The Late Rebellion in Jamaica: The History of the 1865 Morant Bay, Jamaica, Rebellion
Book Details
Author(s)Ohio Statesman, New York News
ISBN / ASINB00XRZI4FS
ISBN-13978B00XRZI4F8
MarketplaceIndia 🇮🇳
Description
“The Late Rebellion in Jamaica: The History of the 1865 Morant Bay, Jamaica, Rebellion†is a contemporary account of the 1865 Morant Bay revolt in Jamaica.
At the time Jamaica, the largest and most populous English-speaking island in the Caribbean, was a British colony.
The first human inhabitants of Jamaica and other Caribbean islands were indigenous people from the mainland. These earliest inhabitants were hunters and gatherers who may have come from the Yucatan Peninsula or nearby regions of Mexico and Central America.
Later on, however, farming people, known as Taino, arrived in the Caribbean islands. The ancestors of the Taino (formerly called Arawaks) and the related Island Caribs (also called Kalinago) originated in South America, around the Orinoco River Delta of Venezuela and the Guianas. Cassava (manioc) was the staple crop of both the Taino and Carib people of the Caribbean islands.
Jamaica’s indigenous Taino population disappeared after the island was settled by the Spanish in the 1500s. In 1655 it conquered by an English expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell. After failing to captured Santo Domingo in what is now the Dominican Republic, the English commander took the poorly defended island of Jamaica as a consolation prize. The English force outnumbered the entire population of Spanish Jamaica.
In the early years of the English occupation, Jamaica served as a base for pirates who preyed on Spanish treasure ships. The capital at the time, Port Royal (just south of Kingston) boomed with pirate wealth.
But, after anti-piracy treaties were signed with other European powers, Jamaica’s colonial authorities discouraged piracy. Colonists turned to agriculture, planting sugarcane. To work the sugar fields, they brought in thousands of enslaved people from West and West-Central Africa in the late 17th century.
By the 18th century, enslaved blacks formed the overwhelming majority of the population. In slavery times, Jamaica’s population was made up of enslaved blacks, free blacks (including Maroons), free “colored†(mixed race) people, and whites. The ruling class was made up of white planters. Free colored people formed a sort of middle-class, while the enslaved black majority was at the bottom.
Slavery was abolished from 1834-1838 in the British Empire, in the wake of a large slave revolt in western Jamaica (sometimes called “Sam Sharpe’s Rebellion†or the “Baptist War†1831-1832).
Emancipation didn’t change the social structure of Jamaica. The black majority was still mostly poor and disenfranchised, some colored people were still better off, and the wealthiest whites still controlled the government. The white-run government put discriminatory policies in place, for example, they put heavy taxes on everyday necessities that were needed by the general population, but did not tax the luxury goods of the rich.
Economic hardships, and discriminatory treatment by authorities led to widespread discontent. This sparked the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865. The revolt began in the town of Morant Bay when a group the trial of a black men led to fighting between a crowd and police.
The alleged leader of the uprising was a black preacher named Paul Bogle. His alleged co-conspirator was a colored politician named George William Gordon. Bogle, Gordon, and several other alleged participants in the revolt were executed.
The Morant Bay revolt led the end of Jamaica’s elected (by very limited suffrage) local Assembly, and the island became a Crown Colony, governed directly by British-appointed officials.
The point of view of this particular account of the revolt, by an American newspaper correspondent, is supportive of the colonial authorities and opposed to the rebels. The rebels are depicted as bloodthirsty “savagesâ€, and the brutal suppression of the rebellion by the colonial government (which seems to have involved the indiscriminate killing of civilians) is described as a “just retributionâ€.
At the time Jamaica, the largest and most populous English-speaking island in the Caribbean, was a British colony.
The first human inhabitants of Jamaica and other Caribbean islands were indigenous people from the mainland. These earliest inhabitants were hunters and gatherers who may have come from the Yucatan Peninsula or nearby regions of Mexico and Central America.
Later on, however, farming people, known as Taino, arrived in the Caribbean islands. The ancestors of the Taino (formerly called Arawaks) and the related Island Caribs (also called Kalinago) originated in South America, around the Orinoco River Delta of Venezuela and the Guianas. Cassava (manioc) was the staple crop of both the Taino and Carib people of the Caribbean islands.
Jamaica’s indigenous Taino population disappeared after the island was settled by the Spanish in the 1500s. In 1655 it conquered by an English expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell. After failing to captured Santo Domingo in what is now the Dominican Republic, the English commander took the poorly defended island of Jamaica as a consolation prize. The English force outnumbered the entire population of Spanish Jamaica.
In the early years of the English occupation, Jamaica served as a base for pirates who preyed on Spanish treasure ships. The capital at the time, Port Royal (just south of Kingston) boomed with pirate wealth.
But, after anti-piracy treaties were signed with other European powers, Jamaica’s colonial authorities discouraged piracy. Colonists turned to agriculture, planting sugarcane. To work the sugar fields, they brought in thousands of enslaved people from West and West-Central Africa in the late 17th century.
By the 18th century, enslaved blacks formed the overwhelming majority of the population. In slavery times, Jamaica’s population was made up of enslaved blacks, free blacks (including Maroons), free “colored†(mixed race) people, and whites. The ruling class was made up of white planters. Free colored people formed a sort of middle-class, while the enslaved black majority was at the bottom.
Slavery was abolished from 1834-1838 in the British Empire, in the wake of a large slave revolt in western Jamaica (sometimes called “Sam Sharpe’s Rebellion†or the “Baptist War†1831-1832).
Emancipation didn’t change the social structure of Jamaica. The black majority was still mostly poor and disenfranchised, some colored people were still better off, and the wealthiest whites still controlled the government. The white-run government put discriminatory policies in place, for example, they put heavy taxes on everyday necessities that were needed by the general population, but did not tax the luxury goods of the rich.
Economic hardships, and discriminatory treatment by authorities led to widespread discontent. This sparked the Morant Bay rebellion in 1865. The revolt began in the town of Morant Bay when a group the trial of a black men led to fighting between a crowd and police.
The alleged leader of the uprising was a black preacher named Paul Bogle. His alleged co-conspirator was a colored politician named George William Gordon. Bogle, Gordon, and several other alleged participants in the revolt were executed.
The Morant Bay revolt led the end of Jamaica’s elected (by very limited suffrage) local Assembly, and the island became a Crown Colony, governed directly by British-appointed officials.
The point of view of this particular account of the revolt, by an American newspaper correspondent, is supportive of the colonial authorities and opposed to the rebels. The rebels are depicted as bloodthirsty “savagesâ€, and the brutal suppression of the rebellion by the colonial government (which seems to have involved the indiscriminate killing of civilians) is described as a “just retributionâ€.
