Timeline of Key Events Related to Slavery and Belize

Front

1492

Back

Columbus arrives in the Americas.

Front

1502

Back

First enslaved Africans arrive in the Americas.

Front

1510

Back

Systematic transportation of African slaves to the New World begins, authorized by King Ferdinand of Spain.

Front

1650

Back

British Buccaneers settle in British Honduras.

Front

1660

Back

British pirate Bartholomew Sharpe makes British Honduras his base, harvesting logwood for sale to the UK.

Front

1724

Back

Spanish missionary reports presence of enslaved Africans in British Honduras, recently imported from Jamaica and Bermuda.

Front

1765 & 1768

Back

Slave revolts occur, with 23 slaves escaping to the New River in 1768.

Front

1773

Back

Major slave uprising on the Belize River; Captain Davey contains the revolt at St. George’s Caye.

Front

1807

Back

Act for the Abolition of Slave Trade passed by the British Parliament, making slave trading illegal throughout the British Empire.

Front

1820

Back

Last slave revolt led by slaves Will and Sharpe on the Belize and Sibun Rivers.