1865 жылғы Ямайкадағы наразылық және көтеріліс

1865 protest in Jamaica

The Morant Bay Rebellion (11 October 1865) began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the courthouse and nearby buildings. Twenty five people died. Over the next two days, poor freedmen rose in rebellion across most of St. Thomas in the East parish. The Jamaicans were protesting against injustice and widespread poverty. Most freedmen were prevented from voting by high poll taxes, and their living conditions had worsened following crop damage by floods, cholera and smallpox epidemics, and a long drought. A few days before the march, when police tried to arrest a man for disrupting a trial, a fight broke out against them by spectators. Officials then issued a warrant for the arrest of preacher Bogle, who had called for reforms, and was charged with inciting to riot. Governor Edward John Eyre declared martial law in the area, ordering in troops to hunt down the rebels. They killed many black individuals, including women and children, with an initial death toll of more than 400. Troops arrested more than 300 persons, including Bogle. Many of these were also innocent but were quickly tried and executed under martial law; both men and women were punished by whipping and long sentences. This was the most severe suppression of unrest in the history of the British West Indies.

During the election of 1864, fewer than 2,000 black Jamaican men were eligible to vote (no women could vote at the time) out of a total population of more than 436,000, in which blacks outnumbered whites by a ratio of 32:1. Prior to the rebellion, conditions in Jamaica had been worsening for poor blacks. In 1864 there were several floods that ruined many crops, while 1865 marked the end of a decade in which the island had been overwhelmed by plagues of cholera and smallpox. A two year drought preceding 1865 made economic conditions worse for much of the population of survivors of slavery and their descendants. Several bankruptcies were declared in the sugar industry, causing a loss of jobs and widening the economic void. Tensions between white planters and black Jamaicans increased, and rumours began circulating among the freedmen that white planters intended to restore slavery. Gordon criticized Eyre's draconian punishments such as flogging and the treadmill for crimes such as stealing food. He warned that "If we are to be governed by such a Governor much longer, the people will have to fly to arms and become self governing." In 1865, Dr. Edward Underhill, Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society of Great Britain, wrote a letter to the Colonial Office in London in order to describe Jamaica's poor state of affairs for the mass of people. This letter was later shown to Jamaica's Governor John Eyre, who immediately tried to deny the truth of its statements. Jamaica's poor black people learned of the letter and began organizing in "Underhill Meetings". Peasants in Saint Ann parish sent a petition to Queen Victoria asking for Crown lands to cultivate, saying they could not find land for themselves. The petition was sent to Eyre first, and he enclosed a letter with his own comments. The Queen's reply was made known, and many of the poor believed that Eyre had influenced her opinion: she encouraged the poor to work harder, rather than offering any help. Gordon, who was one of two representatives from the parish of St. Thomas in the East, began encouraging the people in his parish to find ways to make their grievances known. One of his followers was a black Baptist deacon named Paul Bogle. In August 1865 Bogle led a deputation of peasants from St. Thomas in the East an 87 kilometer march to the capital, Spanish Town, hoping to meet with the governor, John Eyre to discuss issues. But the governor refused to receive them.

Eyre was replaced as governor by John Peter Grant who arrived in August 1866. Since the 1830s free people of color, like Gordon, Edward Jordon, and Robert Osborn, had been elected to the Jamaican House of Assembly in increasing numbers, and that alarmed the colonial authorities. In the wake of the Morant Bay Rebellion, Eyre, with the support of the Colonial Office, persuaded the Assembly to renounce its charter, thus ending two centuries of elected representation in the Colony of Jamaica. White planters were appointed by the governor. However, this move deprived the black majority of a voice in the colony's government, and it was condemned by Jordon and Osborn. Jamaica became a Crown Colony, under direct rule from London.

In 1969, Paul Bogle and George William Gordon were among several men who were named as Jamaican National Heroes, the highest honour in the nation.