Profile of: Janet Mills

Award Received: SSHRC Post-Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral

Awarded for the project: Religion, Reverberations, and Rebellion: Demerara in the Age of Abolition, 1795-1834

Department: Historical Studies

Supervisor: Dr. Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy

Today we rely on communication through social media and other modern advantages. But what did we do before the internet, television, or even electricity? How did the poor, the disadvantaged, the enslaved reach out to each other?

My dissertation, “Religion, Reverberations, and Rebellion: Demerara in the Age of Abolition, 1795-1834,” focuses on the bondspeople of Demerara, British Guiana (today’s Guyana), in relation to one of the largest uprisings of enslaved people in the British Caribbean. Through networks, plans were made in Demerara to rise in protest of unfulfilled orders from Britain for improvements to conditions for the enslaved. My work shows that, despite oppression and wide-spread illiteracy, bondspeople shared complex networks, both local and trans-Atlantic, carrying news of abolitionist activism in Britain and uprisings in the Caribbean.

Investigating documents in various archives, I have found correlations in statements made by enslaved people which, while mindful that many were made under duress and recorded by white interrogators, provide evidence of communication networks infiltrating the colony and beyond. I trace these networks to original sources of rumours and news, highlighting certain individuals as influencers and leaders. I uncover familial and social connections bridging gaps between the vast majority of bondspeople who were illiterate and the few who were able to read and write. Through government documents, correspondence, journals, and other sources, I find connections and tease out routes of information gathering among people who were disadvantaged and oppressed. These reveal the importance of community for bondspeople, whether it be through religion, meetings in the marketplace, seeking healing, or daily enforced labour.  

Through my work, I present bondspeople as resourceful and intelligent individuals who, working through networks, used information strategically, and despite a failed attempt at making significant change in the moment, re-invigorated anti-slavery protests and government action in Britain.