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St. Joseph Mutiny

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St. Joseph Mutiny
Date17 June 1837
LocationSt. Joseph, Trinidad
Result Mutiny suppressed
Belligerents
 United Kingdom Mutineers
Commanders and leaders
Samuel Ford Whittingham
George Hill		 Daaga (Donald Stewart)
Mawee (Maurice Ogston)
Units involved
89th Regiment of Foot
1st West India Regiment
Trinidad Militia		 Mutineers from the 1st West India Regiment
Strength
60–100 mutineers
Casualties and losses
1 killed
1 wounded		 12 killed
8+ wounded
6 committed suicide
3 executed

The St. Joseph Mutiny was a mutiny which occurred on 17 June 1837 among the 1st West India Regiment of the British Army. It began at the unit's barracks in St. Joseph, Trinidad, then part of the British West Indies.

It was led by recently arrived Africans who had been liberated from illegal slave ships by the Royal Navy and subsequently conscripted into the West India Regiments. Between 60 and 100 soldiers in the regiment participated in the mutiny, seizing arms and ammunition, killing one enlisted soldier and setting fire to the officers' quarters. The Army and Trinidad Militia quickly suppressed the mutiny, killing twelve mutineers; six others committed suicide to avoid capture. Three ringleaders of the mutiny were subsequently executed, while two others were sentenced to death but had their sentences commutated to penal transportation to Australia.

One of the leaders of the mutiny, Daaga, became a folk hero in Trinidad and was an inspiration for the leaders of the Black Power Revolution in the 1960s.

Citations

  1. ^ August 1991, p. 74.
  2. ^ August 1991, p. 75.
  3. Saillant 2019, p. 169.

Bibliography

  • August, Thomas (1991). "Rebels with a cause: The St. Joseph Mutiny of 1837". Slavery & Abolition. 12 (2): 73–91. doi:10.1080/01440399108575034.
  • Saillant, John (2019). "Dâaga the Rebel on Land and at Sea: An 1837 Mutiny in the First West India Regiment in Caribbean and Atlantic Contexts". The CLR James Journal. 25 (1/2): 165–194. doi:10.5840/clrjames20202767. S2CID 213407808.
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