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Chapter 2 / Domination and Resistance in Jamaican History

The Jamaican Maroon: a Study of Fight and Flight
Fighting Method
The Peace Treaty of March 1, 1738
The Effects of the Treaty
The Sam Sharpe Rebellion: 1831 - 32
The War
The Aftermath
The Morant Bay Rebellion, 1865
Paul Bogle
Crown Colony to Independence 1865 - 1962
Garvey and the Rastafarians

Jamaicans are by nature some of the most fun loving, hardworking, and gregarious people in the Caribbean. Threated with kindness and respect, they are likely to remain the most confident and dependable friends on earth. but if treated with impunity and disrespect, all the rage of a deep psychic revenge may surface with unpredictable consequences. This calm-and-storm personality of contemporary Jamaicans is a direct inheritance from that group of Africans who suffered the most frustrating and oppressive slavery ever experienced in a British colony.
The early history of Jamaica is one long tale of sad intrigue, human suffering, lawlessness, and immoral profit, at the center of which were th African slaves - the ancestors of present-day Jamaicans. Slavery in Jamaica lacked any vestige of humanity. A handful of greedy planters held absolute power over thousnds of slaves. Only through violence could such domplete domination by a minority be initiated and perpetuated. So in Jamaica, as in North America, the psychology of slave control was highly developed, and in Frederick Douglass's words, "Fear, awe, and bedience became interwoven into the very nature of the slaves."
Under such complete domination two reactions were provoked: fight and flight. This chapter will study these two reactions in an attempt to analyze how these survival techniques aided in breaking the chains of their ancestors and descendants. I shall also show that these behavior patterns (and their consequences) are directly responsible for the independent Jamaica of today, and that these patterns still remain a part of the Jamaican's psychic reactions to life. Beginning with the emergence of the Maroons, we shall review the prominent freedom movements from the seventeenth century to the emergence of the Rastafarian movement during the twentieth century.

The Jamaican Maroon: a Study of Fight and Flight
The evidence is now well documented that the Africans who were carried to the Caribbean resisted their enslavement and continued to resist their bondage both passively and violently up until the abolition of slavery and beyond. The classic example of this resistance is the presence of Maroon communities all over the New World. It is only recently that Maroon history has become accessible, but the historical events of the Jamaican Maroons were probalby some of the earliest to be recorded. Their fame as freedom fighters and their elusiveness (assisted by the mountain fastnes of the Jamaican hill country) forced the British to sue for peace as early as 1738. In this way, the Jamaica Maroon communities existedas a free people sixty-six years before the independence of haiti and ninety-six years before slavery was abolished on the island.
The story of the Jamaican Maroon begins with the English defeat of Spain in 1655. The Spaniards, finding themselves outclassed by the British, sailed from the nort coast of Jamaica for Cuba and left their slaves to the British. But the slaves had ideas of their own. Although we have no true records of the treatment of Spanish slaves in Jamaica up to 1655, we may assume from the behavior of the Spanish slaves that they were discontent with slavery, for they soon sought freedom in the hill country where they fought a grueling war to the death. These Spanish slaves came to be called "Maroons". The origin of the word derives from both French and Spanish and carries the same connotation in both; that is, as hunters of wild animals - probably the wild pigs and wild cattle native to the mountains on the island. Later, the word took on the conotations of wildness and fierceness and soon the maroons were themselves known as the wild and fierce ones. The first Maroons were under the leadership of Juan de Bolas (immortalized by a village bearing his name near the borders of St. Catherine and Clarendon). In 1663 , after eight years of harassing the British, an attempt was made to pacify them. Juan de Bolas was made a colonel by the British and was sent to his followers to sue for peace. The Maroons correctly perceived the whole matter as a deception to re-enslave them: they ambushed their chief and, according to Bryan Edwards, "He was cut to pieces."
Other pockets of runaway slaves began to develop in the eastern and northern parts of the island, most of them new recruits from Africa, especially from the Gold Coast. These were called Coromantees - slaves shipped from the Koromantyn slave castle situated near Elmina on the Cape Coast of present-day Ghana. They were mostly mixtures of Ashanti and Fanti and sold into slavery during the development of the Ashanti Federation. Since most were prisoners of war, they were well trained in guerrilla fighting which was to become an important part of teir lives. many of these runaway slaves took refuge in the hills and joined forces with the original Maroons. The Planter historian Edward Long states:
"With the importation of slaves inby the English, almost from the start irrepressible spirits among the Koromantyn fled to the mountains and found refuge with the Maroons in such numbers that they soon gained control of the entire body."
Amont the "irrepressible spirits" was an Ashanti family who was carried to Jamaica. The family membes were Cudjoe, Johnny (who seemed to have adopted an English name quite early), Accompong, Cofi (spelled Cuffee in Jamaican documents), and Quaco. All appear to have been fighters in Africa. According to Long, Cudjoe had exemplified himself as a leader as early as 1693 and had organized most of the Maroons under his leadership. The life or death struggle for freedom had begun. There weems to have been little difference between the Spanish Maroons and the Koromantyns in manners and language, and even the other tribal groups who joined them soon overcame their differences and adopted the Ashanti language. R.C. Dallas, who wrote the first full-length history of the Maroons, observed: "The Coromantee language, however, superseded the others, and became in time the general one used."
Cudjoe, on assuming his command, appointed his brothrs Accompong and Johnny to be leaders under him, and named Cuffee and Quaco subordinate captains. The brunt of the Maroon campain was carried on under these five men and were assisted by others, mainly in the northern and southern parts of Jamaica. On the east side of the island, another sizable group of Maroons formed under the leadership of the legendary Acheampong Nanny who was said to be either the wife or the sister of Cudjoe. Not much is known of her, but there is a town named in her nonor in that point of the island, and her fame has been so great in Jamaican folk tradition that the legislature has posthumously named her the first womand to receive the distinction of National Hero in the year 1975. but if nothing is known of Nanny, much is known of her colleague in command, Captain Quaco, who later supervised the signing of the treaty with the English for that group of Maroons in 1739.

Fighting Method
The terror the Maroons caused the English in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was far greater than what the Maroons could have commanded in size alone. (it is believed that at no time did their number exceed on thousand five hundred.) But the deployment of small groups by Cudjoe in sudden and savage attack and swift withrrawal kept the English completely disoriented about their strngth. Their ability to use the rugged mountain terrain provided another effective strategy. Their excellent intelligence network being sent against them. Dallas, speaking of their guerrilla tactics, observed:
"Such are the natural fortifications in which the Maroons secured themselves in times of danger, and from which it has been ever found difficult to dislodge them. (their camps were always situated at the mouth of a rock( which look like a geat fissure made through someextraordinary convulsion of nature, and through which men can pass only in a single file, the Maroons, whenever they expect an attack, disposed of themselves on the ledges of the rocks on both sides. Sometimes they advanced a party beyond the entrance of the defile, frequently in a line on each side , if the ground would admit; and lay covered by th underwood, and behind rocks and roots of trees, waiting insilent ambush for their pursuers, of whose approach they ahd always information from their scouts."
Such strategies at this period were unknown to the English army whose philosophy of warfare was that of the gentleman soldier. One historian of the period contrasted the English soldiers with the Maroons as follows:
"The British trops marched in their proper regimentals, as if they were going to fight a rdegular and civilized enemy, and sometiems had even the absurdity to traverse the mountainous roads with drums beating. The customary accoutrements were too mclumsy and burdensome for traversing the woods and clambering over rocks, and the red coats were too conspicuous and object to the Maroons marksmen, who seldom missed their aim."
After nearly forty-five years of fighting a losing battle and aftger nearly a quarter of a million pounds and hundreds of lives taken, Governor Trelawny was urged to offer peace to the Maroons. This advice was politically fruitful for the English, and it later destroyed the image of the Maroons as a symbol of freedom.

The Peace Treaty of March 1, 1738
Leaving out all the drama surrounding the sighing of the treaty, I shall present only the main articles of theis historical documents, beginning with the preamble about the king and God's displeasure over he shedding of blood. The treaty contains fifteen articles:
First, That all hostilities shall cease on both sides forever.
Second, That the said Captain Cudjoe, the rest of his captains, adherents, and men, shall be forever hereafter in a perfect sate of freedom and liberty, excepting htose who have been taken by them, within two years last past, if such are willing to return to their said masters and owners, with full pardon and indemnity... provided always, that if they are not willing to return, they shall remain in subject to Captain Cudjoe and in friendship with us, according to the form and tenor or this treaty.
Third, That they shall enjoy and possess, for themselves and posterity forever, all the lands situated and tying between Trelawny Town and the Cockpits, to the amount of fifteen hundres acres bearing North-West from the said Trelawny Town.
Fourth, That they shall have liberty to plant the said lands with coffee, cocoa, ginger, tobacco, and cotton, and to bred cattle, hogs goats, or any other flock and dispose of the produce or increase of the said cmmodities to the inhabitants of this island; provided always, that when they bring the said commodities to market, they shall apply first to the custos, or any other magistrate of the respective parishes where they expose their goods to sale, for license to sell the same.
Fifth, That Captain Cudjoe, and all the Captain's adherents, and people now in subjection to him, shall all live together within the bounds of Trelawny Town, and that they shall have liberty to huynt where they shall think fit, except within three miles of any settlement, crawl, or pen; provided always that in case of the hunters of Captain Cudjoe, and those of other settlements meet, then the hogs oare to be equally divided between both parties.
Sixth, That the said Captain Cudjoe, and his successors, do use their best endeavours to take, kill, suppress, or destroy, either by themselves, or jointly with any other number of men, commande on that service by His Excellency the governor, or Commander-in-Chief for the time being, all rebels wheresoever they be, throughout this island, unless they submit to the same terms of accomodation granted to Captain Cudjoe, and his successors.
Seventh, That in case this island be invaded by any foreigh enemy, the said Captian Cudjoe, and his sucessors gereinafter named or to be appointed, shall then upon notice biven, immediately erpair to any place the Governor for the time being shall appoint, in order to repel the said invaders with his or their utmost force, and to submit to the orders of teh Commander in chief on that occasion.
Eighth, That if any white man shall doany manner of injury to Captain Joe, his successors, or any of his or their people, they shall applyto any commanding officer or magistrate in the neighbourhood for justice; and in casde Captain Cudjoe, or any of his people shall do any injury to any white person he shall submit himself, or deliver up such person to justice.
Ninth, That if any begroes shall hereafter run away from their masters or owners, and fall in Captain Cudjoe's hands, they shall immediately ben sent back to the chief magistrate of teh next parish where they are taken; and those that bring them are to be satisfied for their trouble, as the legislature shall appoint.
Tenth, That all negroes taken, since the raising of this party by Captain Cudjoe and his successors, shall wait on His Excellency, or the Commander in Chief for the time being every year, if thereunto required.
Twelfth, That Captain Cudjoe, during his life, and the Captains succeeding him, shall have full power to inflict any punishment they think proper for crimes committed by their men among themselves, death only excepted; in which case, if the Captain thinks they deserve death, he shall be obliged to bring them before any justice of the peace, who shall order proceeding s on their trial equal to those of any other negroes.
Thirteenth, That Captain Cudjoe with his people, shall cut, clear, and keep open, large and convenient roads from Trelawny Town to Westmoreland and St. James's, and if possible, to St. Elizabeth's.
Fourteenth, That two white men, to be nominated by His Excellency, or the Commander in Chief for the time being, shall constantly live and reside with Captain Cudjoe, and his successors, in order to maintain a friendly correspondence with the inhabitants of this island.
Fifteenth, That Captain Cudjoe shall, during his life, be chief Commander in Trelawny Town; after his cecease the command to devolve on his brother Captain Accompong; and in case of his decease, on his next brother Captain Johnny; and failing him, Captain Cuffee shall succeed; who is to be succeeed by Captain Quaco; and after their demise, the Governor or Commander in chief for the time being, shall appoint, from time to time, whom he thinks fit for that command.

The Effects of the Treaty
The treaty brought an end to hostilities between the Planters and the fighting Maroons. It made them a free people with their own lands and leaders and created for them a mystical sophistication which has continued to the present day. But a careful reading of the treaty shows quite clearly that for the Maroons it was a pyrrhic victory, the greatest advantages falling into the hands of the English settlers. The treaty reduced the fighting Maroons from gallant freedom fighters to an unpaid army of English Planters and a permanent police force, a duty which they willingly performed up to the Rebellion of 1865.
The effects of the treaty on the plantation slaves were devastating. The sixth and ninth articles of the treaty were supported by the Maroons to the letter and, on the basis of this loyalty, every bid for freedom by the slaves and free Jamaicans - even after the emancipation - was successfully crushed by the Maroons. As the following events prove, of the thousands of Blacks whose blood was spilled for freedom in jamaica afger the sighing of this treaty, the Maroons far oudid the British militia, who depended on them to do the dirty work while praising and damning their savagery at the same time. Jamaican history should record that the gallantry of the Trelawny Maroons ceased with the sighing of the Peace Treaty of March 1, 1738, and that of the leeward maroons of July 23, 1739. The history of the Maroons, thereafter, has been a sad tale of atrocities perpetuated agains their countrymen. After the sighing of the treaties, the Maroons became traitors to freedom and have contributed very little to the development of the island. For the most part, they have remained secluded from the rest of the society in their haunted mountains, living on the recollection of a dead past.
On my recent visti to Accompong in 1973, I saw what appeared to be a conscious awareness of a crippling stagnation, esxpecially among the young Maroons. They were very critical of the leadership of their people and showed their resentment by disrupting the rituals of their most cherished festival by shrowing away the meat that had been painstakingly cooked for the traditional feast. the Rastafarians often prais the Maroons, but are also selective in their praise. Cudjoe, Quaco, and Nanny receive their honor. The Rastafarians - avid reders of Jamaican history - seem clearly to understand that the maroons (after Cudjoe and his general)sold out to theBritish and failed to set an example for movements of liberation to follow. It is no wonder that the Rastas to this day have resisted any prominent leadership. They have repeatedly expessed to me that they are afraid that leaders of the movement would only"sell us out." I have no doubt in my mind that the maroons experience lingers in their memory.
Despite the treaties of 1738-39, very little was done to see that the provisions of the Maroons were carried out. The English, having disposed of an immediate problem, applied themselves to makein money on their plantations. Lulled into complacency, the Maroons went about their busines, trying as best they could to exist on the worst pieces of lands in Jamaica. It was only a matter of time before the peace of 1738 was to turn against the Trelawny Maroons; by 1795, they had been reduced to humble peasants. The white superintendent placed among them saw no threat to the government by the Maroons and so he spent long periods away from his post. The Maroon lands had become so overcrowded and fruitless that the Trelawnys were actually starving. Their whit eresident captain, Mr. James, was finally replaced by Captain Craskell, whom the Maroons disliked. Insubordiation mounted daily until finally in mid-july of that year, Captain Craskell was driven out. but the coup de grace of the whole episode was the beating of two Maroons (in Montego Bay), as sentenced by a regularly constituted court, for having stolen 2 pigs. Although the penalty was a regular one, the flogging was done by a runaway slave: both an affront and grave insult to the proud Maroons. All of this led to a renewal of war between the Trelawny Maroons and the colonial government. by this time however, the Maroons had neither the united front nor the gallantry of past years. Forty-six years had passed since the peace treaty had been signed. A sectoin of the Maroons under Captain Accompong had settled in the Nassau Mountains in a town that now bears his name. They refused to support the Trelawnys on account of some differences that had defeloped. Instead, the Accompongs joined forces with the colonialists, and the fate of the Trelawnys was sealed. After a short but vigourous battle they surrendered and six hundred of them were transported to Halifax on June 7, 1796; finding the place unsuitable for Blacks, however, the colonial government - in agreement with Sierra Leone - removed them to Freetown, West Africa. I will retrun to the subject of the Maroons who remained in Jamaica, but for now I will discuss one of the most important attempts at freedom in Jamaica - made by the regular estate slaves rather than by the Maroons.

The Sam Sharpe Rebellion: 1831 - 32
Chattel Slavery was enourmously profitable. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the epithet, "as wealthy as a West Indian," was given to a body of English Planters who grew rich and powerful though ther enormous profits on Caribbean investments in slaves and sugar. But if Slaveholding was profitable, itwas always at the expense of peace of nimd, deep forebondings, and an unpredictable future, because the slaves were always a "troublesome property." In Jamaica, as the record will show, not a year passed between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries without a rebellion or at least the threat of one. Even when no overt rebellion (taht demanded the militia) took place, the covert or passive rebellion was equally disruptive and always present.
The dawning of the nineteenth century saw the twilight of "the peculiar institution" -slavery. The French Revolution had just taken place and commoners everywhere in Europe saw the citadels of privilege suddenly coming to ruin. In the Caribbean, the Haitian slaves had freed themselves form their long night of slavery, proving to the army of Napoleon that they not only desired freedom, but were also willing to die for it. In England, the anti-Slavery Society would soon put an end to the commerce in human flesh. In the West Indies, the mighty Planters suddenly saw the handwriting on the wall. This sudden change in the social, politica, and economic arena of Europe and the Caribbean threatened to ruin those who invested heavily in the slave trade. As a result, the Planters began to muster all their weapons against what they considered to be the irrational sentiments of the humanitarians and missionaries. Between the proslavery and the propagandists opened the nineteenth century with a sculrrilous attack on the sentimentality of hte humanitarians , the rationality of slavery, and the gorss inferiority of Africans whose only hope of redemption from savagery was by way of servitude.
The Jamaican slaves in the nineteenth century were not entirely ignorant of these developments. Many of them wre able to follow the controversy in the local papers and communicate it ot their illiterate brethren. Many servants also overheard the heated discussions on their fate as their ungurarded and enraged masters poured out their vitrio against their pending demise. Samuel Sharpe was one slave who was well-equipped both mentally and emotionally to follow the controversy; in 1831, he inspired one of the most extensive rebellions on the island of Jamaica. Partly because of this rebellion, the King of England hastened the emancipation of the slaves in Jamaica in 1834. According ot Henry Bleby, an eyewitness to this insurrectoin, evidence taken by the Royal Commission after the rebellion "demonstrated to the Imperial legislature, that among the negroes themselves the spirit of freedom had been so widely diffused as to render it most perilous to postpone the settlement of the important question of emancipatoin to a later period. " This widespread spirit of freedom resulted from a variety of sources, for esxample, a large number of the slaves had become Christians and literate enough to assume lay leadership, most of them of the Methodis and Baptist faith. Of th Baptists, there were two varieties: thost of hte London Baptist Missions, staffed by White missionaries; and the native Baptists, the older variety, founded by George Liele. Liele - an American Baptist slave-preacher taken to Jamaica after the American revolution - started a thriving Baptist mission on the island. The Native Baptists grafted Christianity to the African ethos of the slaves and took on a messianic millenarian fervor. This spiritual combination became the energizing force behind th eslaves in their demand for freedom as a command from God.
Sam Sharpe was said to be a member of th london Baptist Mission of Montego Bay, but the author believes that he was also a leader in the Native Baptits church. It appears that the groundwork for the rebellion was laid in a prayer meeting. Henry Bleby, who interviewed the prisoners after the insurrection for the rebellion Committee, is our only source on this matter. One of the men he interviewed was Edward Hylton, whom he referred to as "one of the original conspirators." According to Hylton, sometime during 1831 (he could not remember the month), he received an invitation trom Sam Sharpe - a slave at the Retrieve Estates near Montego Bay - to attend a meeting at the home of Mr Johnson on the same estate. After prayer, most of the members left the house leaving onlyu Sharpe, Johnson, and Hylton. Soon these three were joined by others who approached "under extreme caution." According to Hylton, Sharpe was expecting htese people. After they had safely assembled, Sharpe rose to address them, speaking in soft tones "so that his voidce was not heard beyond the building." According to hylton:
"He (Sam Sharpe) then proceeded with a long address to thos around him on various topics relating to the great subject he had on his heart, and with an eloquence which kept all his hearers fascinated and spell-bount from the beginning to the end of his speech. He referred to the namifold evils and injustice of slavery; asserted the natural equality of man with regard to freedom; and referring to hte Holy Scriptures as his authority, denied that the white mand had any more right to hold the blacks in bondage than the blacks had to enslave the white."
Although the style of the above quotation may differ from what Hylton repeated in Beby, there is no doubt that the essence of Hylton's confession is authentically recorded. Another participant of the 1831 rebellion was Captain Gardner, one of Sharpe's commanders in the field. In his confession to Bleby, he told of another meeting where Sharpe spoke to his followers. He states that on that occasion:
"Sam Sharpe spoke for a long time on the subject of slavery and told us what he had read in the papers concerning it; and he addressed us in such manner that he (Gardner)was wrought up almost to a state of madness. After this speech he entered in the freedom fighting with all his soul."
The above quotation show that Sam Sharpe was not just on ordinary slave, but a man of extraordinary authority over his fellow slaves - a mand o charisma, a religious leader, and an orator who commanded the attention of his audiences. Bleby's description of Sam Sharpe shortly before his death is even more enlightening. He wrote:
"Samuel Sharpe was a man whose active braing divised the project; and he had sufficient authority with those around him to carry it into effect having acquired an extraordinary degree of influence amongst his fellow-slaves."
Bleby went on to say, "He was the most intelligent and remarkable slave I ever met with" He described Sam Sharpe as follows:
"Middle in size - fine sinewy frame - handsomely molded - his nos and lips exhibited the usual characteristics of the negro race. He had teeth whose regularity and pearly whiteness, a court-beauty micht have envied - and an eye whose brilliancy was almost dazzling. He possessed intellectual and oratorical powers above the common order."
And this, said Bleby, "was the secret of the extensive influence which he exercisedl"
An Insight into Sharpe's charismatic powers (also rendered by Bleby) goes to the heart of the character of this freedom fighter:
"I heard him (Sam Sharpe) tow or three times deliver a bried extemporaneous address to his fellow-prisoners on religious topics, many of them being confined together in the same cell; and I was amazed both at the power and freedom with which he spoke, and at the effect which was produced upon his auditory. he appeared to have the feelings and passion of his hearers completely at his command; and when I listened to him once, I ceased to be surprised at what Gardner had told me, "that when Sharpe spoke to him and others on the subject of slavery," he, Gardner, was "wrought up almost to a state of madness".
The sentence in Bleby's description of Sam Sharpe, which is most interesting from a theoretical viewpoint reads: "He appeared to have ghe feelings and passions of his hearers completely at his command." This peculiar ability to command is the exclusive gift of the charismatic leader. Robert C. Tucker, in his analysis of Charismatic leadership, states:
"Charismatic movements for change arise and spread at times when painful froms of distress are prevalent in a society or in some particular stratum of a society. The unique personal authority of the leader and the rapturous response of many of his followers grow out of their feeling that he, by virtue of his special powers as a leader, emodies the movement's salvational promise, hence that which may be of spreme significance to tem. Since he ministers to their most pressing need - the need to belive in the real possibility of excape from an oppressive life predicament - they not only follow volutarily and without thought of material recompense, but they tend to revere him and surround him with that spontaneous cult of personality which appears to be one of the symptomatic marks of the charismatic leader - follower relationship... Whereever,m and whenever human beings in serious numbers live in desperation or despair or similar states, charismatic leaders and movements are likely to appear."
The central cause of this rebellion (sometimes called the Baptist War) evolved from Sharpe's assertion that the slaves' free papers had arrived and were being withheld by the Planters' pressure on the governor of Jamaica. This idea was circulated among the estates of St. James, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St. Elizabeth. Sam Sharpe, it was reported, sent messengers to the estates to "spread the news." This idea of free papers took on eschatological significance similar to the messianic "day of the Lord" concept among the jews. The prophet who was in touch with the source of the message -England- was Sam Sharpe.
It may be helpful to consider what precipitates revolution, such as the one in Jamaica. One of the major causes of revolution is the pesence of what the social scientists call relative deprivation; that is, when a segment of the society is deprived of the wealth and status enjoyed by another segment of society because of race, religion, or sexual inferiority imposed by the privileged class. In the Jamaica of the 1800s, this rype of social inequity might easily be considered a cause of the rebellion, but the peculiar status of slaves prescribed by law and the force of law would seem to preclude such an analysis. A more appropriate theory (which fits rather uniquely with the Sam Sharpe rebellion) is one that has received little attention: it posits that revolution is brought about by a feeling of heightened expectation.
Whether this feeling of heightened expectation was created by Sam Sharpe, or through the preaching of the Native Baptist Church, or thuough the preaching of the Native Baptist Church, or through the behavior of the Planters is now difficult to pinpoint. A fair evaluation would suggest a combination of all these factors. Whatever the reason, most of the slaves in the county of Cornwall had mentally, psychologically, and eschatologically ceased being slaves. The decision was made by a large body of slaves not to return to work on any plantation after the Christmas holidays of December 1831. On December 26, 1831, Bleby (the missionary) reported taht he visited Ramble, a village in Westmoreland, and learned that the slaves had a plan to cease work. As a typical Methodist minister, Bleby implored his members "not to give heed to the unfounded and mischievous reports that wree in circulation about their freedom having been given by the King, and to have nothing to do with those persons who were disposed to create mischief and lead them astray." He reported that all the slaves present stood up and pledged themselves to act upon his advice. If we may belive the records, it is generally agreed that the Methodist slaves never participated in the Sam Sharpe rebellion. This is an awful commentary on the Jamaican Methodists when compared with the freedom-fighting Methodists of the United States A very different attitude was whown by the Baptists on the same day - December 26 - when the Baptists Chapel at Slater's Hill near Montego Bay was dedicated. The speaker was a reverend William Knibbs who, alluding to the gossip of impending freedom which he sensed in the congregation, reported it as false. Bleby recalled:
"His remarks were met with evident dissatisfaction by many of the slaves present, several of whom left the chapel offended, and others remaked that "the man," meaning Mr. Knibbs, "must be mad to tell we such things".
Bleby concluded:
"the spirit and conduct of these negroes created n small alarm, and the missionaries who were present on the occasion left the place with gloom and painful foreboding."
Wah is suggested here is tha t"the spirit of heightened expectation" cannot be satisfied with meaningless words, even if these words are facts. Given the psychological state of the slaves, not even th governor of Jamaica could convice them that they wre not to be freed. This was their faith, and faith needs no proof. Freedom is not a thing given, it is a state of mind, and, as this book will show, many of the slaves went to their death in freedom, even without the "free papers"

The War
According to Bleby, Sam Sharpe's strategy was o start not a violent but a nonviolent revolution. Life was not to be taken except in self-defence, but once the wrath of oppresed peoples was set loose, it wsa not to be contained until, quoting Bleby's words, "one of the fairest portions of this beautiful island was laid to ruins."
So secretive were the preparations for the revold that now even teh keen eyes of Bleby nor the suspicious Planters (who used every cunning to reveal the plot) were able to discern signs of the imending upheavel. Bleby reported that after the Ramble meeting and the dedicatoin of the Slater's Hill Baptist Church,
"Mr. Murray (a missionary colleague of his) proceeding to Montego Bay, I to Lucea. Our way lay though in different directions, through the country which was destined so soon to be laid waste; but at that time the most perfect quiet prevailed. There was not visible the slightest indication of the storm which was about to burst over our heads with such appalling and desolatory violence.
Sam Sharpe and his men had done their homework thoroughly, but only to a point. If Sam Sharpe had intended only a nonviolent demonstration of solidarity against slavery, some of his lieutenants did not get the message. As Bleby puts it:
"in the evening (of the same day) as it rew dark, the first indication of ther actual revolt was given, by the burning of the houses and sugar-works on a large plantation called "kensigton" the property of a Mr. Morris. And soon after, the example was followed on other estates: so that all through the night the heavens were lighted up by the burning properties in all directions"
It is believed that Kensington, situated on a hill, was used to sighal the slaves that the insurrection had begun. What had been intended as a n onviolent protest was not on the way to being one of the most violent slave uprisings in Jamaican history.
Needless to say, the inhabitants of Montego Bay were seized with fear. For them, the long-awaited day of judgment had come. With the example of Haiti fresh in their minds, the White Planters took flight to the sea using every available ship in port to escape with their women and children. the principal figure on whom the Whites depended was one Mr. Grignon, an attorney, who acted as manager of many estates whose owners lived in England. According to Bleby, he was one of the most inhuman characters in the history of Jamaica slavery, with a habit of using his slaves in such a way as to "discredit" the system! Bleby believed that such behavior by an overseer was a primary abuse of the slave system which finally brought disgrace to all! This rather mild rbuke, however, showed the nisensitivity of Bleby himself. At the opening of the rebellion, Gringnon assumed the role of colonel and hastily organised what was called the Westen Interior Regiment, composed entirely of White Planters. This mustering of White Planters was a slave tradition in which able-bodied Planters formed their own regiments to defend their properties. They had two barracks for this occasion - one at Belvidere Estate in Montego Bay and one at Shettlewood Estate between the borders of St. James, St. Elizabeth, and Westmoreland. Initially, two undred fifty of these men fomed into an army. But for some unknown reason, Colonel Grignon retreated with his White Companions to Montpelier Estate (about thirty miles from Montego Bay) instead of protecting the estates around Montego Bay. Here on December 28, he was joined by the seventh Regiment of St. James - a company made up entirely of Black soldiers - leaving Montego Bay and the valuable plantations without protectoin. The slaves immediately proceeded to wreak vengeance on the symbols of their oppression. One the evening of the twenty-eighth, Sam Sharpe's army attacked Montpelier. Reporting on this confrontation, Bleby' stated that the slaves' attack was accompanied by the blowing of horns and shells, the noice of which so unnerved Colonel Grignon and his fellow planters-soldiers that they were pettrified. Had i\t not been for the Black soldiers, the slaves would have probably achieved their most dramatic victory.
The attack by the slaves was led by two Black colones: Johnson and Campbell. Ine the fighting, johnson was killed and Campbell was mortally wounded. On the Planter's side, all the fighting was done by the Black soldiers who alone were brave enough to battle the insurgents. Bleby reported the, during the battle,
"Colonel Grignon and his entire regiment remained inactive, drawn up in a hallow square leaving the Coloured company to fight it out with the Negroes as best they could."
Unable to stand up against superior weapons, the slaves retreated. The coloured Company who wanted to pursue the slaves into the interior - a plan which woud have crushed the resistance early - was overruled by Colonel Grignon who decided to play it safe and hastily retreated to Montego Bay. The retreat was so hasty that theone White soldier who had been killed was left unburied. That same night the slaves returned to burn down Montpelier; they took the White soldier out of the hastily made coffing, committed him to the flames, and buried their leader - Colonel Johnson - in it. Colonel Grignon later reported to the Governor that he and his men were attacked by ten thousand men, who came down upon him in four columns, but that he succeded in repulsing them. Bleby, who investigated the matter, was satisfied that there were only five hundred slaves at most.
The Montpelier setback was a great blow to the rebellion, but the quick retreat of the militia inflamed the slaves, and a renewed desire for freedom mounted. Thousands of slaves joined rankswith the insurgents. All communications between the principal towns were cut off and the entire country of Cornwell was in teh hands of the slaves who set fire to all the estates in the parishes of St. James, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St. Elizabeth. Bleby reported that not one white man was to be seen from Montego Bay to Savanna la Mar, and from Black River to Lucea. The militia was confined to the coastal towns of the north coast.
The day of reckoning, however, was approaching. As soon as news of the insurrection had reached the governor in Spanish Town, martial law was declared; this meant vengeance on the Blacks, both slaves and freed. The arrival of Genral Sir Willoughby Cotton as commander in chief of the campaign, with the combined force of the seventy-fourth, and eighty-fourth regiments, demonstrated the seriousness of the conflict. Sensing the danger of a campaign against an army of slaves whose spirits were high (and probably recalling the futility of fighting agains the Maroons who knew the rugged mountains), Sir Willoughby issued a pardon to all slaves willing to lay down arms and return to their fromer owners; only the ringleaders were to be punished. The leniencyof the commander in chief reinforced the slaves' belief that the king's army would do them no harm, and that slavery had indeed been abolished. Bleby reported that the slaves greeted the English ships with joy, believing that the soldiers had come to protect them. This misconception was to be the doom of many who, upon hearing Genral Cuttons' proclamation, tried to return to their former masters. Bleby reported sadly:"The proclamation leniency was aborted by the gross revengeof the masters who used it as a lure to delude unsuspecting slaves to their death." The worst was yet to come.
As soon as Sir Willoughby Cotton had left the scene of the conflict, slaves returning to their masters were slaughtered indiscriminently. The bloodthirsty repression on the part of the soldiers only caused the rebellion to be prolonged, but now, the tide was turned against the slave population. This disadvantage, as might be expected, was brought about by the slaves' lack of military equipment. Their primary weapons were cutlasses, stones, homemade spears, and a few old guns. They had no mutual plan of actoin, not ridi they have the military training to stand against the disciplined veterans of the British Army.
Some of those who returned to the estates were killed, others were severely flogged and reviled. But the larger number of the insurgents fled to the mountains. These were hunted by small hands of soldiers who wreaded vengeance on them. Most were hunted by the maroons who were paid to kill the fugitives and bring their victims' ears as proof. So thoroughly did the Maroons perform their jobs that Bleby referred to them as "demi-savages". The insurrection was effectively over.

The Aftermath
During and after the period of martial law, the revenge of the landed gentry was unremitting. Thousands of slaves were put to death after trial by court-martial, first by the bullets of the fireing squad, and later by the gallows which was erected inthe town square of Montego Bay. Bleby, and eyewitness of these atrocities, told of crowds of condemned slaves who were hanged: half an hour elapsed between sentencing and death. Bleby's sensitive conscience was disturbed by this unusual haste to snuff out the lives of the insurrectionists. He asked rhetorically:
"What was the motive of this indecent and inhuman haste, I do not pretend to determine. The only reason i can suggest apart from a thirst for blood, which it was horrible to witness, is this - that, after the military began at last to move, such multitudes of prisonners were sent in from the country, that there was no place in which to secure them: the goals became over-crowded to excess, and perhaps it was considered necessary to make room for the new arrivals by putting as may as possible out of the way."
But the real reason was a "thirst for blood". As Bleby rightly observed, the officers of the militia and the membes of the court-martial - those who captured and sentenced the slaves to death - were the very men who regarded the insurrectionists the culprits of their ruin. For weeks, the galows were seldom empty. Generally, four hung at once; their bodies remained stiffening in the breeze until the court-martial board supplied another batch of victims for the hands of Bacchus - the name of the Black slave who acted as executioner.
Bleby made some important notes on the mental and emotional attitudes of the condemned:
"the undaunted bravery and fortitude with which many of the insurgents met their fate formed a very remarkable feature in the transactions of the period: and strikingly indicated the difficulty attendant upon the maintenance of slaver, now that the spirit of freedom had gone abroad, and many of the negroes had learn to prefer death to bondage."
bleby was moved by the bravery and clmness with which many met their death:
"Not even a muscle was seen to quiver and the dignified bearing with which many met their death showed clearly that they were untroubled with any misgivings as to bhe justice of their cause."
No real figure of the carnage was ever disclosed. After martial law was lifted and kiling was forbidden in the public square, the slaughter continued unabated on the estates, where condemned slaves were sent to their death in secret. The last man to die was Samuel Sharpe. He was executed in Montego Bay on May 23, 1832. According to Bleby who spoke with him, Sharpe was, until the last, rather regretful of th edeath and destruction his plan had caused, but "he was not however, to be convinced that he had done wrong in endeavoring the assert his claim to fredom."
Bleby, who witnessed Sharpe's death along with hundreds of others, recounted the scene:
"He marched to the spot whre so many had been sacrificed to the demon of slavery, with a firm and even dignified step - clothed in a suit of new white clothes. He seemed to be unmoved by the near approach of death. In a few moments the executioner had done his work, and the noble-minded originator of this unhappy revolt ceased to exist."
As a footnote, Bleby added "He was such a man, too, as was likely, nay, certainly, had he been set fre, to commence another struggle for freedom."
The spirit of freedom could only be contained briefly, for Sam Sharpe's image continued to inspire Jamaicans from that day to the present. Today, this spirit is seen in the Rastafarian movement and in the Manley government which has renamed the square in which Sam Sharpe was executed as Sam Sharpe Square, thus giving dignity to one of Jamaica's martyrs for freedom. But the honor paid him was only anticlimatic in view of the real victrory which his death brought about. Soon after the death of Sam Sharpe, slavery itself was dead. Within two years of his death, th eabolition of slavery was proclaimed thoughout the British colonies and a new era in Jamaican history was begun. The chains were now loose from the feet of the sons of Africa and their seardch fro a place in the sun commenced - a search which was to encounter more obstacles, as the rest of the story will reveal.

The Morant Bay Rebellion, 1865
The abolition of slavery in 1834 left Jamaica in a state of chaos. The transition envisaged for slaves, based on an apprenticeship system intended to displace slave labor with a wage-earning economy, was an ideal based on the good will of the Planters and the slaves' willingness to work. The nature of society proffered this dream without the means to implement it. For one thing, the Planters, though heavily reimbursed for the loss of their slaves, still held a deep resentment toward the Imperial Government for upsetting their way of life through the emancipation, and they resented all instructions from England. On the other hand, the freed slaves resented all aspects of forced labor, the Planters, and hte plantations. Their primary interest was to keep alive by working their small provision grounds and to enjoy their newly-won freedom as long as possible. On top of it all, religious and political refalry made Jamaica intoa churning caldron of hate. On the one side, the Church of England and the masters were deeply resentful of the Methodists and Baptists who championed the welfare of the slaves, most of the freed Blacks, and the rising colored elites. To these was added a marginal group of religionists known as the Native Baptists and the Revivalists whose revolutionary tendency threatened the status quo. As indicated in the previous discussion of the Sam Sharpe Rebellion, it was within this marginal group that the spirit of revolution was nurtured, and form this group the dynamics of the Morant Bay Rebellion would find expression and support. The attitude toward the Native Baptists was expressed by a contemporary of the period as:
" (A) place in which ignorance and superstition are enthroned - the hot-bed in which Obeahism and Myalism and other heathen practices attain their most vigorous growth and where the grossest impurity and vice are found in strange and unnatural alliance with a profession of the pure religion of Christ."
We need no other documentation of the attitude of the establishment toward the Native Baptists, but it will be useful to keep in mind that both G. Wiliam Gordon and Paul Bogle, the two heroes of the Morant Bay Rebellion, were ministers of the Native Baptist Church of Jamaics.

The Setting
The tree main figures around whom the Morant Bay Rebellion was played out were the English Governor Edward John Eyre, the Jamaican mulatto elitist George William Gordon, and the Black Baptist deacon-preacher Paul Bogle. These men represented three different worlds in nineteenth-century Jamaica. Governor Eyre (after yuears of mediocre work which included exploring in Australia, sheep raising in New Zealand, and a lieutenant governorship in St. Vincent) was sent to Jamaica in March, 1862, as a temporary replacement for Governor Darling - a position which became permanent when Governor Darling was appointed to another post. Eyre, the son of an Anglican minister and a man of rather modest attainment, came to Jamaica - as the record showed - "in hope to distinguish himself". whether this hope was ever fulfilled is a matter of interpretation. If murdering human beings is a distinguising characteristic, he has, without question, highly distinguished himself in this accomplishment. But the historical opinion of him in Jamaica, and his long and agonizing trials in England for his acts in Jamaica, leave no doubt in the minds of his English contemporaries and the world that his appointment to Jamaicawas one of the more regrettable episodes in British colonial history.
As governr, he was placed in an ill-fitting situation. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Jamaica was one of the most difficult islands to administer. governor Eyre's appointment, being temporary, carried no real power for decision making at a time when strong and firm leadership was desperately needed to cope with the powerful conflicts which existed. His salary - a mere pittance - placed him in an odd position amid a snobbish, though waning, aristocrazy of Planters and an affluent colored middle class of merchants and lawyers. As a high church Anglican, he had little respect for the sectarians and absolutely disdained the native cults. these elements were later to emerge in a fatl combination for the Black Jamaicans to whom Eyre was by nature unable to relate. It is in this light that we must see the unfolding of the Morant Bay debacle.
One of hte men with whom Eyre was forced to deal was a radical politician, a self-ordained minister of the Native Baptist Church, and a wealthy landowner named William Gordon. Gordon was born in 1818, the son of Joseph Gordon, a White attorney, and a slave mother. His father - a politician and one time custos of St. Andrew - was the owner of the Cherry Gardens Estate, now a beautiful suburb in the foothills overlooking Kingston. Gordon was one of seven illegitimate children who was freed with his mother by his father. Young Gordon was brought up in Black River with his godfather, james Daley. He received no formal education but was able to pick up a great knowledge of business in Daley's store where he worked. At eighteen, he was back in Kingston in a business of his own where he prospered so well that, in 1843, he was reported to have been worth ten thousand pounds. In 1848, he was proprietor of four estates, one being Cherry Gardens which he bought from his father. It is said that although he was never allowed to enter his father's house, he was always kind to the old man who, in his old age and having fallen on bad days, had his passage back to England paid by young Gordon.
Depending on the sources one reads, Gordon was reported to be a crooked man; an owner of slaves, whom he treated badly; a hypocrite; an obeahman; and a shylock. Others saw him as man of unbounded benevolence and a champion of the dispossessed, a brillian orator, and deeply religious. We may now easily ignore the negative descriptions of the man - in those days to be a member of the Native Baptist Church and a champion of the dispossessed were enough to brand anyone a revolutionary. Socially, Gordon was highly placed among the colored merchants of his day and was wealthy enough to be elected to the House of Assembly in 1850 as a member of Town Party. Originally, he seems to have been a member of the Presbyterian Church, but later became a Native Baptist in the mass conversion of the 1861 revival. He married Lucy Shannon, the daughter of a White school principal and appears to have had a good marriage before his untimely end. We are also told that he established a tabernacle in Kingston and ordained various deacons there, among whom was Paul Bogle of Stony Gut of St. Thomas-in-the-east. The connection between these two men will soon become clear.
As politician and champion fo the dispossessed, it was not long before Gordon began to attack the leadership of Governor Eyre. Gordon felt Eyre was insensitive to the needs of the poor. His open attack of the governor and the House of Assembly - in what would still be called unguarded speech - won him no friends among his White colleagues with whom the governor had become quite friendly. The governor and the House of Assembly taxed the poor beyond their capacity, thereby forcing them to return to the estates. Gordon's political downfall began with an incident inSt. Thomas where, because of his vast holdings in real estate, he was made a magistrate of that parish. In 1862, he sent an open letter to the governor complaining about the abnormal conditions of poverty and official reglect of the Blacks in that parish. This letter was taken as an insult to the established church, whose rectory was head of the vestry - a body cmpowered to look after the welfare of the people, and a body of which Gordon himself was a member. This attack on the establised churh and the White Plantes gave Eyre his chance to revenge his accuser. Gordon was summarily dismissed rom his post as magistrate. This dismissal came as a blow to Gordon's pride. His tirades against the governor became increasingly vitriolic. Hated bgy the governor, the Planters and the church Gordon aserted himself as the messianic leader of the Blacks and colored with one intention- self -government by Blacks.
An example of Gordon's fercefulnes is preserved in the biography of Edward John Eyre by Hamilton Hume. In a parlimentary debate on conditions in Jamaica in 1865, Grodon actaully prophesied the coming rebellion in a rebuttal of his opponents. the following is an excerpt:
"Mr. Gordon: It does not seem that his excellincy's natural endowments qualify him for the government of this country. ICries of "Order") I desire to give honour to whom honour is due, and I respect every man in authority, but if a ruler does not sway the sword with justice, he becomes distasteful, and instead of having the love and respect of the people, he becomes despised and hated. All the privileges, all the rights, and all the purposes of the constitution should be maintained in their hightest integrity and purity, by the gentlemen who may from time to time be entrusted with the government of this country. So soon as he digresses from this, so soon does he descend from his high position, and become grovelling, portentous (sic) and prevaricating.
Mr. Speaker: Order! The language of the honourable member cannot beallowed. The honourable gentleman meus know that he is out of order.
Mr. Gordon: I regret, Mr. Speaker, that I am out of order, but when every day we witness the mal-administration of the law by the Lieutenant-governor, we must speak out. You are endeavouring to suppress public opinion, to pen up the expresoin of public indignation; but I tell you that it will soon burst forth like a flood, and sweep everything before it. There must be a limit to oppression - a limit to transgression - and a limit to illegality! These proceedings remind me of the time of Herod - they remind me of a tyrannical period of history! I do not think that any Government has ever acted so before. While he justifies humself in one case, he uses the police force to accomplish another illegality. What an example to the prisoners who are confined in prison! If the lieutenant -governor is to go on in this way, what can you expect from the populace?
Mr. Lewis: Insurrection (laughter)
Mr. Gordon: Ay! that will be the result... "
This small sample of Gordon's proclamations demonstrates his bodl attack on teh status quo and clearly suggests the burden he felt for his country. It also suggests that things were not going well with the populace. The clear warning in this parliamentary discussion would son break loose in Jamaica. His use of the word "portentous" instead of "pretentious" was rather prophetic as we now review the tragic outcome of Eyre's governorship.
We need to know a little more about the social and economic conditions in the year 1865, and for this we must turn to a letter written by Mr Edward B. Underhill; Mr. Underhill visited Jamaica shortly before the rebellion. This letter was addressed to the Honorable Mr. Edward Cardwell, M.P., England's Secretary of State for the Colonies during the governorship of Eyre. The letter is commonly believed to be one fo the documents that encouraged the rebellion. After his usual salutation to the colonial secrtetary, he began:
"I venture to ask your kind consideration to a few observations on the present condition of the Island of Jamaica... Crime has fearfully increased. The number of prisoners in th epenitentiary and gaols is considerably more than double the average, and nearly all for one crime: larceny. Summons for petty debts disclose an amount of pecuniary difficulty which has never before been experienced; and application for parochial and private relief prove that multitudes are suffering from want, a little removed from starvation."
Mr. Underhill then went on to describe the naked conditions of people who, accustomed to dressing modestly, waled around in rags scarcely sufficient to cover their private parts. Even though he saw this condition resulting from the steep rise in cotton, he attributed it to the gross mismanagement of the island's economy and, more specifically, to the lack of employment; on an island of four hundred thousand people, only thirty thousand were employed on the sugar estates. Then pointing direclty to what he thoughtt to be the source of the problems he wrote:
"I shall say nothing of the course taken by the Jamaica Legislature; of their abortive immigration bills; of their unjust taxation of the coloured populatoin; of their refual of just tribunals; of their denial of political rights to the emancipated negroes."
He then proceeded to suggest a sweeping inquiry into the Jamaica legislature since emancipation, the need for the development of native products, and new ways of utilizing the land for agriculture other than cane and sugar. For example, he saw such minor products as spices, tobaco, farinceous doofs, coffee, and cotton as excellent possibilities for Jamaica, if the proper incetive were given by the government. (this suggestion, incidently, remains a prime need for present-day Jamaica.) Mr. Underhill closed with a warning:
"It is more than time that the unwisdom (to use the gentlest term) that has governed Jamaica since emancipation should be brought to en end - a course of action which, while in incalculably aggravates the misery arising from natural, and, therefore, unavoidable causes, renders crtain the ultimate ruin of every class, planter and peasants, European and Creole."
This letter was forwarded to Governor Eyre in Jamaica, who cirulated it to the custodes and heads of religious denominations. As a member of the legislature, G.W. Gordon was probably the first to get a copy of it. As expected, almost all the leading men in Jamaica denied that conditions were as bad as the letter describing them. A sweeping defense of teh establishment was launched by those who controlled the power. But for G.W. Gordon, this only confirmed his assessment of the island situation, and, armed with the support of this letter from an Englishman who told it like it was, he began to urge the common people to resist their domination. His burning zeal for a better Jamaica caused him to use insurrectionary language, which could do little but inflame the oppressed. His speeches were later to be the cause of his death. But we must now introduce the other hero of the rebellion.

Paul Bogle
In a bill of description published for the capture of Bogle after the Morant Bay Rebellion, he was describedas "very black, shiney of skin, heavy marks of smallpox on face, expecially on nose; good teeth - large mouth, red thick lips; about five feet eight inces tall, broad shoulders; carries himself idoently, with no whiskers." I found no information about his place of birht or the circumstances surrounding his childhood. but it is reported that he was the owner of a large piece of land in the hill country of St. Thomas, in a village named stony gut, six miles from Morant Bay. He was closely connected with G.W. Gordon who was reported to have baptized him in his Kingsont Tabernacle, where he was ordained either as a preacher or a deacon in the year of the rebellion, 1865. Records of Bogle's involvement with Gordon are rather scarce, but there is no doubt that they both had close religious ties and that both were champions of the dispossessed. Gordon was a man of words and, like Sam Sharpe, could stir his audience to a state of madness; Paul Bogle was a man of action who was not afraid to confront the establishment with a show of strength.
It now appears that the September, 1865, Boble had made up his mind to cross the Rubican of Jamaica's long years of oppression, and to risk his life in an attack on Morant Bay. But he feared the Maroons. In that same month he was reported to have met with Major sterling of the Windward Maroons who received him but gave him no definite answer. However, the ambiguity of the Maroons's answer led Bogle tobelieve that if a campaign were launched, he could depend on them. This was a gross mistake - the history of Jamaican revolts should have been too fresh in Bogle's mind for him to have been so duped. It also appears that the Maroons were well aware of the plans for the rebellion and that they had already given their allegiance to the government. Meanwhile, at his Baptist Chapel at Stony Gut, Bogle began to make his not-so-secret preparation by drillin his mountain recruits in military operations. His plan was to march on Morant Bay with an army of men to show his strength. On October 7 (a market day), he marched into town at the head of two undred men, with fife and drum and an assortment of weapons.
What took place that day in Morant Bay could not have been the only reason for his long march with two undred men. The demonstration, however, provided the real spark for the historic rebellion which followed. On reaching the court house, it is said, Bogle left his soldiers in the public square and entered the court house where tow minor cases were being tried. The case of cases must have been of some interest to Bogle, or perhaps it was simply a coincidence. The eventual incident was triggered by a youngn man who became mildly abusive to the magistrate when a convict was charged for crimes committed on a woman. His conduct would have caused him to be apprehended by the police as he attempted to leave the court, had it not been for Bogle's intervention. Poorly documented, this very insignificant skirmish is about all that took place, although there is ome indication tha tBogle's men did "rough-up" a few policemen. Bogle thus was technically guilty of obstructing the police fom performing their duty. He cold also have been charged with disorderly conduct.
To get a clearer picture of Morant Bay, it might be of some interest to introduce the leading men who served th colonial government in St. Thomas. One of the men closely connected with the Gordon and Bogle controversy was the Reverend Stephen Cooke, Anglican rector of Morant Bay adn president of the vestry (a sort of parochial council). Another man, the custos of the parish, the Honorable Maximilian Augustus, Baron von Ketelhodt, had come to Jamaica in the 1830s and became a Jamaican citizen in 1839 after marrying a rich widow; he owned five pantations, mostly in St. Thomas. He and Mr. Gordon were avowed enemies. Baron von Ketelhodt was to play a prime roel in the whole episode. The third man was the Reverend V. Herschell, curator of Bath in St. Thomas. Many others made important contributions to the rebellion, but these three were G.W Gordon't sompanions on the vestry, and all were to become figures in the historical drama.
Soon after Bogle and his men returned to their homes in the hills, warrants were issued for the arrest of Bogle, his brother, and twenty-five other men on charges of rioting and of assaulting the police. Eight police were sipatched to Stony gut to appehend them. It si now easy to srumise what took place over one hundred years ago, but the idea of sending wight police to an area from which two undred armed men had come was either conceived by an inexperienced civil servant, or the episode was designed to have Bogle commit himself. The fate of this apprehending party can easily be imagined. they were severely beaten, and, had they been White soldiers, they would have been killed. The police were forced to take an oath on the Bible that they would fight on the Blacks; after this they were set free.
While in Stony Gut, the police overheard that Bogle's army had planned to march on the town the following day, October 10, 1865. On earning of the planned march, Baron von Ketelhodt dispatched a message to Governor Eyre and alerted the Morant Bay police. In the letter he added the following postscript: "The shells are at this moment blowing to collect men all through St. John's." (This blowing of shell and horns was a practise of the maroons in time of war.) Then he added, "Gordon's inflammatory speeches had borne fuit earlier than I least anticipated." On the 10th, Paul Bogle at the head of several hundred men, marched into town and attacked the vestry. Eighteen persons were killed, mostly White, among whom were Baron von Ketelhodt and the Reverend Heschell. Thirty-one were wounded and fifty-one prisoners were freed from jail. Bogle and his men tok the prisoners to Stony Gut, where Bogle held a prayer meeting to thank God for his victory.
By the time Baron von Ketelhodt's letter had reached Governor Eyre, the Baron was already dead. Preparations were made to dispatch men to Morant Bay on the H.M.S Wolverine and the Onyx - both anchored on Port Royal. Late on October 10, Governor Eyre heard that the massacre had taken place and he sailed from Port Royal on the French ship Caravelle to survey the situation in person. On his way to Morant Bay, he met the Wolverine returning with a cargo of refugees and got firsthand report of the dimensions of the war. Meanwhile, Paul Bogle and his men were on the move. The town of Bath was raken on the twelfth of October, but this move was the beginning of the end for the Bogle rebellion. At the request of the magistrate of Bath, the Maroons joined the conflict against Bogle. This was a mortal blow. On October thirteenth, martial law was declared for the county of Surrey which inclided St. Thomas, Portland, and St. George, Kingston was excluded. Ont the fourteenth, court-marthial was instituted at Morant Bay and the British military mill of martial law began its day-by-day extinctin of human life. Dutton states that the aim of martial law was the restoration of law and order, but the method used to achieve this goal was terror. It was license to flog and kill subjected citizens of the colonies. Eyre's martial law was a monster that he was unable to control. The 1831 rebellion in the county of Cornwall was a model for Surrey. Martial law continued for thirty days and with the help of the Maroons, whose loyalty for the Crown never waivered, the militia (numbering nearly fifteen hundred, most of whom wre experienced in the historical campaigns of Great Britain's farflung empire) brutally crushed the rebellion. As many as a thousand people were killed, including George William Gordon and Paul Bogle; over a thousand cottages owned by rebels were burned and, in all this, there is no evidence that any sailors or soldiers wre killed after the initial eighteen at Morant Bay.
Governor Eyre blamed the cause of the rebellion on Gordon and ordered his arrest. Dutton reported Eyre as saying:
"There is on e very importatn point to be decided upon. Throughout my tour in the Wolverine and the Onyx I found everywhere the most unmistakable evidence that Mr. Geo. Wm. Gordon, a coloured member of the House of Assembly, had not only been mixed up in the matter, but was himself, through his own misrepresentation and seditious language addressed to teh ignorant black people, the chief cause and origin of the whole rebellion."
Gordon was not in Morant Bay on the day of teh rebellion (he was sick at home", but his speeches had implicated him and, as Eyre stated:
"Having obrtained a deposition on oath that certain seditious printed notices (Gordon's proclamation "state of the island" had been sent through the Post Office directed, in his handwriting, to parties who have been leaders in the rebelloin, I at once called upon the Custos to issue a warrant and capture him"
Gordon, learntin of the arrest warrant turned himself in to the officials in Kingston. He should have been tried in a civil court becaus he was not arrested in an area where martial law was declared, but Eyre himself accompanied Gordon in the Wolverine to Morant Bay where there was no law, fearin he would have won his casein Kingston. Here he was tried by three junior officers and found guilty of high treason and complicity in a rebellion. This case was to be Eyre's downfall. This farce of justice was so illegal that it brought a hurricane of legal entanglements on the governor, involving some of h greatest legal minds in England. On October 22, 1865, George William Gordon was hanged at the Morant Bay Court House. He denied his complicity in the rebellion to the last. Paul Bogle was captured on teh same day by the Maroons at Stony Gut. In his trial he refused to implicate Gordon and at 5 p.m. on the twenty-fourth of October, he was hanged from the yardarm of H.M.S. Wolverine. With the deaths of Gordon and Bogle, two more freedom fighters in the Jamaican liberation struggle had left their indelible marks on history.
The rebellion was not at all in vain. The fear it brought about was so overpowering and portentous of future troubles that the Planters, the most obstreperous and loggerheaded individuals of the Britis colonies, finally submitted to the end of their privileges. On December 22, 1865, "the 202-year-old representative institution of Jamaica ended, and became a Crown Colony." the privileges of the oligarchy wre put to an end, thanks to Gordon and Bogle. It was another two centuries before moderate independence was accorded to Black Jamaicans, but th rule of tyrany was overthrown by the Morant Bay rebellion.

Crown Colony to Independence 1865 - 1962
This section will give only an outline of the social, political economic developments from 1865 to 1962, when Jamcaica became an independent nation of the British Commonwealth.
Faced with a society it could no longer dominate, the Jamaican Assembly surrendered the old constitution and became a crown colony. Under the new constitution the real power of decision-making now rested with the governor advised by a cabinet which controlled the legislative council. In this council, the governor enjoyed a permanent majority of nominated officials over elected members. By 1884, the members of the legislative council were elected, of which the overwhelming majority were White. However, this new constitution had built-in guidelines which anticipated the inevitable hour when the Black majority would seize power. It stipulated that the success of the government would dpend on a maintenance of reasonable economic and social conditions. If, however, the governor and the members of the legislative council failed to maintain friendly working relatiosn, and if the economic life of Jamaica were to suffer from acute depression, leading perhaps to labor violence, or if the overwhelmingly large Black element in the population should become conscious of its inferior position and find capable leaders with a positive democratic program - then the political constitution might have to be amended or abolished to meet the new conditions.
Despite the new constitution, the political climate form 1884 on remainded as lethargic as before, perpetuated by apathy and disdain toward the Black population. Not until 1920 to 1921, under the leadership of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, did the Black population begin to show some political consciousness.
Encouraged bye the awakening consciousness brought on by Garvey, Jamaican expatriates in New York, who were members of the Jamaica Progressive League under the leadership of Mr. W. Adolphe Roberts, began to exhort Jamaicans to:
"... begin to act as peole within the framework of hte Empire and cease speaking - or even thinking - as apathetic subjects under a Crown Colony system which has long oulived its time. The inhabitants of Jamaica are, in fact, a people. The awakening of a consciousness of nationality is what is needed today."
The exhortation to sense a "consciousness of natinoality" met with genuine response. Definite interest now began to develop in political matters, with citizens' associations forming in the Kingston area to organize discussions on public matters. But the turning point in Jamaica's political development came in 1938 - violence again acting as stage director - when labor unrest came to a head in the parish of Westmoreland at the Tate and Lyle sugar Factory, followed by labor unrest in Spanish Town and Kingston. Serious violence, put down by an armed constabulary with the loss of many lives, brought Jamaican conditions to th attention of the imperial government, which appointed a Royal Commission under the leadership of Lord Moyne. The colonial mentality is peculiarly myopic; it can act only by violence or the threat of it on the part of the Blacks. Lord Moyne's report recommended the need for a new constitution as a basis of the future development of self-government. Jamaican independence was a direct result of that far-reaching report.
The 1938 rebellion saw the emercence of the learned barrister-politicians, Norman W. Manley, and the flamboyand Alexander Bustamante, who set in motion the two political parties which have steered jamaica to its present status. Sir Alexander Bustamante died in 1977, but is still revered by all jamaicans. the Honorable Norman Manley is now dead, but the mantle of Jamaican leadership was also worn by his charismatic son, Michael Manley, whose dedication to the dispossessd and whose dislike for those who sit in the citadels of privilege is well known. In no other politician has the spirit of G.W. Gordon been so thoroughly reincarnated as it is in Michael Manley, except possibly the national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

Garvey and the Rastafarians
We shall conclude this chapter with a short analysis of the influence of the back-to-africa movement inspired by Marcus Garvey in Jamaica, and see what connections exist between the demise of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the rise of the present-day Rastafarians.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, one of the world's most renowned Black leaders, was born in the parish of St. Ann in 1887, just twenty-two years after the Morant Bay rebellion. His childhood and early manhood coincided with that period of Jamaican history in which political apathy in the Black population - due to restrictiosn on black expression by the ruling class - was at its highest. Social and economic stagnation was widespread. The yoke of colonialism was secure on the island and in Africa as well. Every aspect of Jamaican life was dominated by the Europeans, and there was very little hope for native Jamaicans to improve their position. Despite this context, Garvey was no ordinary man, but one of those rare creatures of history whose fate it is to be seized wth the social and economic oppressoin of a people and who see this oppression as his or her own spiritual mission. His middle name, Mosiah or Moses, was a portentous appellation - to deliver his people from the yoke of colonialism was to be his lifelong strugle. No other Black man in history was able to understand so clearly the worldwide oppressions of Black people, and no other was in turn perceived by so many Blacks as the one person with the solutin to their problems.
Garvey's personality took on messianic proportiosn to Blacks in Jamaica, the United States, and Africa, resulting in the formation of a movement aroundhim. In 1914, the organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Kingston, a movement that was to change the self-image of Blacks all over the world. but since "A prophen is not withou honour, but in hsi own country," Marcus Garvey had to leave Jamaica in order to prusue his dreams. First, he wanted a worldwide confraternity fo the Black race; second he wished to see the development of Africa from a backward, colonial enclave to a self-supporting giant of which all Blacks could be proud; tird he wanted to see Africa as a developled Negro nation, a force in world power, and a place to which all Blacks cold return; he envisioned a black nation from which black representatives were to be sent to all the principal countries and cities of the world; fifth, he wanted to see the development of black educational institutions for the teaching of Black curltures; and last, he wanted to work for the uplifting of the Black race anywhere it was to be found.
In Jamaica, Garvey's dreams were unaccepted. Though he developed a large following, official opposition to his program came from both blacks and whites. The whites viewed him as a threat to Pax Britannica and the blacks, expecially those of hte middle class, felt themselves beyond the class of a man like Garvey. His success as a leadr was to come in the United States. His demonstrated abilities as a leader in a foreign country later gave him legitimacy in his homeland. Jamaica has since made him a national hero.
The ethos of the Garvey movement did not wane with his death. His philosophy - "Africa for the African at home and abroad" - was to be taken up by various Black movements after him; one of these is the Jamaican Rastafarians. It is often repeated among the Rastafarians that, just before Marcus Garvey left for the United States in 1916, he is reported to have said in his farewell address, "look to Africa for the crowning of a Black King, he shall be the Redeemer." To the Rastafarians this king was Haile Selassie. Today, all Rastafarians revere Marcus Garvey as their inspirer; his picture is prominent in all homes and cult houses. His speeches are avidly read; songs and poems are written in his honor and, in the pantheon of the Rastafarians, Marcus Garvey is second on ly to Haile Selassie.
We have sollowed the long and bloody road that Jamaica and its people have traveled from the seventeenth century to the present. Despite the great price in death and suffering Jamaicans underwent in this struggle, their resistance to domination has never faltered. the fight or flight syndrom of hte Jamaicand personality represents a cultural experience which has become a permanent part of the people's psyche. The Rastafarian movement is the most recent expression of this national character.