Jamaica’s Morant Bay Rebellion: brutality and outrage in the British empire
A colonial struggle erupted in 1865 with the Morant Bay Rebellion, when freed slaves, protesting at their impoverishment and lack of equality, were brutally crushed by Governor Eyre. The uprising’s ringleaders were hanged and many blacks shot or flogged, and their villages burnt down.
the Morant bay rebellion
One hundred and fifty years ago, British soldiers stood among thousands of burned homes in Jamaica, surveying the battlefield they had created. At least 400 Jamaicans lay dead, many of them hanged in reprisals after the fighting had finished. The use of martial law to authorise these deaths quickly became the most infamous part of Britain’s response to the ‘Morant Bay Rebellion’ that shocked the island in October 1865.
A celebratory letter from one soldier to another recorded “the splendid service” of “shooting every black man who cannot account” satisfactorily for his activity. The colony’s governor had not only authorised brutal force against the areas in disruption, but he had also directed sweeping revenge against the communities and individuals who defied his rule. In the subsequent months and years, cultured Victorians back home in Britain would use these events to debate the finer legal and philosophical points of what empire meant for liberal and conservative principles.
The tensions that sparked the rebellion and its brutal suppression had been building since slavery was finally abolished in the British West Indies in 1838. Though now freed from slavery, black Jamaicans found themselves pushed to work for low wages in the sugar fields of former masters. Those who wanted to strike out on their own were harassed by the Jamaican colonial assembly’s laws that punished vagrancy or ‘squatting’. Though the assembly was elected by a black majority, since the property qualification for voting was fairly modest, the requirements for candidates ensured that only a few wealthier black or mixed-race Jamaicans could play a part in government. For the most part, the wealthy white owners of sugar estates remained in charge, and tried to prevent any redistribution of land to their former slaves.
Seven months before the rebellion, black Jamaican workers had articulated their grievances to their queen respectfully and peaceably. On 25 April 1865, the workers from Saint Ann parish petitioned Victoria about their “great want at this moment from the bad state of our island soon after we became free subjects”. They went on to outline the ways in which, following their emancipation from slavery 27 years earlier, black Jamaicans had found colonial authorities set against any efforts at independence, especially when it came to farming for themselves.
The colony’s governor, Edward Eyre, reluctantly forwarded the petition to the monarch. He found the response from the British Colonial Office much to his liking. He widely distributed this ‘Queen’s Advice’, which told her petitioners that, as in the rest of the empire, workers’ prosperity depended upon them working harder to make “the plantations productive”. This, the message suggested, would allow West Indian proprietors to match the wages “received by the best field labourers” in Britain.
The colony’s governor, Edward Eyre, reluctantly forwarded the petition to the monarch. He found the response from the British Colonial Office much to his liking. He widely distributed this ‘Queen’s Advice’, which told her petitioners that, as in the rest of the empire, workers’ prosperity depended upon them working harder to make “the plantations productive”. This, the message suggested, would allow West Indian proprietors to match the wages “received by the best field labourers” in Britain.
Edward John Eyre (5 August 1815 – 30 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica. His service in that position ended after the scandalously violent suppression of the Morant Bay uprising.
Paul Bogle (1820 – 24 October 1865) was a Jamaican Baptist deacon and activist. He is a National Hero of Jamaica. He was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay protesters, who marched for justice and fair treatment for all the people in Jamaica.
George William Gordon (1815 – 23 October 1865) was a wealthy mixed-race Jamaican businessman, magistrate and politician. He was a leading critic of the colonial government and the policies of Jamaican Governor Edward Eyre. In 1969, the Jamaican government proclaimed Gordon as a National Hero of Jamaica.
People to note:
In early October 1865, a leading black resident of Saint Thomas parish, Paul Bogle, led protests against the court settlement of a land dispute. Efforts to arrest him and others escalated over subsequent days, and on 11 October he marched on the Morant Bay courthouse. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the courthouse and nearby buildings. A total of 25 people died. Over the next two days, poor freemen, many ex-slaves, rose in rebellion across most of St. Thomas-in-the-East parish. Soldiers opened fire and, in the aftermath, Bogle was caught and executed; many hundreds of others were killed in the fighting and reprisals that followed.
Bogle’s political mentor, George William Gordon, was a wealthy member of the island’s elected assembly, son of an enslaved mother and a Scottish slave-owning father. But that did not spare Gordon from guilt by association. He had agitated on behalf of poor Jamaicans, raising exactly the same issues of prejudice that sparked Bogle’s defiance. Governor Eyre ordered Gordon’s arrest; he was taken into the area under martial law to be hanged without the usual burdens of proof in a civilian court.
Bogle’s political mentor, George William Gordon, was a wealthy member of the island’s elected assembly, son of an enslaved mother and a Scottish slave-owning father. But that did not spare Gordon from guilt by association. He had agitated on behalf of poor Jamaicans, raising exactly the same issues of prejudice that sparked Bogle’s defiance. Governor Eyre ordered Gordon’s arrest; he was taken into the area under martial law to be hanged without the usual burdens of proof in a civilian court.
When news of the rising reached British newspapers, many readers would probably have sided with the governor. Just a few years earlier, in 1857–58, Britons had broadly supported the punishment meted out to Indians rebelling against the East India Company. However, as news of Eyre’s actions filtered across the Atlantic, black Jamaicans appeared in a more sympathetic light. Gordon had used the hours between condemnation and execution to write a letter to his wife. She passed it to Louis Chamerovzow, secretary of the British Foreign and Anti-Slavery Society, who published the letter. Gordon was embraced as a Christian martyr to Eyre’s butchery during the “very questionable” period of “military despotism”.
By December 1865, some of the most famous lights of Victorian British society were dividing into clear factions. Drawing together abolitionists, lawyers and leading authors, an organisation calling itself the Jamaica Committee denounced Eyre – not his victims – as the real threat to the British empire. The savagery of the military response and the manipulative extra-legal killing of Gordon, the governor’s long-term political critic, offended these men’s faith in the benevolence of British rule. Sceptics were not satisfied with the Royal Commission sent to Jamaica by the Liberal government in early 1866 to investigate. When it reported in early June, the government removed the governor but avoided any legal sanctions against him.
By December 1865, some of the most famous lights of Victorian British society were dividing into clear factions. Drawing together abolitionists, lawyers and leading authors, an organisation calling itself the Jamaica Committee denounced Eyre – not his victims – as the real threat to the British empire. The savagery of the military response and the manipulative extra-legal killing of Gordon, the governor’s long-term political critic, offended these men’s faith in the benevolence of British rule. Sceptics were not satisfied with the Royal Commission sent to Jamaica by the Liberal government in early 1866 to investigate. When it reported in early June, the government removed the governor but avoided any legal sanctions against him.
John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament, and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to social theory, political theory, and political economy. Dubbed "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century", he conceived of liberty as justifying the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state and social control.
John Bright was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies, also promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He saw himself as a spokesman for the middle class and strongly opposed the privileges of the landed aristocracy.
People to note:
The philosopher John Stuart Mill played a leading role in sharpening the committee’s response. He was incensed at “an infringement of the laws of England” and “acts of violence committed by Englishmen in authority, calculated to lower the character of England in the eyes of all foreign lovers of liberty” and likely to “inflame against us the people of our dependencies”. Mill and his fellow Liberal John Bright hoped to launch and finance a private prosecution against Eyre for what they saw as his murder of Gordon.
After arguments in the press and in the courtroom, the prosecution of Eyre finally faltered in 1868. The governor’s reputation remained tarnished, though, and he lived the rest of his life in private, surviving on his government pension. Those who deprecated Eyre’s methods did not fundamentally disagree on questions of empire – Mill and his allies looked to liberty, not authority, as their tool, but they still saw black people as pupils in civilisation rather than equals. The clash of celebrities quickly became the focus of journalistic (and later academic) attention on Morant Bay. Black Jamaicans – except, perhaps, the respectable George Gordon – faded from the attention of Britons.
A century and a half after the rebellion and the foundation of the Jamaica Committee, this Victorian controversy offers important lessons for our understanding of empire and liberal thought. Eyre’s response underlines the role of violence, actual or threatened, behind British colonial rule.
After arguments in the press and in the courtroom, the prosecution of Eyre finally faltered in 1868. The governor’s reputation remained tarnished, though, and he lived the rest of his life in private, surviving on his government pension. Those who deprecated Eyre’s methods did not fundamentally disagree on questions of empire – Mill and his allies looked to liberty, not authority, as their tool, but they still saw black people as pupils in civilisation rather than equals. The clash of celebrities quickly became the focus of journalistic (and later academic) attention on Morant Bay. Black Jamaicans – except, perhaps, the respectable George Gordon – faded from the attention of Britons.
A century and a half after the rebellion and the foundation of the Jamaica Committee, this Victorian controversy offers important lessons for our understanding of empire and liberal thought. Eyre’s response underlines the role of violence, actual or threatened, behind British colonial rule.
Exercises:
1. Re-read the text, make up a list of necessary vocabulary and answer the following questions:
1) Where did Morant Bay Rebellion take place?
2) What were the conditions of the newly-emancipated workers there?
3) Who led the rebellion?
4) How did the colonial governor react to the rebellion?
5) What was the public opinion about the outcome of Morant Bay Rebellion?
2. Find in the text the following words and word combinations, find a Russian equivalent for them and add them to your working vocabulary:
martial law; sweeping revenge; articulate peaceably; reprisal; elected assembly; burden of proof; meted out; martyr; extra-legal; infringement; tarnished.
3. Use the words from the Exercise 2 in your own sentences.
4. Write your summary of the text, emphasising in it:
a) its subject matter,
b) the facts discussed,
c) the author's point of view on these facts.
5. Prepare to write an essay on the topic:
"How should Governor Eyre have reacted to the protesting, and why did he react the way he did?"
1) Where did Morant Bay Rebellion take place?
2) What were the conditions of the newly-emancipated workers there?
3) Who led the rebellion?
4) How did the colonial governor react to the rebellion?
5) What was the public opinion about the outcome of Morant Bay Rebellion?
2. Find in the text the following words and word combinations, find a Russian equivalent for them and add them to your working vocabulary:
martial law; sweeping revenge; articulate peaceably; reprisal; elected assembly; burden of proof; meted out; martyr; extra-legal; infringement; tarnished.
3. Use the words from the Exercise 2 in your own sentences.
4. Write your summary of the text, emphasising in it:
a) its subject matter,
b) the facts discussed,
c) the author's point of view on these facts.
5. Prepare to write an essay on the topic:
"How should Governor Eyre have reacted to the protesting, and why did he react the way he did?"
