Social Control on the Eve of a Slave Revolt: The Case of Coro, 1795

Abstract

On May 10, 1795, a slave revolt broke out in Coro, a coastal region located in the Province of Caracas in the captaincy-general of Venezuela. The three-day revolt, that involved at least four hundred enslaved and free people of African descent, resulted in the destruction of several plantations and scores of deaths. Inspired in part by the French and Haitian Revolutions, the rebels demanded the abolition of slavery and the termination of taxes, but as was the case in most slave revolts, Coro's rebels ultimately failed to achieve their goals. This thesis is not about the Coro revolt, per se, but instead focuses on the preconditions to rebellion and weaknesses in social control in Coro at the time of the revolt. This study is engaged with the historiography of slave and peasant rebellion, and argues that weak mechanisms of surveillance and weak defenses were significant preconditions for the Coro revolt.