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Great Jamaican Agitators

June 28, 2023 • Ngai • Season 1 • Episode 13

All hail the agitators, who buck the system and demand change.

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Let us play a game of word association. If I were to say the word paradise, what words or images pop into your mind’s eye? Would you think of a beach, a palm tree or lounging with a book? What if I said the word work? Maybe you would think of your boss, a desk, having a cup of coffee, etc. Now what if I said Jamaican people. The words friendly, relaxed, boisterous, hard-working would certainly fit, but defiant is also very appropriate.

Welcome to Small Excellence where I discuss various nations around the world. I'm your host Ngai. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe and share. Also take a look at the Small Excellence website at www.smallexcellence.com; that address again is www. S m a l l e x c e l l e n c e .com. Lastly, we have an online shop called Small Merchandise featuring a rotating capsule collection of items. You can find the link for the shop’s website on the Small Excellence announcement page, or you can go to www.smallmerchandise.shop. This season we are speaking about my homeland, Jamaica. In this episode, I want to speak about an aspect of Jamaican culture that is an open secret, our rebellious nature.

The unruliest slaves were sent to Jamaica. Variations of that statement has been touted as fact but is really an unproven rumor sometimes given as an explanation to rationalize why Jamaica had the most rebellions of all of the British colonies. The rejection of injustice through rebellion and acts of defiance is a universal response to subjugation; being enslaved is no exception. There are numerous examples throughout history of revolts, insurrections, revolutions and the like. Here are a few of the uprisings led by or inspired by Jamaicans.

Although credited with igniting the initial spark of rebellion amongst the enslaved black people of Haiti, Dutty Boukman, remains an obscure figure in the Haitian revolution. Dutty Boukman also known as Boukman Dutty was born in Senegambia, present-day Senegal and Gambia prior to his enslavement in Jamaica. Not much is known about his early life, but he was described as a religious man, apparently practicing a blend of traditional African religion, vodou and possibly a form of Abrahamic religion. He was also known to be a self-educated, multi-linguist described as quick-tempered and having a large imposing physique and the essence of a warrior. “His surname was a play on [the words] “book” [and] “man,” which is thought to be a nod to his ability to read.

During his time in Jamaica, he was discovered teaching other slaves to read along with planning a revolt. For his participation in both these highly punishable acts Boukman was sold to a plantation in Saint-Domingue, modern day Haiti, where he was placed as a slave driver and later a coach driver. While in Saint-Domingue, he continued to teach enslaved Africans to read. He became a maroon leader and a houngan, which is a male Voudon priest. He also held secret meetings about revolution. It is said that sometime between August 14th and August 22nd, 1791, on a hilltop located in Bois Caïman, Bookman and Cécile Fatiman, a Mambo also known as a Voudon priestess presided at a Voodou ceremony attended by an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 slaves along with future Haitian Revolutionary leaders Jean-François Papillon, George Biassou and Jeannot. This ceremony served as the last of a series of meetings used to organize a slave revolt. Markel Thylefors, a researcher from Gothenburg University confirms, "the event of the Bois Caïman ceremony…. an important part of Haitian national identity as it relates to the very genesis of Haiti”; (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutty_Boukman).

Boukman announces in what is described as a prayer, “The god who created the earth, who created the sun that gives us light. The god who holds up the ocean, who makes the thunder roar. Our god who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the clouds, who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white man has made us suffer. The white man’s god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants to do good. Our god, who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It’s He who will direct our arms and bring us victory. It’s He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white men’s god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice of liberty that speaks in all our hearts.” And with that the Haitian Revolution begins in the Northern part of the island. “Rebels moved from plantation to plantation burning, pillaging, and killing as they went. As Boukman and his followers moved through the colony, thousands…more slaves joined the fight” (https://study.com/academy/lesson/who-led-the-haitian-revolution.html). Months later, on November 7, 1791, Dutty Boukman is killed by the French, his head severed and displayed publicly as a deterrent of further revolts. Though his participation in the revolution is short-lived, Boukman is solidified as the first leader of the Haitian Revolution. His participation galvanized the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue.

The likes of Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacque Dessalines, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Petion continued in the fight for freedom which ends with colonial authorities surrendering on November 9, 1803, following the Battle of Vertieres. The country announces its independence on January 1st, 1804, and declares its name, Haiti, meaning mountainous land in the Taino Language.

In 1831, decades after the Haitian Revolution and two years before the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolitionist Act of 1833, a slave and Baptist deacon named Samuel Sharpe planned a day of peaceful protest that morphed into a full-blown uprising. Sam Sharpe was born around 1801 on a plantation in the Parish of St. James owned by a British lawyer, who is also his namesake. For reasons unknown Sam was allowed to become educated. His education enables him to become a travelling preacher and a deacon at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay, whose pastor was Rev. Thomas Burchell, a missionary from England. Subsequently, Sam was able to move about the island from parish to parish spreading both the word of God and the ideology of the freedom he believed the bible spoke of. Both his intellect and position made Sam Sharpe well respected amongst the enslaved people on the island, thus he had their ear.

According to my research there were very few days and circumstances in a year that those enslaved under chattel slavery did not work. Once such day, is Sunday, reserved as a day of worship. That fact alone may explain one of the reasons religion, holds such an esteemed role in the black community, as “worship” was one of the only ways they were able to gather as a group outside of performing laborious work. Christmas and typically the two days following were the other days. Sharpe planned for the protest to occur on the days after the Christmas break and timed the protest to have maximum impact on the sugar cane harvest because…if the cane was not cut, most of the island’s crops would be ruined (https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/people-global-african-history/sharpe-samuel-ca-1780-1832/).

These enslaved workers were demanding to have more freedom and a working wage in the form of a salary that was half of the normal wage. Participants of the protest agreed amongst themselves not to resort to violence unless violence was used against them. However, two days after the rebellion started peacefully it devolved into a vicious battle. “On December 28, 1831, [after] the British militia marched on the protesters, the Kensington Estate Great House was set on fire. The [uprising] lasted [eleven days] and came to be known by many names such as The Baptist War, the Sam Sharpe Rebellion, the Christmas Rebellion, the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831 – 1832 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_War). It involved 60,000 slaves and resulted in the deaths of…186 slaves and 14 white overseers or planters. In addition, more than 500 slaves were convicted of participating in the rebellion. Many were hanged and their heads were severed and placed around their plantations as a warning against future rebellions. Those who escaped the death penalty were treated brutally. Sharpe was named the key figure of the rebellion. He surrendered to save the Baptist Missionaries from blame for the revolt and was eventually hanged in Montego Bay on May 23, 1832, where he declared, “I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery.” Sharpe’s owners were paid £16.00 which is about $2940 US dollars in 2023 for their “loss of property.”

Sharpe was buried like a criminal in the sands of the Montego Bay Harbor, [however] his remains were later recovered and buried beneath the pulpit at the Burchell Baptist Church (https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/people-global-african-history/sharpe-samuel-ca-1780-1832/). It is believed that this uprising led to the eventual abolition of slavery on the island since the “scope of its destruction...invigorated the abolitionist factions in the [British] Parliament” (https://lithub.com/sam-sharpe-and-the-revolt-that-ended-british-slavery/). Samuel Sharpe is featured on the Jamaican $50 bill and the location of his execution is presently a square named in his honor.

Paul Bogle is another Jamaican hero with the title of Baptist deacon. He emerged as a leader about thirty years after the abolition of the slaves, spearheading the last large-scale rebellion on the island, the Morant Bay Rebellion. Bogle was born in 1822 in the parish of St. Thomas to Cecelia Bogle, a free woman. By all accounts he was a financially successful man, owning a home in Stony Gut, another in Spring Garden and a 500-acre farm in Dunrobin. He was also one of the few men on the island who met the financial requirements of the poll tax needed to vote; an even rarer feat for the Afro-Jamaican men of the time. For perspective, in 1845…the adult population in St. Thomas parish numbered at least 3,300 with only 104 as voters which is approximately 3%. Paul Bogle also had a friendship with George William Gordon, a wealthy biracial businessman, politician, assembly representative of St. Thomas and fellow Baptist who helped have Bogle instated as a Deacon. Sufficive to say, Bogle was not living the life of the everyday man, yet he was keenly aware of the suffering Black peasants experienced due to systemic, social, and economic discrimination. An impoverished existence coupled with social injustice was the mainstay of most Afro-Jamaicans for many years after the emancipation of slavery.

The root cause of the Morant Bay Rebellion started with a longstanding grievance that was ignored and followed by continued demonstrations of inequality. In August 1865, Assemblyman Gordon condemned Edward John Eyre, Governor of Jamaica for sanctioning “everything done by the higher class to the oppression of the negroes” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bogle). This type of persecution resulted in high rates of unemployment, taxes, and low wages for those employed. Rightly concerned for the well-being of the country’s underprivileged majority, Gordon enlisted Bogle to lead a small group of farmers and former slaves on a 50-mile march from Stony-Gut to Spanish Town to address Governor Eyre in person regarding their political grievances. They were denied an audience with the governor.

The official rebellion started in October 1865, when a Bogle supporter was arrested while protesting the conviction of a black Jamaican who was charged with trespassing on an abandoned plantation. On October 7th, Bogle and his supporters who were in attendance at the trial, engaged colonial police, freeing both the arrested Bogle supporter and the man being tried. In response, officials issued 28 arrest warrants for the incident. A failed attempt to arrest Paul Bogle after his return to Stony Gut was made by the colonial police but they were fought off. Paul and his brother, Moses, then headed a march on a vestry meeting, being held at the Morant Bay Courthouse in St. Thomas on October 11, 1865, with about 300 people in toe. They were confronted this time by militia men who opened fire on them, killing seven of the protesters. The protesters retaliated by setting the courthouse on fire, along with other nearby buildings, killing several parish officials such as Baron von Ketelhodt, who were attempting to flee, in addition to fifteen militia men. Lastly, they also set 51 prisoners free.

Colonial soldiers were brought to Morant Bay to crush the rebellion. Maroons from Mooretown also participated in subduing the rebellion adhering to their previously agreed-on treaty with the British. Approximately 500 people were killed before order was restored. Stony Gut, considered the stronghold of the rebels, was destroyed. By order of Governor Eyre, Assemblyman Gordon, who did not participate in the rebellion, was arrested on the suspicion of planning the revolt. He was charged with high treason and sentenced to death without due process of the law. Gordon was executed on October 23, 1865. Paul and Moses Bogle were captured and hanged on October 24, 1865 at the Morant Bay Court House.

A Royal Commission was sent from London to investigate the Rebellion in January 1866. Following their investigation, Governor Eyre was removed as Governor of Jamaica, he was charged but not convicted of murder. Jamaica became a Crown Colony governed directly from England as a result of the rebellion. Though tragic, the rebellion led to more just practices in the courts and made social and economic advancements possible.

At the time of their deaths, the men discussed in this episode were all executed for what was deemed crimes against their perspective crown. That said, one particular quote from Winston Churchill comes to mind, “history is written by the victors.” Yes, history is built on facts, but facts…are interpreted through the lens of social and political power while measured against one’s personal experiences. For the Afro-Caribbeans of the era, these men were their hope, their protectors, their leaders. They were villainized and admonished as cautionary tales by the powers that be and used as reminders for the Afro-Caribbeans to know their place in the social hierarchy. Today these independent nations retell the stories/histories of Boukman, Sharpe and Bogle extolling them as freedom fighters and bequeathing them with symbolic iconography that demonstrate their countries admiration for their sacrifice and bravery.

I hope that you have garnered some knowledge from this episode. Walk good, my friends.

References

https://atlantablackstar.com/2018/02/17/dutty-boukman-fearless-leader-helped-spark-haitian-revolution/

https://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Boukman

https://travelnoire.com/dutty-boukman-the-non-haitian-who-helped-spark-the-haitian-revolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutty_Boukman

https://www.boukmanacademy.com/intro-to-the-haitian-revolution/dutty-boukman

https://jamaicans.com/on-this-day-in-jamaican-history-dutty-boukman-boukman-dutty/

https://dbpedia.org/page/Dutty_Boukman

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sharpe-samuel

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/people-global-african-history/sharpe-samuel-ca-1780-1832/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Sharpe