negotiate with planters for freedom. Bussa became the most famous of the rebellion's organizers, many of whom were either enslaved persons of some higher position or literate freedmen. One woman, Nanny Grigg, is also named as a principal organizer. However, the rebellion eventually failed. The uprising was triggered prematurely, but the slaves were already greatly outmatched. Barbados' flat terrain gave the horses of the better-armed militia the clear advantage over the rebels, with no mountains or forest for concealment. Slaves had also thought they would be supported by freed men of colour, but these instead joined efforts to quell the rebellion. Although they drove whites off the plantations, widespread killings did not take place. By the end, 120 slaves died in combat or were immediately executed and another 144 brought to trial and executed. The remaining rebels were shipped off the island. Towards the abolition of slavery In 1826, the Barbados legislature passed the Consolidated Slave Law, which simultaneously granted concessions to the slaves while providing reassurances to the slave owners. Slavery was finally abolished in the British Empire eight years later, in 1834. In Barbados and the rest of the British West Indian colonies, full emancipation from slavery was preceded by a contentious apprenticeship period that lasted four years. In 1884, the Barbados Agricultural Society sent a letter to Sir Francis Hincks requesting his private and public views on whether the Dominion of Canada would favourably entertain having the then Colony of Barbados admitted as a member of the Canadian Confederation. Asked from Canada were the terms of the Canadian side to initiate discussions, and whether or not the island of Barbados could depend on the full influence of Canada in getting the change agreed to by the British Parliament at Westminster. Towards decolonisation In 1952, the Barbados Advocate newspaper polled several prominent Barbadian politicians, lawyers, businessmen, the Speaker of the House of Assembly and later as first President of the Senate, Sir Theodore Branker, Q.C.and found them to be in favour of immediate federation of Barbados along with the rest of the British Caribbean with complete Dominion Status within five years from the date of inauguration of the West Indies Federation with Canada. However, plantation owners and merchants of British descent still dominated local politics, owing to the high income qualification required for voting. More than 70 per cent of the population, many of them disenfranchised women, were