Buxton is a village in the

Demerara-Mahaica Demerara-Mahaica (Region 4) is a region of Guyana, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the region of Mahaica-Berbice to the east, the region of Upper Demerara-Berbice to the south and the region of Essequibo Islands-West Demerara to the we ...

Region of

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

, standing about midway between Georgetown and Enmore.

History

Buxton Village was founded in 1840 by a group of freed

Afro-Guyanese Afro-Guyanese are generally descended from the enslaved people brought to Guyana from the coast of West Africa to work on sugar plantations during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. Coming from a wide array of backgrounds and enduring conditio ...

, who purchased the former Plantation New Orange Nassau, and named it after

Fowell Buxton Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet (1 April 1786Olwyn Mary Blouet, "Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, first baronet (1786–1845)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., May 201accessed 25 April 20 ...

. Friendship, its sister village, was founded in 1841 after the purchase of Plantation Friendship."Celebrating the 170th Anniversary of the purchase of Buxton Village" ''Buxton: Purchase and Pride'', Georgetown, 29 January 1965. The two were later joined to form the village of Buxton-Friendship, which is commonly called Buxton. Buxton Village was founded when a group of 128–132 former slaves from Annandale purchased the 580-acre plantation for 50,000 dollars. The 700-acre Friendship plantation was purchased by 168 former slaves for 80,000 dollars. Buxton, Friendship, Victoria, along with other Guyanese, were all collectively purchased by groups of former slaves after emancipation was enacted in 1838. The Buxton-Friendship local authority was established to interact with plantation owners, in addition to building roads, trenches and other similar infrastructure they also formed an elected village council. In 1856, the

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

legislature gave the government the right to enact improvement taxes on the properties of the villagers, this led to a stalemate between the government and the purchasers of Buxton. In 1862, the governor of British Guiana confiscated the property of James Jupiter, Blucher Dorsett, Hector John, Webster Ogle, Chance Bacchus and James Rodney Sr, leading to riots. After the governor refused to hear the complaints of the delegations from Buxton, six village leaders set sail for England to air their grievances to the Queen. After arriving in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, the Barbadian governor met with the delegation and advised his counterpart to absolve their properties of tax duties. This betrayal upset the other villagers, it also threatened the well-being of the members of the delegation who claimed they were not aware of the contents of the letter. In another effort to settle this dispute, some villagers led by Nana Culley decided to blocked the train carrying the governor, and force him to listen to their grievances. With his train surrounded by angry villagers, the governor promised that Buxtonians would be exempt from these levies. During the pre-independence period, Buxton-Friendship was the site of some ethnic violence, including the two murders"REPORT OF THE WISMAR, CHRISTIANBURG AND MACKENZIE COMMISSION"
''The Wismar Commission Report'', Georgetown, 29 January 1965. that are blamed for triggering the Wismar Massacre, most of the East Indian population of Buxton moved to the nearby villages of Annandale and

Lusignan The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries du ...

.Fitzroy “Rollo” Younge,
"Buxton-Friendship, Guyana's Premier Village"
BuxtonGuyana.net. During the 2000s, Buxton was the supposed base of the criminal gangs blamed for the increase in murders and other violent crimes in Guyana.Mark Ramotar

''Guyana Chronicle'', 19 December 2002.

Agriculture

Buxton sits on very fertile land which is surrounded by an irrigation system (trenches). Local farmers produce a variety of fruits and vegetables including peas, beans, Dakar (

Tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs ...

) and the Buxton Spice mango. This mango is unique to Buxton being fleshy and sweet like others but having a unique spicy taste. There are a variety of fish in the water including the

Tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

Crime

Buxton once was considered to be highly affected by external criminal influences but has since been stabilized and is generally crime free and safe.

Notable people

Winifred Gaskin Winifred Gaskin, Orders, decorations, and medals of Guyana#The Cacique's Crown of Honour, CCH, Order of Distinction, OD (10 May 1916 – 5 March 1977) was an Afro-Guyanese educator, journalist and civil servant who entered politics. After a caree ...

(1916–1977), former Minister of Education *

Kerwin Kofi Charles Kerwin Kofi Charles is the Indra K. Nooyi Dean and Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an elected Fellow ...

(b.1970), Labor economist and Dean of The

Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate business school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA for Executives ...

References

External links