BY: NATASHA GREGG

THE REVOLT OF 1522 –

The earliest and most serious slave rebellion in the so called New World occurred on December 25, 1522 on the Spanish Caribbean colony of Hispaniola (Espanola), which is modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti. Approximately thirty years after Columbus first landed, slaves attempted to gain their freedom. Led by slaves from the Wolof tribe brought from Senegal in West Africa, approximately 40 slaves working on the sugar plantation of Governor Admiral Don Diego Colón, the son of Christopher Columbus, conspired with other slaves working on nearby plantations. On Christmas night, they struck, killing at least 9 white settlers on a nearby plantation. After the rebellion was put down, many of the rebels managed to flee and escape to the mountains where they would formed independent maroon communities.