Baracara

Baracara New Ground Village or Wel te Vreeden
village
Baracara Location in Guyana
Coordinates: 5°50′42″N 57°27′54″W / 5.845°N 57.465°W / 5.845; -57.465
Country	Guyana
Region	East Berbice-Corentyne
Population  (2018)[1]
• Total	c.350
Time zone	UTC-4
Climate	Af

Baracara village was founded by people of African descent in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region of Guyana, located on the Canje River. The community has also been called New Ground Village^[2] or Wel te Vreeden. Baracara is 20 miles west of Corriverton and just north of the Torani Canal's connection to the Canje River.

Baracara is the only maroon village in Guyana.^[3][4] A group of escaped slaves settled in Baracara in the early 19th century,^[3] and occupied both the east and west banks of the river. The demographics are mostly Afro-Guyanese.^[5]

The economy of the village is based on subsistence farming and logging. The village has a health centre, and a primary school, but no secondary school.^[2] Baracara can be only accessed by boat from the river.^[2] As of 2015, the village has no local government.^[6] In 2018, the village received access to the telephone network and Internet.^[1]

The village has Scottish Presbyterian, Adventist and Pentecostal churches.^[5]

Unlike neighbouring Suriname where tribes like the Ndyuka and Saramaka established autonomous territories, escaped slaves in Guyana were hunted by the local Amerindian tribes for reward.^[7] The incentive was very successful: on 5 May 1764, after the Berbice slave uprising, the post holder at Courantyne, near present-day Orealla, reported that he had paid out ƒ 1,074 for captured slaves, and ƒ 1,080 for 180 cut-off hands of killed slaves.^[8]

In 1740, Thomas Hildebrand was given permission to look for silver in the Blue Mountains using slaves. The hard work and rough treatment resulted in six deaths among the slaves.^[9] The next year, a group of mining slaves escaped to Creole Island on the Cuyuni River. The location was too difficult to conquer, therefore a deal was negotiated^[10] and concluded on 8 February 1742.^[11] The slaves would be freed, and never had to work in the mines, if they promised to perform a fixed amount of work on the plantations.^[10] Three slaves who did not accept the offer were hunted and killed by the local Amerindians.^[11]

• Shamar Joseph - West Indian cricketer^[12]
• Romario Shepherd - West Indian cricketer^[13]

• Netscher, Pieter Marinus (1888). Geschiedenis van de koloniën Essequebo, Demerary en Berbice, van de vestiging der Nederlanders aldaar tot op onzen tijd (in Dutch). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.