Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ships. The Spanish fleet, already weakened by desertions and yellow fever, suffered
heavy losses and fled in disorder to Caye Chapel. There they remained for five days to
bury their dead, and on the morning of September 16 they sailed for Bacalar, still
harassed by the Baymen.
Though a victory was won against overwhelming odds, the Battle of St George's Caye
was not by itself decisive as no one in Belize could be sure that the Spanish would not
return. The territory remained as a timber-cutting settlement, but not within the
British Empire. In practical terms the power of the Spanish was waning while that of
the British was expanding, but in Belize the slaves were still slaves, and though they had
fought valiantly, their owners expected them to go back to cutting mahogany. Indeed
controversy still exists in Belize over the fact that the battle was fought between two
European powers to establish rule, while also enabling slave owners to claim that the
slaves were willing to fight on behalf of their masters. Whatever its legacy, 1798 was the
last point at which Spain attempted to gain control; Britain gradually assumed a greater
role in the government of Belize.
Settlers and slaves
A report by a Spanish missionary in 1724 mentions the ownership of
slaves
by English
settlers, and it's possible that Africans were brought in (from Jamaica and Bermuda)
even before that time. The British population in the Bay of Honduras had never been
more than a few hundred, their livelihoods dependent on the attitude of authorities in
the adjacent Spanish colonies. In order to gain concessions from Spain favourable to
the Belize settlement, Britain agreed to relinquish claims to the Mosquito Coast (a
British protectorate along the coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua) in the
Convention of
London
in 1786. Many aggrieved displaced inhabitants settled in Belize, and by 1790
the population reached 2900, of whom over 2100 were slaves.
The often held view that slavery in Belize was somehow less harsh than elsewhere is
a misconception that may have arisen due to the differences between plantation
slavery in the West Indies and United States and the mainly forest labour that
Africans in Belize were required to perform. The myth has been skilfully manipulated
by apologists for colonialism, who maintain that during the pivotal Battle of St
George's Caye black people voluntarily fought “shoulder to shoulder” with their
white masters, and thus preferred slavery over the freedom offered by the Spanish
authorities to any slave who escaped. Although some slaves did fight alongside their
masters in 1798, they also continued to run away: in 1813 fifteen slaves belonging to
Thomas Paslow, one of the heroes of the battle, escaped “because of ill-treatment and
starvation”, their desperation evidence enough to refute the myth. Many escaped
slaves ended up in maroon settlements such as the one at
Gales Point
(see p.65).
Records of
slave revolts
from 1745 to 1820 are further indication that relations were
not as amicable as some would like to believe.
Belizean whites were always vastly outnumbered by blacks, and they feared rebellion
at least as much as Spanish attack. The biggest (and arguably most successful) revolt
occurred in 1773 when six white men were murdered and at least eleven slaves escaped
across the Hondo River, where they received asylum from the Spanish authorities. This
was not a display of altruism - encouraging slaves to flee was calculated to weaken the
British settlement's economy.
1833
1847
1854
Abolition Act of 1833:
Slavery
o
cially ends in British empire, with
a special clause to include Belize
The Caste War of Yucatán
begins between the Spanish,
Maya and mestizo, sending
many refugees into Belize
An elected Legislative
Assembly is formed,
presided over by a British
superintendent
