troops to areas like Port Antonio. Maroon leaders, including Nanny and Cudjoe, utilized guerrilla tactics to defend their freedom, raiding plantations and ambushing British forces. Their knowledge of the rugged terrain allowed them to inflict significant losses on colonial militias despite being outnumbered. The conflict strained colonial resources and culminated in peace treaties in 1739-1740, granting Maroons land and limited autonomy in exchange for returning future runaway slaves and assisting in island defense.

Date: 1756
Location: Montserrat
Category: Notable Figures, Slavery

Dorothy “Dolly” Kirwan Thomas was born into slavery in Montserrat in 1756. As a girl, she earned money selling goods, then later used her savings to purchase freedom for herself and her three eldest children after leaving the island. Thomas built businesses in Dominica, Grenada, Barbados, and Demerara, now Guyana, becoming known as the “Queen of Demerara.” She was among the Caribbean’s wealthiest free women of color, though her success carried a grave contradiction: she later owned enslaved people. Her remarkable and troubling life story inspired Vanessa Riley’s historical novel Island Queen.

Date: July 7, 1762
Location: Guyana
Category: Slavery

The Dutch slave ship De Eenigheid, also known as The Unity, arrived in Berbice (now part of Guyana) carrying 299 enslaved Africans. The crew, led by Captain Menkenveld, who had completed five previous slave voyages, traded a variety of goods on the West African coast to purchase these individuals. These goods included Indian textiles such as Madras cloth, blue salempouris, and red rumals, as well as guns, gunpowder, and other European manufactured items. In Berbice, the enslaved Africans were sold at public auction. Buyers mainly paid in sugar, which was then loaded onto the ship for the return trip to the Netherlands. When sugar was unavailable, buyers used bills of exchange as promissory notes. This voyage highlights how Indian fabrics, European goods, and colonial sugar production were interconnected through the Dutch transatlantic slave trade.