About this Book

Guyana, the only, English-speaking nation in South America, has a long and fascinating history. In 1832 the planters of this colony were obliged to free one hundred thousand African slaves who worked the plantations on the low-lying coastal strip of Guyana. When freedom came, many refused to remain on the plantations, creating a major labor problem for the landed colonial proprietors, prominent among whom was the Liverpool merchant Sir John Gladstone, father of the great Liberal statesman and social reformer William Ewart Gladstone.