Morant Bay Rebellion - Redemption of History

It was well received and it dealt with the one of the well known post-emancipation rebellions in the Caribbean where the historical records have been biased against the black population of St. Thomas, Jamaica to justify the brutal and bloody suppression by British Colonial authorities. It tarnished the image of the black person and St. Thomas where the Divine Word Missionaries work suffers the reminiscences of that rebellion till today, in terms of lack of economic development in the area.

One of the biggest problems of the area, acquisition of land and housing for the poor population is still present; 136 years after Paul Bogle, national hero who led the protest precisely because of the problem of land and injustice in the courts. His statue is in front of the Morant Bay Court House to commemorate the rebellion of 1865 till today is a place where homeless find their refuge (see photo)

The full paper is presented below:

Some theological reflections are drawn after the above discussion. The development of resistance and struggle for justice from violent to totally non-violent resembles the historical and biblical evolution of the understanding of God from a God of Justice in Old Testament to a God of Love in New Testament.

2.1. Critical assessment of historical records.

The most respected historical record that is available about the Morant Bay Rebellion is the Report of Jamaica Royal Commission (1866) which is appended with various despatches and correspondences. Iit contains written statements and detailed transcripts of the interviews. The members of Jamaica Royal Commission arrived in Jamaica from Britain about two months after the events of the Morant Bay Rebellion took place and shortly after Martial Law imposed in the eastern part of Jamaica was lifted. The commission was appointed to "make inquiry of certain late disturbances in the Island of Jamaica, and with respect to measures adopted in the course of their suppression". The report was concluded and presented to the Queen in April 1866. Since then, this report has constituted the most reliable historical resource of the Morant Bay Rebellion. All historians writing about the events of October and November 1865 have used it as a primary source in their investigations. Ever since the report was published the history books of the West Indies have used it as the source of reference.

The scope of this work does not allow me to a make very detailed historical, and literary criticism of this document. Being familiar with the criticism method in the analysis of biblical text the similar method could be used in some measure with this document. The Report of the Jamaica Royal Commission is an interpretation of the interviews of the witnesses and scattered despatches and written material that was submitted.. We are looking here at a historical event through the prism of a document constructed after many interviews and written statements. These statements were given by the people to some extend with biased opinions from the land-owners’ perspective. The selection, availability and plausibility of interviewees, as well as the latter compilation of the Report based on those interviews and statements is brought here into question. Therefore, the three layers in literary and historical interpretation of an event coming to us through this document can be easily identified; 1. Sitz im Leben "rebellion", 2. Sitz im Leben witnesses and 3. Sitz im Leben Report. The availability of all the materials, the interviews ,written statements and letters appended to the report enable us to make some critical analysis of the final report of the Commission presented to Queen Victoria in April 1866, mainly, to make some judgement about how and what, from that extensive material, was used by the author(s) of the Report.

2.1.1 The witnesses.

There was a fear among the ruling class in Jamaica that the Commission was sent from Britain to punish those who have been involved in the suppression of the rebellion. The public opinion in Britain was greatly disturbed not so much by the reports coming from Jamaica about the rebellion itself but by the severe suppression of the rebellion. Therefore, many who came forward to testify before the commission were those who imposed, organized or partook in the suppression of the rebellion in order to justify the bloody and extensive punishments that were inflicted upon the people of St. Thomas- in-the-East. It was done to influence the commission with the opinion that the suppression was necessary because the revolt was well planned and that it could have led to the extermination of the white population from the island of Jamaica. Many such statements, though allegedly quoting the rebels, are in fact expressing the common fears of the planters, and ruling class of the country as well as of the general white population, which was outnumbered by Africans.

The background, place of origin, occupation and even race of those interviewed is included in the appendixes. The overwhelming majority of the interviewed persons were either soldiers, volunteers, people in command or persons who disapproved of the action of the "rebels". Among them are also persons whose property was looted by "rebels" or whose houses were burned by the forces suppressing the rebellion. There are also some bystanders-witnesses to the executions and floggings during the Martial Law who were interviewed. We have to remember that though Martial Law was lifted when the Commission was doing their investigations the reprisals for the involvement in the rebellion continued. Many of those who actively partook in the rebellion or supported the "rebels" were either executed during Martial Law, imprisoned or in hiding, fearing arrests and punishment. Thus there were hardly any, making statements or being interviewed, supporting the cause of the rebellion. The interviews vary in tone, atmosphere, and the treatment of the witnesses. It seems that some witnesses were subdued to a great psychological pressure by the members of the Commission to get the desired statements especially if the persons interviewed were of lower class (usually "Negroes") or those who have been suspected of being on the side of the rebellion. The majority of statements submitted included emotional and prejudiced interjections about the barbarity and savagery of the "rebels" which was at times magnified to include all the black population of Jamaica. Many statements minimize the severity of the punishments and suppression during Marital Law period and magnify the atrocities committed by the "rebels" in the first two days of the protest. In almost every statement or interview that is appended to the Report one can easily notice the spirit of the times; fears, class structure, rightness of the ruling class and those in power upholding the law, acceptance of the unreasonable and excessive punishment afflicted on the perpetrators of the rebellion, racial prejudices which try to portray the "negroes" as very violent and barbaric This is applied not just "rebels" but also, in some instances, to those who were on the side of the suppression (black soldiers or maroons). Many of the witnesses allege that the rebellion was well planned and had as its objective violence, revenge and even the extermination of the white population of Jamaica. It is very difficult to establish the historical truth; the mind and intentions of those who have led the protest, if the majority of witnesses are trying to defend their action; and those who could shed some light on the matter were executed or were reluctant to come forward and give witness.

The Jamaica Royal Commission Report contains a summary and interpretation of all the material accumulated. In its outline after the introduction which explains the purpose, procedure and scope of the investigation, it deals with the origin and outbreak of the disturbances as well as the suppression and measures applied in it through various operations by the forces employed in St. Thomas, assessing also their conduct. A special treatment is given to the case of George William Gordon accused and sentenced by the Court martial for the instigating rebellion.

The report is based on the witnesses, interviews and statements which were just evaluated in this paper. No wonder that in the final report we have the similar line adopted by the Jamaican Royal Commission of alleging that the rebellion was well planned, with violence and killing as a part of it from the start. We find it in the first section after the introduction entitled "The Origin and Outbreak of the Disturbances". From the first sentence which states: "The first resistance to the lawful authority..." the Commission argues that all the action of the "rebels"intended to inflict violence and murderous revenge for the time of slavery and present "alleged" injustices, upon the planters and ruling class in Jamaica, they intended to overthrow the "lawful authorities", kill the white population of Jamaica and take possession of the country. The fact that not many planters were killed in the cause of the rebellion and that their property was not destroyed was attributed to the fact that they managed to escape and go to hiding and that the "rebels" finding the estates empty did not destroy them as they wanted to take possession of them after the rebellion. This is the interpretation of the facts by the witnesses who testified against the "rebels". The Commission also made sure that the order by the Custos of St. Thomas to fire at the protestors was justified It states that the order to fire was given after the women threw stones at the volunteers defending the Vestry and the Court House. This fact whether the stones were thrown before or after the volunteers opened fire is very questionable as various witnesses gave different accounts about the actual transition from a peaceful demonstration into a violent protest. The commission also made sure to point out that the demonstrators approaching the Court House in Morant Bay on the 11^th of October 1865 - the day that the violence started, "were armed with sticks and cutlasses, muskets and bayonets". As for cutlasses and sticks; these were not just a primitive arms but actually agricultural tools that peasants and laborers carried every day to do their work at the plantations or their own farms. When Paul Bogle’s church group was marching on that morning from Stony Gut it was not all that sizable a group that reached Morant Bay at midday hours. Many laborers working in the fields with their cutlasses and supporting themselves with the stick to prevent back ache, have joined the demonstration, obviously carrying their agricultural tools with them. It seems that the Royal Commission had not taken that possibility into account. Another fact that the Commission coming all the way from Britain might have not considered as necessary was to get some knowledge of the religious practices of the Native Baptists. The Native Baptist Churches called also, Zion Churches till today organize marches through the streets as a part of their religious service, that is why many native witnesses and interviewees at the hearings of the Commission referred to the Paul Bogle Church’s march on Morant Bay as a "Parade". During such parades the members of the church carry many flags which are mounted on the sticks. They usually march to the beat of drums. The practice of a religious parade is exercised by the Native Baptist Churches in St. Thomas still today especially during the revivals, conventions and baptisms. Many times the churches prepare themselves for the "parade" by practicing, what was referred many times in the statements and the Report of the Commission as "drilling". Drilling is commonly understood as a military practice. The commission was very adamant to establish that in Paul Bogle’s Church drilling "of his men" was done before the events of October 11, 1865. This was intended to show the premeditation of violence on the part of the protestors. The Commission relates in its Report with obvious ignorance about the religious significance of the march; "Later in that day a much larger party came marching in military order, with flags and drums beating" . For any Englishmen to did not know Jamaican Culture such a statement is obviously indicating a well organized army. The Commission, during their interviews, was very attentive whether the men drilled in Stony Gut used sticks as weapons in their exercises. It has to be noted that in those days it was an offence for a "black" peasant to own or use fire arm, unless he was recruited to military or paramilitary force.

I am not insinuating here that it was a purely religious parade and yes, the agricultural tools; cutlasses and sticks as well as the sticks on which the flags were mounted, were definitely used as arms once the violence erupted. Some might have also joined the crowd and picked up sticks on the way in case self-defense tools were needed. Still today in Zion Churches of St.Thomas, popularly known also as "wrap head" or Pokumenia Churches, machete is a prominent symbol which is placed together with the agricultural produce and plants, bottles of water etc. These symbols are placed in the centre of the church; on an open ground usually in the form of a circle. To report that the Stony Gut chapel of Paul Bogle was used as a storage of cutlasses is a great exaggeration. The Report also alleges that the demonstrators had bayonets and muskets which were sacked from Morant Bay Police Station. It is surprising to notice that the demonstrators, ransacking the Police Station, did not take with them the powder, bullets or flints without which the muskets are useless. Was it that the leaders of the march, among them Paul Bogle, wanted just to disarm the Police in order to prevent bloodshed by removing the firearms from the Police Station? This will forever remain a mystery. However, the poor peasants even if they were fully armed with firing weapons, they would not be capable of using it. Even the volunteers who were recruited and summoned for duty on the memorable day of October 11, 1865, themselves needed drilling and instructions of how to use fire arms. That drilling was administered hastily by E.N. Harrison, Serjean-Major of St. Thomas-in-the-East Volunteers in the very morning of the demonstration. After the volunteers fired the first round seven or ten demonstrators were killed and about twenty wounded. The demonstrators, subsequently, rushed at the volunteers in the time of re-loading the weapons, succeeding to disarm some of them. Most of the 18 persons of the vestry and volunteers who were subsequently killed while they were escaping from the burning Court house were beaten to death with sticks or cut with cutlasses according to the report. If there was anybody shot it must have been from the weapons which were taken from the volunteers and not with arms that were allegedly brought from Stony Gut or ransacked from the Morant Bay Police Station before the violence erupted. The report, however, concludes that the marchers were ready for violence and they came to Morant Bay on that day to kill and plunder: "With this evidence before us it was impossible to avoid arriving at the conclusion that there was on the part of the leaders of the rioters a preconcerted plan, and murder was distinctly contemplated". The Report quotes in full the letter addressed to the Governor Eyre written by Paul Bogle in Stony Gut in the afternoon of 10^th of October 1865, the day before all the violence occurred. That letter is a petition for protection from the injustices suffered from the Magistrates by the peasantry in St. Thomas. The Commission disregards the peaceful tone of the letter and accuses it of being "manifesto ... to justify a recourse to violence". The Commission, however, attributes some benevolence to the "rebels" as they have not touched or harmed any women or doctors. The doctors were saved with the direct intervention of Bogle.. However during the suppression of the rebellion; at least nine women were executed, dozens were flogged and imprisoned and some physically abused. The perpetrators of violence against women on behalf of the state during the suppression of the rebellion were somehow trying to justify their action in saying that the "rebels" saved their women from any harm as they wanted to violate them "after killing all the white men". Nevertheless, there is no any act of violence against any women on the part of the "rebels" reported in the Commission investigations. Similarly, the perpetrators of the burning of houses of the poor population of St. Thomas during the suppression were justifying their action, embarrassed by the more considerate attitude of the "rebels" who hardly burned anything apart from Morant Bay Court House - the symbol of injustice, by stating that the rebels intended to take possession of their estates after "they have killed all the whites".

There were only four persons reported to be killed by the "rebels" after the first day of the violent protest. Seemingly, it happened only when resistence was posed during the plundering of the estates that some violence was used. The Report, however, alleges that the murders were done very selectively and in cold blood. It seems to me that the killing of the 18 persons by the "rebels" on the outbreak of the violence on the 11^th of October 1865 was done in a spur of passionate revenge and anger. This was caused by the shooting of the demonstrators among whom many were wounded and at least seven of their comrades killed. It looks like the leaders of the peaceful protest demonstration to Morant Bay lost control over the crowd, angered by the shooting and killing of their colleagues and responded with violence.

Paul Bogle and his company returned to the Chapel in Stony Gut the same evening, and it was not because they had to escape any danger. It seems they did not realized that the events would take such a disastrous turn. It seemed they wanted to disassociate themselves from the mob celebrations; looting and plunder that was happening at that time. They turned back to their chapel in Stony Gut and God only knows what they felt in their hearts and what their prayers were like that night. However, the Jamaica Royal Commission Report again twists comfortably its argument to say; ",after the murders Bogle returned to Stony Gut, and ...there was a service in the chapel in which he returned thanks to God that he "went to this work, and that God had succeeded him in his work"(p.14).

Indeed the Report portrays Paul Bogle in a very negative light. The only benevolence that is attributed to him is that he saved two doctors escaping the from burning Court House and from being killed on the evening of October 11 just before he returned to Stony Gut for the evening service in his chapel. The Report ends its account about the Outbreak of Disturbances in stating that on October 23^rd Paul Bogle "was apprehended by the Maroons, and taken as prisoner to Morant Bay". The report does not mention his execution which happened the next day and says nothing about his conduct as a prisoner but from other sources it is known that Bogle said nothing in his defense and was absolutely obsequious at his arrest, Court Martial sentence and execution.

The Jamaica Royal Commission was clearly unconcerned about the social situation of the poor classes in St. Thomas and the whole of Jamaica even though, during its investigations, it was repeatedly brought to their notice. The Commission did not intend to investigate nor take into account the social conditions that prevailed in the country. Mentioning some of the condition that caused "irritation" and led to the disturbances in St. Thomas-in-the-East it tones down the complaints;

"these arose from alleged lowness of the rate of wages and irregularity in their payment, and the difficulty of obtaining relief from alleged injustice in consequence of the constitution of the Magistracy....We had a great deal of evidence on these subjects, and did not appear to us that the rate of wages was low, but rather that the smallness of the sums frequently received by the laborer at the end of the week arose from the unwillingness to labor for more than a very limited time. Nor was it proved before us that there was unfairness on the part of the managers of estates in the payment of wages.".

 

In reporting the suppression the Royal Commission tries to justify certain practices of the military. All the shootings by the soldiers that are not executions, find somehow explanation and excuse.

The Report goes into a quite length explaining the cause for executing and decapitating an "obeah" man in the district of Somerset who was not associated with the rebels. He was executed decapitated and his head placed on a pole to frighten all black people who attribute to themselves too much power. The Report quite aptly explains the practices of Obeah as a witchcraft practiced by black men and women of which even white folk was frightful. The report concludes this account of truly unjustified execution by saying "The circumstances of this execution,... were adduced as proofs of intentional cruelty and barbarity; but suggested object of making an example, and the facts when relating to the head, have in our opinion disposed of this charge".

Another "charge of cruelty" was when nine prisoners were executed in Monklands. They "were placed kneeling in a line in front of the trench prepared for their internment. One of the prisoners showed signs of life after firing party had discharged their rifles, and it is said that a pickaxe was then used to strike his head" the commission believed the negation of it by the one accused of such a cruelty and dismissed the allegation. Among the gross brutality of the soldiers, marines and sailors were indiscriminate killings of elderly and infirm in the same districts but the Commission declines to make condemnatory comment about it. In that area alone about 493 dwellings were burned. These reports are given without any judgement or excuse. The Report further makes a long list of how many were shot, or executed by the Court Martial without any judgmental comments attached to it. But it discusses with great concern a case of a black soldier in Long Bay who deserted and then on the road stopped three constables with prisoners in their charge. He took all ten prisoners and shot them. The Report then attaches a comment; "These 10 deaths are attended with such barbarity on the part of the soldier....to call for special notice and condemnation. There is a ground for believing that this soldier may be identified". This is the only time that the report, in assessing the suppression, uses words of condemnation. It is used against a black soldier. Also there is an allegation that Maroons were quite cruel in inflicting punishments on the "rebels" and population in the Bath area "so that they needed to be brought under control by the British officers". Further on, the Royal Commission disapproves of the flogging of women but to some extend justifies Captain Hole who inflicted the punishment. All these facts printed in the Report only augment the racial prejudice that is evidenced in the reporting by the Royal Commission.

In the reporting on the "case of George William Gordon" who was a political opponent of Governor Eyre, and a member of the Assembly, elected for St. Thomas-in-the-East, the commission goes into a great length to implicate G. W. Gordon in the complicity in the "rebellion". The commission made it a point to quote many allegations and statements attributed to Gordon even if at times the statements which were attributed to Gordon were denied by other witnesses to which the Commission does not give credit ("the witness....seemed wholly unworthy of credit" JRC Report, p.36(534)). Many of Gordon’s statements quoted from his letters by the commission testify only to the political struggles he had with the Governor in the Jamaica Assembly and with the Costus of St. Thomas-in-the-East Baron von Ketelholdt who removed Gordon from the local governing body the Vestry, on the grounds that Gordon was not Anglican but Native Baptist. Gordon is portrayed as a mentor for Bogle. The commission shows a great dissatisfaction with the way he was tried and sentenced and releases him from any guilt of conspiracy to overthrow the government but it still imputes him guilt for his inflammatory statements which tended to "cause excitement and discontent" especially when they were addressed to "an ill-educated and impulsive people".

There were some other political prisoners, friends of Gordon, who like Gordon were unlowfully detained in Kingston area and brought for trial to Morant Bay but were not tried and released after the Martial Law was lifted. The Commission has mixed feelings about the way and the duration of the Martial Law. It should have been lifted as soon as the main leaders were sentenced and executed in this way more lives would have been spared. However in the conclusions of the Report the Commission praises Governor Eyre "for the skill, promptitude, and vigour which he manifested during the early stages of the insurrection". It also acknowledges the Military and Naval operations as being "prompt and judicious" though earlier it states that the troops and officers deployed should have been more briefed and instructed about the conduct and the scope of their operations so that many injustices could have been avoided.

Through the Report and the use in this report of the material collected, the Jamaica Royal Commission showed partiality by magnifying the atrocities not just of the rebels but also of the black soldiers and volunteers and also maroons who took part in the suppression of the rebellion always trying to justify the British officers and soldiers. In the summary of the reporting of the burned houses the Commission rounds up the number of the burned houses to 1000 which is an obvious mathematical mistake as the exact summation of the houses would add up to 1030. The commission might have also minimized the scale of the executions limiting the deaths caused by suppressors of the rebellion to 439 while other historians reviewing the appendixes submitted by the Commission claim that the number might have reached 600. The Commission never explicitly gives the number of the deaths inflicted by the rebels on the first day or two first days of the rebellion. Most of the historical books claim that there were 18 persons killed, however it is not specified whether the four persons killed "by the rebels" after the spur of passionate violence on the first day are included in that number.

If, theoretically, there was another commission, let us say "African Commission" who would do the investigation alongside the Commission from Britain, its conclusion might have been quite different. That commission would have given more attention to the political and social situation of the peasants and ex-slaves, giving more cognizance to the African religious spirit and tradition which gives prominence to God of Justice as portrayed in the Bible. It would probably have stated that peaceful series of protests were planned and conducted. These peaceful protests were ignored and a provocation was orchestrated where the ruling class in Jamaica incited an outbreak of violence by shooting to the demonstrators and subsequently suppressing all dissension by eliminating through executions the counter-political leaders of African descent in St. Thomas. Instead that the violent rebellion was planned, it might have concluded that at the wake of peaceful dissent and demonstration a violent suppression of the above was well organized and executed.

2.2 The Legacy of the Report.

The events of 1865 in St. Thomas-in-the-East were seen at the background of the slave revolt and the forming of the first "black republic" in Haiti, and other revolts and rebellions; in Barbados in 1816, Demerara in 1823, etc. The opinion was already well established among the planters and the white population of the West Indies as well as among the certain circles in Europe that slaves or after the emancipation, freed slaves of African decent are violent, barbaric, and ruthless when it comes to expressing their dissatisfaction. It was in the interest of the planters in the West Indies to portray black people as violent, barbaric, ignorant and lazy to get some sympathy and understanding from their colonial rulers in Europe. The Jamaica Royal Commission only rubber-stamped those common beliefs of the time and it might have been quite intentional to aggrandize the atrocities of the rebels in order to justify the embarrassing, excessive and brutal suppression of the Morant Bay Rebellion by the "civilized and orderly" authorities.

The Commission, to certain extend, has put a lead on the discussion about the Morant Bay Rebellion and its organizers for a hundred years. The true stories about the events and the consciousness of social and economic consequences of the rebellion for this part of Jamaica is present in the common beliefs of the people of St. Thomas till today. It is believed that the Paul Bogle Rebellion is accountable for the persistent underdevelopment of Eastern St. Thomas. The tourist industry and other investment and enterprise is very meager comparing to the other parts of Jamaica.

If to ask today the people of St. Thomas; "Who was Paul Bogle?" the vast majority of older generation, still relying on oral tradition, would reply; "He was a Baptist Deacon" while the answer that "He was the leader of Morant Bay Rebellion" or "revolutionary" would come from younger generation, especially from students of primary and high schools. This interesting observation, made by me during the church celebration of the Heroes Day, gives in to some reflection on how the society can be influenced by orally transmitted tradition and by history books.

It was not until Jamaica got its independence in 1962, that on the 100 anniversary of the Morant Bay Rebellion the mass grave of the men hanged and buried behind the Court house was excavated, the monument of Paul Bogle was erected and the leaders Paul Bogle and George William Gordon were declared national heroes. In 1998 The Paul Bogle Foundation was created, with initiative and vested interest of the descendants of Paul Bogle family, which has as its prime goal to redeem the image of the leaders of Morant Bay Rebellion. It will take some time before the wrongful image of Paul Bogle and St. Thomas peasants of 1865 will be restored. The fact that the historians used only the written account of the events, mainly the Jamaica Royal Commission Report has to certain extend prejudiced for many years the way we looked at the rebellion. In one of the recently published travel books that is available to wide public beyond the borders of Jamaica, it summarizes the events using the JRC Report in following way: "...Eventually the new rather seething society that was Jamaica was bound to lose its temper. It came in the form of the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion, led by freed slave Paul Bogle evoking the oath, "Cleave to the Black, Colour for Colour" and a call to kill all whites. Because it was rebellion by freed blacks, it would become a national symbol ( and Bogle a national hero) of strength against the oppression..." This is just one of the examples of many popular history accounts that relate in a simplistic way the events of 1865 perpetuating the image of Paul Bogle and his companions as violent men who wanted a bloody revenge for the times of slavery and for the present injustices.

B.W. Higman, a renown historian in the West Indies, in his recent book "Writing West Indian Histories" states:

"The implications of the association of history-writing in the English-speaking Caribbean with the language of imperialism are wide ranging in their significance. In the first place, the association suggests a particular attitude to the process underlying the production of historical accounts. The performance culture of oral tradition and oral tradition and oral histories has not been the model for amateur or professional history-writers. Rather, history writing in the West Indies has taken its models from Western historiography, a system of discourse in which priority is given to accounts written and published in the languages of Europe. Secondly, the language history-writing in the English-speaking Caribbean suggests a particular attitude to the sorts of evidence that might be used to construct accounts of the Caribbean past. Written texts are accorded a privileged status, whereas the evidence of oral testimony is given relatively little weight, as is pictorial evidence and material culture. Thus there is a conformity between the mode of discourse and its evidential base,"

Even in constructing the final Report the Jamaica Royal Commission has used with preference the vast amount of the written statements justifying the suppression presented by Governor Eyre rather than the oral statements especially that of the peasantry. The role of the historians now is not so much to absolve the Morant Bay rebellion as a justifiable riotous action against injustices and oppression but also to reconstruct the events using oral traditions and revisiting the oral interviews with the peasants from the material amassed by the Jamaica Royal Commission, as well as using other available methods, to lift the blame and guilt imputed to Paul Bogle and the peasantry of St. Thomas for contriving and executing a violent act of resistance.

Comparison of the leaders of Morant Bay Rebellion with Non-violent Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr.

Even though the attempt to contact the Martin Luther King Jr. Centre in Atlanta to find out whether Martin Luther King Jr. was aware of the Morant Bay Rebellion has failed, I think that the suggested comparison is well founded. Martin Luther King Jr. in his extensive studies must have touched upon the influence of the Southern Baptists in Jamaican processes of abolition of slavery and the history of post emancipation. The Morant Bay Rebellion was widely reported and discussed in the press and found itself at the centre of abolitionists discussions in the United States. The fact that the movement of non-violent resistance organized and mentored by King has evolved around the 100th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the United Sates as well as 100 years of the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica bears some wight on my argument..

3.1 Religious and ideological background of the above.

The two well known uprisings of 19^th century in Jamaica; the Western Uprising of 1831 and the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 were consequences of the peaceful resistance organized by Sam Sharpe and Paul Bogle . Both of them were Baptist deacons and their actions were motivated by the Bible and Christian understanding of God. These local leaders of purely African descent could find the venue for their leadership only through the non-conformist churches. The non-violent resistance actions of Sharpe and Bogle introduced the prototype of the non-violent resistant movement of Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. It has to be noted that both twenty century non-violent resistance movement leaders were inspired by religion and started to exercise their action in a highly racist societies; (Ghandi has started his marches while still living in South Africa.)

The Baptist Church in Jamaica was not started by the missionaries from Britain. The newly founded Baptist Missionary Society in England sent its first pastors to Jamaica in 1814 at the request of the Baptist Church already founded and rapidly developing. The Baptist Church was started by two ex-slaves black preachers George Lisle and Moses Baker who came to Jamaica from the south of United States at the end of the War of Independence in 1782 and they have founded the Native Baptist Church of which Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle and George William Gordon were ordained deacons. The Southern Baptist missionaries "planted the seed of an indigenous evangelical movement amongst the people, blending the Christian message with traditional African modes of worship, including spirit possession dancing, the clapping of hands and swaying of the body". From the outset these Churches posed a threat to the well established ones; Anglican, Methodist and Weslyan, and especially to the Anglican Church which was the only official church until 1794. Through Baker and Lisle the Bible for the first time reached the African-Jamaican people; "they built up large followings, Lisle in Kingston and Baker in western Jamaica. Their congregations grew rapidly, and they appealed to the newly-founded Baptist Missionary Society in England for help. By the 1820s white Baptist missionaries , troublesome dissenters in the eyes of the plantocracy, had begun to arrive". The Native Baptist Church was the leading Church in conscientizing the slaves about their social condition. Many of its ministers were charged and imprisoned. Nonconformist missionaries became slaves’ allies in resistance.

"Never before had the enslaved people held a book in their hands and certainly not the Bible, for it was not regarded with favour on the Jamaican sugar-and-slave plantation. All school doors were closed to African-Jamaicans, so they could not read. Church doors were closed to them. (...) The African-Jamaicans, a very religious people, sought what comfort they could find in communion with Obi, Mayalism, Cumina, in Haiti with Vudun, in Trinidad in a later period with Shango. Barred from the church, the school and any form of marriage, the African-Jamaicans were derided as being superstitious, stupid and immoral.

Now, with the missionaries as their teachers in Sunday school, the Bible became their holy book that contained the word of God, their comforter and beloved companion in the valley of the Shadow of Death. It was their certificate of identity which confirmed their status as God the father’s children, their guarantee of a future in the Father’s company and above all their blessed assurance that each one was a worth-while somebody for whom Massa God gave His only son. They were no longer the only ones who had been slaves. They shared the Jewish experience of having been an oppressed people. In the prophets, patriarchs, psalmists they found comfort and hope. The Jewish story had for them an almost unbearable piercing relevance"

The Christian religion, biblical spirituality, opportunity for exercising leadership, occasion to organize themselves in a group was provided for the African descent people in those churches. Paul Bogle and George William Gordon as well as Martin Luther King had the motivation, empowerment and space through the Baptist Church to educate, motivate and organize the people for resistance. All three of them were prosecuted, imprisoned, and died for their convictions.

3.2 Methods and strategies of resistance.

It seems to me that Martin Luther King Jr. was conscious of the resistance that was posed by the Jamaican native Baptist leaders to the oppression and racial injustice, because those churches were founded by the Southern Baptist missionaries from United States of which King himself was a member. He might have reflected on the methods that were used by Sam Sharpe in Montego Bay, and Paul Bogle in Morant Bay. Sam Sharpe in 1831 used the method of civil disobedience as he campaigned: "We must all agree to set down after Christmas. We must not trouble anybody and raise no rebellion. We did not swear to burn anywhere or to fight" to demand wages for their work in the plantations. The destruction of property did not form a part of the original plan of the conspirators; also no life was to be sacrificed except in self-defense. However, there was a contingency plan, mainly burning of sugar cane, when the demands were not met and the planters used force and violence against the slaves while "on labor strike", but even these did not include killing or violence against a person rather escape and retreat into the woods. One could see a great respect for human life on the part of the slaves. In the course of Western Uprising some estates property was burned and that prompted swift and brutal suppression. Similarly, Paul Bogle’s original plan might have been just a protest, siting in front of the court house obstructing the meetings of the Vestry or even burning of the Court House in Morant Bay as a symbol of injustice and oppression. The violence and killing started on the part of the oppressors; the volunteers who started shooting at the demonstrators. Very few persons were killed during the actual rebellion, and apart from the looting of the plantations, etc. and burning of the Court House in Morant Bay, no much destruction was done. Close to 500 persons who died were shot or executed during the Martial Law. Over a thousand houses that were burned by the suppressors of the Rebellion were the thatched houses of the peasants of St. Thomas in some way suspected of siding or participating in the rebellion. It looks like Paul Bogle organizing his civil disobedience and resistance campaign has reflected upon the Uprising of 1831 in Montego Bay and refrained from burning property. His action of civil disobedience included however some new elements; mainly meetings, marches and demonstrations. In 1865 following the Underhill’s report about the situation of the poor in Jamaica initiated a series of public meetings called ‘Underhill’s meetings". The outcome of the last of these meetings organized by George William Gordon with the help of Paul Bogle in Morant Bay on August 12, 1865 was the march of about 50 men from Stony Gut to the Spanish Town - then capital of Jamaica to deliver a petition letter and plead the cause with the Governor Eyre. This was emulated by Martin Luther King Jr. one century later with the famous March on Washington. Similarly, the marches on the Morant Bay Court House of Paul Bogle, demanding justice from the Court could be paralleled with the Civil Rights Movement’s marches organized by Martin Luther King. The same as the march on Montgomery which was announced by King to the authorities and then met with brutal suppression so the Bogle’s march on October 11, 1865 was announced and met with suppression. However, unlike as in King’s marches, the Morant Bay demonstrators retaliated in anger turning the peaceful resistance demonstration into a riot and then with the support of many people in St. Thomas into a wide spread rebellion. A critical reflection upon the events in Jamaican history might have led the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. to adopt a totally non-violent resistance to the point of passive acceptance of suffering which with the help of the media has immediately appealed to the consciences of many Americans. Among other methods used by Paul Bogle which could be paralleled with the methods used a hundred years later in United States are;

boycott of the unjust court proceedings in Morant Bay Court on October 7^th and boycott of segregation in buses in Montgomery;

noncooperation - refusal by Bogle to be arrested unjustly and refusal by Civil Rights activists to comply with the law mandating segregation in using public facilities;

obstruction - disrupting court and vestry sittings in Morant Bay to protest unjust rulings and judgements, and sit-ins in schools and restaurants in Seatle and St. Augustin, Florida to protest segregation;

picketing - posters used in campaigns of Bogle and Martin Luther King.

petition campaigns - petitions send to the Queen and to Governor Eyre and petitions sent to the president of USA, congress etc.

The Paul Bogle campaign of peaceful resistance has many semblances of the more perfected, theorized and organized non-violent movements of the 20^th century.

Usually persons and movements are judged by their achievements. The methods and actions are justified if the action has produced some betterment in the social situation. In the case of Paul Bogle, the historians tend to justify the violence that occurred without examining intentions of the organizers and yielding only to the written records about it. They absolve the violence by emphasizing the long standing achievements of the event that Morant Bay Rebellion has produced.

Morant Bay rebellion was a breaking point in Jamaican history and social and political situation have changed into better as a result of it, similarly as the Civil Right Movements of the sixties have improved considerably the situation of the African Americans in the United States. It simply means that in both cases the leaders of the resistance movements have been on the right side as they have appealed to the conscience of the state to make concessions and introduce more just laws. Bogle and King have left a legacy and are regarded as national heroes in their respective countries and both of them have been so honoured post-mortem when the historical truth about the contribution of their lives to the nation-building has been fully appreciated.

Theological reflections.

The plan of civil disobedience and resistance organized by Paul Bogle was motivated by ideals of the Scriptures. He was above of all a Baptist deacon who applied scriptures and social analysis in his ministry. He was inspired by the biblical figures of Moses, Joshua and David who, like him, fought for the land. He was very conscious that God is on his side and on the side of the oppressed and dispossessed. He deeply believed in the God of Justice. The Old Testament applauds and justifies violence that was used by the leaders of Israel to conquer and posses the Promised Land.

The scriptures do not portray God in a uniform way. Yahweh, God of Israel, is God who cares for the people of Israel and who justifies the violence of Israel’s leaders against oppressors and enemies of the people of God. It is evidenced especially in the Book of Joshua, Book of Judges, Books of Samuel and Books of Kings. The Bible was written by the inspired people of Israel and Joshua, Gideon, Samson, Saul and David and even prophet Elijah’s violence against the priests of Baal is justified. It is only later that in some of the Prophets and through teaching of Jesus that non-violence; offering the other cheek and forgiving the enemies, is advocated. Even throughout the history of Christianity that teaching of Jesus about non-violence was not always up-held or practiced.

In the history of salvation (biblical history) as well as in the history of Christianity it took time that real will and image of God was revealed to humanity.

The development of resistance and struggle for justice in the New World by African descendants from violent to totally non-violent resembles the historical and biblical evolution of the understanding of God by the People of God from God of Justice tolerating violence in Old Testament to God of Love in New Testament.

Through the arguments presented in this paper one can see an evident evolution of the non-violent resistance where two Jamaican Baptist deacons inspired, not just by the Old Testament leaders of Israel, but also by the values of the Gospel have resisted injustice. Sam Sharpe and later Paul Bogle being inspired by the Christian message with a strong sense of what is just and right have initiated a peaceful struggle through strikes, non-cooperation with unjust laws, and conscientization of the people, marches and protest demonstrations. The violence was only deliberated as a last resort and as means of self-defense not as a revenge. Unprepared to hold their passion when challenged by the violent provocation of the unjust authorities in power, to their peaceful and just struggle they responded with violence. However, the violence of the state which suppressed the uprisings was far more brutal, unjust and excessive. In the case of Morant Bay rebellion; two public buildings; Court house and vestry burnt comparing with 1030 houses burned by the suppression; 22 persons killed during the rebellion and 439 according to official records executed or shot during the suppression. Unspecified yet small number of people injured during the rebellion and over 600 people brutally flogged by the Martial Law enforcement. No matter how one counts, the excessive suppression was a great embarrassment to the colonial authorities. Yet at the end this brought concession and changes similarly as the violence used against totally non-violent protests of Civil Right Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. brought much desired changes and improvement of life and social status of the African Americans in the United States.

During Civil Right Movement in United States in the sixties there where many, not just African Americans who sought for justice. All the actions of the Civil Right Movements in the States were widely debated, the general public, not just in the States, was provided with vivid televised images of state violence against protestors, and their statements and declarations were immediately publicized. Thus the historical truth was well established and could not be falsified, even though attempts were made.

Unfortunately, the exodus from slavery and the conquering of the land in the Caribbean was not written originally by "Israelites"- uprooted and oppressed African people, but by Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians and Babilonians - the colonist oppressors. Hence there is a need for the redemption of history of the Caribbean, a need to redeem the tarnished image that the Caribbean person of African descent has inherited through the historical accounts of the colonial times.