A moderate registry reform intended for slave protection triggered West Indian rebellion

Evidence

The immediate catalyst for slave rebellions in the British West Indies was the Slave Registry. Initially, the Registry had been promulgated to the Colonial Office as an instrument of slave reforms. In 1812, James Stephens, the Colonial Office lawyer, acting on behalf of “the inner circle of emancipists,” had argued that: … This moderate reform … would serve four purposes: to ascertain whether illegal slave importations were still occurring despite the abolition acts, to provide accurate statistics concerning slave mortality and fertility (by so doing further to publicize slave conditions), and thus to provoke further reforms. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 788

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which specific rebellions did the 1812-1816 registry controversy catalyze in the British West Indies?