Slavery, Free Labor, and the Coro Rebellion of 1795

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 paper is not about the Coro rebellion, per se, but is about the nature of labor in Coro’s sierra, and how the autonomy with which enslaved and free people lived and worked there allowed the rebels to plan and launch a would-be revolution.

Keywords: Slavery, Free Labor, and the Coro Rebellion of 1795