10 powerful times enslaved Africans rebelled to show that slavery was not a choice

Freedom Statue in Cruz Bay Park in present-day Saint John, Virgin Islands

Akwamu Slave Revolt, Saint John Insurrection, 1733

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Historians say one of the earliest slave revolts in North America was in the Caribbean island of Saint John, which was owned by the Danish.  The enslaved Africans in Saint John were Akan, an African people from modern-day Ghana.

A group of high-ranking Akans began to plot against their Danish masters in November 1733, pained by widespread illness, droughts and harsh slave codes. The revolt started on a plantation at Coral Bay where enslaved Africans smuggled weapons to kill several Danish soldiers. Soon, several white colonists were killed and most of Saint John was seized by Africans as the killing soon spread to other plantations with over 150 conspirators. The leaders seized the island as their own.

Unfortunately, the freedom of the Akans was shorted-lived. In May 1734, French troops arrived and violently put down the rebellion after only six months of Akan rule. Slavery was finally abolished in the Danish West Indies in 1848.