The Pointe Coupée Slave Conspiracy of 1795 was an attempted slave rebellion which took place in Spanish Louisiana in 1795. It has attracted a lot of attention and been the subject of much historical research. It was preceded by the Pointe Coupée Slave Conspiracy of 1791.
Trial
On May 4, 1795, 57 enslaved people and three local white men were put on trial in modern day Pointe Coupée Parish after an attempted
slave
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
conspiracy in the vicinity of the Pointe Coupee military post. Planters found a copy of Victor de Mirabeau (Mirabeau the Elder)'s ''Théorie de l'Impôt'', which included the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human and civil rights document from the French Revolution; the French title can be translated in the modern era as "Decl ...
of 1789, in one cabin. The trial ended with 23 of the enslaved people being
hanged
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...
, their corpses decapitated, and their heads posted along the road. 31 more were sentenced to
flogging
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed ...
and hard labor. All three white men were deported with two sentenced to six years forced labor in
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.History of slavery in Louisiana
* Pointe Coupée Conspiracy