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On St. Patrick's Day in 1768, enslaved people in the Caribbean planned an uprising hoping their Irish overseers would be too drunk to interfere

On St. Patrick's Day in 1768, enslaved people in the Caribbean planned an uprising hoping their Irish overseers would be too drunk to interfere

Yoonji Han

Festivalgoers celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Montserrat, a Caribbean island with ties to Irish and British history.Montserrat Tourism Division

Montserrat is the only place outside of Ireland and two provinces in Canada where St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday.
On St. Patrick's Day in 1768, enslaved Africans on the island attempted a failed revolt.

Every year on St. Patrick's Day, Montserrat, a Caribbean island, acknowledges its early Irish influence while honoring the enslaved people who rebelled against it. It's the only place outside of Ireland and two provinces in Canada to celebrate it as a public holiday.

A trio of revelers in kilts dance on St. Patrick's Day. Valbaun Galloway/Montserrat Tourism Division

Source: National Geographic; JSTOR

Known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, Montserrat still carries Irish influence, including with a shamrock passport stamp and its flag, which features Ireland's goddess Eriu.

Montserrat passport entry stamp and coat of arms on its flag. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons; Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

After Ireland was conquered by English parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell in 1649, many Irish people were deported from their home country, and some were sent to work on Caribbean sugar and tobacco plantations.

Archive Photos/Getty Images

A 1678 census showed 70% of Montserrat's white population self-identified as Irish. The influx led to a mix of British and Irish landowners, indentured Irish, and enslaved Africans across Caribbean islands, creating a powder keg of race relations in the region.

Sources: JSTOR; Caribbean Irish Connections: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

While the indentured Irish could work their way to land ownership and rights, enslaved Africans could not. On St. Patrick's Day 1768, a group of enslaved Africans planned to take advantage of their owners' and overseers' drunken holiday revelry and stage a revolt.

Slaves "holing cane," the process of planting sugar cane on plantations, while a white supervisor holding a whip oversees their work. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Source: National Geographic; JSTOR; New Yorker

But their plans were discovered, and nine rebels, including the leader Cudjoe, were hanged. His head was placed in a tree as a cautionary tale to other enslaved people.

Cudjoe's head is said to have been placed in a silk cotton tree. The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images

Source: National Geographic; JSTOR; New Yorker

Ever since, Montserrat's St. Patrick's Day celebrations have been a way to commemorate its complex Irish and African heritage. Revelers wear green, as is tradition in Ireland, but also celebrate with steel drums, masked dancers, and feasts of goat water stew.

Source: National Geographic; Montserrat Tourism Division

The 10-day St. Patrick's Day celebration at Montserrat starts with a ceremonial torch lighting at Cudjoe Head village. Festivalgoers can explore historical sites through the rainforest and take a boat around the Soufrière Hills volcano zone.

Montserrat's bay. DeAgostini/Getty Images

Source: National Geographic

Masquerading, an Afro-Caribbean tradition of spiritual dancing, during St. Patrick's Day in Montserrat parodies the Irish jig. Some dancers also hold whips or wear hats shaped like Catholic bishops' miters.

A troupe of "masqueraders" carry whips and perform a parody of Irish dance steps, a tradition started by African slaves who mocked their Irish slave masters. Chris Hawley/AP Photos

Source: National Geographic; JSTOR

Despite Montserrat's fraught racial history, locals continue to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in recognition of their rich heritage.

Leprechaun's Dust is a morning street party on St. Patrick's Day. Montserrat Tourism Division

"I'm with the slaves, but I think by discrediting the Irish side of us, we're also discrediting ourselves. Because you can't love one element of yourself and not love the others," Vernaire Bass, head of planning and production at the Montserrat Arts Council, told National Geographic.