IN 1816 Nanny Grigg and a group of other women, alongside Bussa in Barbados, took up arms to fight for their freedom. On 14-16 April, 1816, Bussa led the largest uprising for freedom by enslaved people in Barbadian history. Although not much is known about Nanny it is reported that she was valued at 130.00 pounds and worked on Simmons Plantation. Nanny was able to read and write and told her fellow slaves that they had to fight for their freedom.
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It is night. It is a memory. The sound of cane moving in the heard. The movement of women and men cutting cane can be seen in the shadows. Humming a negro spiritual. NANNY GRIGG appears out of the shadows humming that same tune. She stands in a single light.
Nanny Grigg: Dey was sugar cane fuh days. We blister we hands working in Massa field. We bare we breast feeding Massa children. We break we back cleaning Massa house. We burn we eyes clearing de land for Massa cane.
But I didn’t want cut no cane. I didn’t want be no slave either. Dem masters never value we…especially us women. Here is where de royal family get their wealth, right here in this here Barbados. Is WE who was making de money to send to King George. We was gold for England. Is here in this island of Barbados that slaves get the most brutalizing. De ships was coming from Africa and so if we dead in the heat of the sun, or because we ain’t get nuff water and food to drink, it was no matter to dem. More battered slaves would come. Dem masters was cruel. Dem so did want everything. Dey did want domestic slaves, product slaves, reproductive slaves. You know what it is to be whipped when yu heavy with baby?
Dem mek we feel like we is nothing. My name was Nanny but dey calls me Bess. Dey call all de grass cutters Betty, de girls who does uses to wash de clothes was all Betty; Old Dido for de girls who drive de mule; Juba or Sucky for de housemaids. I decide I was going to organize a resistance. Mainly women too. Petty coat rebellion dem call we. I did sharp. Smart. I learn to read. I watch what was happening ‘round this here island. I mek sure to tell the others. It was not we alone that wanted change. Nobody wanted to be dem property. Dem value me at 130 pounds. (She spits on the ground.) but I ain’t nobody’s property I tell myself. I ain’t no cow, no mule, no goat. How much blood we had to give? So I start studying what was going on in Haiti. Dem TEK dem independence. Christophe was not playing with King Louis XVII of France. He refuse to accept anything France was saying. So I tell everyone pon Simmons we need to follow Haiti. Tek we liberty Be ready, be armed, keep we eyes open. Ears to the ground. Dem needed to know dat we was not alone. (There is the sound of intermittent light drumming through her storytelling.) I tell de women burn down de cane. Kill de white Massa if we have to. Burn down the whole Simmons plantation too.
From December when dem was partying and carousing and singing dey sweet baby Jesus songs who born in a manger, I did planning. Watching. Meeting. Encouraging. Plotting. Singing my own songs. Five months. Planning. But I is a patient woman. I see myself as a fighter for freedom!
De 1816 revolt was not easy. Sunday, April 14. Dem white people did feel we did foolish. Dey neva expect we would revolt. Bussa was de head ranger at Bayley’s. And there was four hundred of we. Yes, dat day was a painful day. A painful day when dey cut down Bussa. Dem white people from de First West India regiment. Imagine we own black people dressed in redcoats mix up with de white officers from de First West India regiment. Dem was dere wid dere cannons, and we wid our sticks and stone and cutlass. Dem hang all de dead bodies across dis island. To warn us. To keep us cutting de cane. To keep us enslaved. To keep us in bondage. We did not stand a chance, but all dey gun powder—dat could not stop my spirit. I did dere, side by side next to Bussa.
I die shouting Bussa! Bussa! (Pause) Right there among these here cane-fields full with the ghosts of petticoats and our African blood.
(She walks toward the trees where a noose is hanging. The sound of drums can be heard as the canecutters freeze. The lights come down as the stage transitions with blue light, showing the canecutters in silhouette. A single scream is heard. Lights go to blackout.)
Weekes, Y. (ed) “Ghosts of Petticoats” by Yvonne Weekes in Voices: Monologues & Dramatic Text for Caribbean Actors. House of Nehesi Publishers, St. Maarten. 2022. p. 18-21.
Additional Resources and References for Teachers:
Beckles, Hilary McD and Vereen Shepherd. Liberties Lost: The Indigenous Caribbean and Slave Systems. Cambridge University Press. 2004.
Buckley, Roger. Slaves in Redcoats: The British West Indies Regiments, 1795-1815. Yale University Press, 1979.
