The
destruction of Napoleon’s fleet at Trafalgar
in 1805, and the subsequent defeat of the French
off Santo Domingo by Admiral Duckworth (February
6, 1806), resulted in Jamaica ceasing to have
to provide largely for her own defence. During
the years when Napolean’s ships were moving
over the waters of the Caribbean, this Colony
sometimes spent as much as $120,000 a year for
the support of the soldiers maintained here.
This huge expenditure steadily creased after
the defeat of Napoleon at sea, and his later
downfall.
Jamaica’s
importance as a military and naval station declined
steadily during the nineteenth century. The wealth
which came to this island through its being made,
at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a depot for
goods to be smuggled or sold to the neighboring
Spanish-American countries, diminished also. Twenty
years after the battle of Trafalgar the Jamaican
planters began to complain bitterly of poverty.
The great days of Jamaica’s prosperity were over.
Her days of adversity had begun.
The
abolition of the slave trade also brought about
considerable changes in the treatment of the slaves.
It no longer paid to work a slave beyond the limits
of his endurance. As no more workers could be
imported from Africa, the value of those in the
island increased greatly. The slaves were allowed
a small piece of land on the plantations on which
they worked, and they could cultivate this bit
of land one day in every two weeks. What remained
of the provisions they grew after had taken enough
for their own support, they were allowed to sell.
Thus a good many slaves acquired money. These
either bought themselves out of slavery, or purchased
the freedom of their children, before the abolition
took place.
In
1808 The Duke of Manchester, who also
held the title of Viscount Mandeville, arrived
as Governor. In the same year there was a mutiny
among the men of the 2nd West India Regiment,
stationed at Fort Augusta. The mutiny was chiefly
confined to the recruits, who were Africans. The
older soldiers remained faithful, and shot down
the mutineers.
In
1809 a conspiracy of the slaves in
Kingston to burn down the city and murder the
white inhabitants was discovered. The ringleaders
were put to death.
In
1814 the Baptist Mission was founded,
and the largest coffee crop ever reaped in Jamaica
was shipped away.
In
1816 the law which enacted that for
giving a slave his liberty the owner should pay
£100 to the Government was rescinded. This
law had been passed to prevent owners from liberating
too many of their slaves.
In
1815, Simon Bolivar, the Liberator
of Spanish Central America, came to Jamaica as
a political refugee and remained for about seven
months. The Duke of Manchester entertained him.
This was the year of the Battle of Waterloo.
In
1818 Jamaica was visited by two severe
hurricanes, one in the month of October and another
in November. In the following year the Government
made a determined effort to exterminate the dangerous
gangs of runaway slaves, numbering nearly 2,600,
who infested the country, robbing travellers,
stealing cattle and whatever else they could put
their hands upon. Many of them were captured or
slain.
In
1820 the Duke of Manchester fell from
his horse and fractured his skull. He justify
the island for a time, and General Conran became
Lieutenant-Governor.
In
1823 the House of Assembly refused
to accept the British Government’s instructions
for making easier the condition of the slaves.
The House of Assembly declared that the code under
which the slaves were governed was calculated
‘to render the slave population as happy and comfortable,
in every respect, as the labouring class in any
part of the world.’ The planters objected to any
interference on the part of the British Government
with themselves or their slaves.
In
1824 the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica
was founded. The year after Jamaica was constituted
an independent Episcopal See, and the Right Reverend
Christopher Lipscombe, D.D., came to Jamaica as
the first Bishop of the Anglican Church.
In
1827 the Duke of Manchester retired
after having governed Jamaica for nineteen years.
The parish of Manchester and the town of Mandeville
had both been named for him. Major General Sir
John Keen became Lieutenant-Governor.
In
1829 the Earl of Belmore arrived as
Governor. The year after hi arrival there was
a hurricane.
In
1831 a great insurrection of the slaves
broke out in St. James and rapidly spread to the
parishes of Trelawny, Hanover, Westmoreland St.
Elizabeth and Manchester. For many years the agitation
against the treatment of the slaves in Jamaica
had been going on in England with increased vigour.
The oppression of the slaves by Jamaican planters
was violently denounced in England by the abolitionists,
and in Jamaica the planters talked loudly of the
injustice to which they were subjected in England.
The slaves heard of what was taking place in England,
and some of them believed that the King had granted
them freedom and that they were being wrongly
kept in bondage by their owners.
December
28 marked the beginning of the last great slave
rebellion, reputed to be instrumental in bringing
about the abolition of slavery. Led by Samuel
(‘Daddy’) Sharpe, a Baptist Deacon, this Christmas
Rebellion lasted for four months until the rebel
leaders were overpowered and hanged in Charles
Square, Montego Bay, later renamed Sam Sharpe
Square. Samuel Sharpe was hanged on May 23,
1832 and was buried in the sands of the Montego
Bay Harbour from which his remains were later
recovered and interred beneath the pulpit of
the Burchell Baptist Church. The missionaries
working among the slaves were accused of having
been the indirect cause of this insurrection,
and some of them were very harshly treated.
In
1832 the Earl of Belmore justify Jamaica,
and the Earl of Mulgrave arrived as Governor.
He urged upon the House of Assembly the necessity
of adopting measures looking to the better treatment
of the slaves. The House returned a petulant answer.
It denied the right of the British House of Commons
to assume any power of supremacy over the colonists
of Jamaica, and it declined to act on either the
suggestions of the Governor or the resolutions
of the House of Commons. The British Parliament
then determined to act decisively.
Edward
Jordon, a light-coloured freeman who had served
all liberal causes, was tried for his life for
the stand taken by his newspaper, The Watchman.
He was acquitted but given a prison term on
other trumped-up charges.
In
1833 in May, the English Colonial Secretary
stated in the House of Commons that all appeals
to the slave-holders had been made in vain, and
that the British nation must now, on its own initiative,
suppress slavery in all the British Dominions.
The Abolition Act was passed on August 28. It
enacted that all children under six years of age
should be set free. There was to be a six years’
period of ‘apprenticeship’ from 1834 to 1840,
after which every slave in the British Empire
should receive full freedom. The British Parliament
voted £20,000,000 as compensation to the
slave-holders in the Empire. Of this amount, £5,853,975
was the share that fell to the Jamaican slave-holders.
In
1834 the Marquis of Sligo arrived as
Governor. The apprenticeship system began under
him. On the Ist of August, 1834, all the chapels
and churches in the island, except one or two
churches in Kingston, were opened for Divine Service.
These places of worship were attended by thousands
of the people. On the following Monday the ‘apprentices’
turned out to work, except in the Parish of St.
Ann. In two or three other parishes some minor
disturbances occurred later on. On the whole,
it was soon found that the apprenticeship system
was not working well. The planters, angry that
they had been defeated in their struggle to maintain
slavery, inflicted numerous punishments on the
apprentices. Consequently it was determined, by
the British Parliament in 1838, that the period
of apprenticeship should cease on the Ist August,
1838.
On
September 13, the first issue of The Daily
Gleaner was published.
In
1838, on August 1, there were demonstrations
throughout the island to celebrate the first day
of complete freedom. In Spanish Town, the capital,
a hearse containing the chains and shackles that
were sometimes put on rebellious slaves was driven
through the streets, and these symbols of slavery
were solemnly buried. There were bonfires and
feasting every-where. Queen Victoria, who had
lately ascended the throne, was blessed as the
author of the people's freedom.
But
the troubles which had begun during the time
of the apprenticeship, now became much worse.
Many of the free people did not wish to work
for the men who had once owned them. There were
complaints about the small wage that the planters
offered: it was ninepence a day in a great many
instances. The planters, on the other hand,
were stern and angry. They began to turn the
people off their lands. They destroyed the huts
the ex-slaves had lived in; they cut down the
fruit trees their former labourers had planted.
The result of the ill-will on both sides and
of the planters’ lack of tact and patience was
that the labourers were estranged from the estates.
The people began to buy land of their own. They
were helped with money that was sent out by
sympathetic people in England. Many of them
also squatted on land that belonged to absent
proprietors. The planters cried out that they
could not get labour, and the sugar estates
began to go out of cultivation.
In
1839 Sir Charles Metcalfe succeeded
Sir Lionel Smith as Governor. In this same year
a drought began; and it lasted till the Spring
of 1841, causing a great deal of loss and distress.
In
1841 a number of African immigrants
arrived to work on the sugar estates. These people
were imported to replace the slaves, as the planters
contended that it was absolutely necessary to
get labour from outside Jamaica. The importation
of African labour was not continued.
In
1842 the Earl of Elgin arrived as Governor.
In that same year the General Agricultural Society
of Jamaica was founded, and the Calabar College
was opened.
In
1845 two very important events occurred.
The Jamaica Railway, then under a private company,
was opened for traffic. The line ran from Kingston
to a place called Angels, nearly fifteen miles
away.
The
first goup of indentured East Indian agricultural
workers also arrived in this year. The planters
had turned to India for their labourers.
In
1847 Sir Charles Edward Gray became
Governor. The financial condition of the colony
was bad, and a year later it became much worse.
In
1848, adopted the policy of Free Trade,
allowing goods from foreign countries to enter
the English market on the same terms as goods
from the British colonies. In former days, sugar
from Cuba had paid a far heavier duty in the English
market than Jamaican sugar. When this advantage
was lost, Jamaica could not compete with Cuba
and other foreign sugar-producing countries, especially
as many of those countries cultivated their estates
by means of slave labour. A crisis occurred in
Jamaica. The Planters’ Bank which had helped the
planters in need of ready money, closed its doors,
and the people of the colony declared loudly that
the expenses of the Government would have to be
reduced. The financial troubles continued for
some time, but a still more serious calamity was
approaching.
In
1850 Asiatic cholera made its appearance
in Jamaica. There was little or no sanitation
in the towns of Jamaica at that time. Dwelling
houses were crowded; the yards were kept in a
filthy condition; the streets were neglected,
and refuse of every description was allowed to
rot in them. The water for use in the city and
towns was often very impure. Cholera therefore
found this country an easy victim and 32,000 people
died during the epidemic.
In
1852 smallpox broke out in Jamaica. It also claimed
a large number of victims.
In
1853 Sir Henry Barkly arrived as Governor.
He inaugurated a change in the Constitution under
which Jamaicans, including Edward Jordan, were
appointed to an executive committee. Population
had decreased, many estates had gone out of cultivation,
the people were poverty-stricken, revenue could
not easily be raised and there was no money in
the Treasury. The British Government was compelled
to lend Jamaica £500,000 to pay off the
debts that had accumulated.
In
1857 Captain Charles Darling was appointed
Governor of Jamaica. By this time the colony had
somewhat recovered from its recent deplorable
condition.
In
1858 Jamaican postage stamps were first
issued.
In
1859 the telegraph system was introduced
into the colony. There were two local riots during
this year.
In
1861 a great religious revival occurred
in Jamaica. It soon degenerated into superstitious
practices.
In
1862 Mr.
Edward John Eyre became Lieutenant-Governor of
Jamaica, and in 1864 he was made Governor. The
disputes between the planters and the labouring
population had grown more bitter and more intense
every year since the emancipation. The labourers
and their leaders objected to the bringing of
cookies to the country. Since 1861 the American
Civil War had been raging, with the result that
food imported from America was very dear. The
Revival had also unsettled the minds of the people,
and from 1863 a severe drought had begun to afflict
the country.
Governor
Eyre was not popular. He openly flouted the
House of Assembly. While he was still Lieutenant-Governor
of the Colony a large number of the Jamaican
politicians had asked for his recall. Under
his administration, taxes were increased and
he himself, early in 1865, described the colony
as in a state of degeneration.
In
1865 the Reverend Dr. Underhill, a Baptist minister
in England, sent to the Secretary of State for
the Colonies a letter on the condition of Jamaica.
Dr. Underhill had been in Jamaica and knew the
country well. In his letter he complained of
the treatment which the lower classes received
at the hands of the planters, and urged that
certain reforms should be instituted. His letter
was sent to General Eyre for the latter’s comments.
Eyre circulated the letter among the clergymen
and Custodes of Jamaica, and nearly all of these
denied the assertions of Dr. Underhill.
A
copy of the letter found its way into the newspapers.
Public meetings, called ‘Underhill Meetings’,
were held in different towns, and many of these
were presided over by Mr. George William Gordon
who was a Member of the House of Assembly. He
had once been a Justice of the Peace, but had
been deprived of his commission by Eyre who
showed an aversion to him because he had exposed
certain abuses in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East
and, in particular, the conduct of the Anglican
Rector. Eyre was a strong Anglican and Gordon
had become a Baptist.
Gordon
made fiery speeches inside and outside the House
of Assembly, where from 1864 he represented
St. Thomas-in-the-East. He had in St. Thomas
a political supporter and religious follower
called Paul Bogle who exercised considerable
local influence. There were many grievances
of which the peasants and labourers of the parish
complained; but the Custos, Baron von Kettleholdt,
lived in St. Andrew and did not understand what
the St. Thomas people felt. He too came to have
a strong dislike for Gordon.
On
October 11, when the Vestry was meeting in the
Court House at Morant Bay, Paul Bogle and his
followers marched into the town and demonstrated
in front of the Court House. The volunteer militia,
who had been called out by the Custos, fired
on the crowd, and Bogle thereupon rushed the
volunteers and besieged the Vestry and volunteers
in the Court House. Eventually Bogle’s men set
fire to the building, and the Custos and a number
of others were killed while trying to escape.
Bogle was for a short time master of the parish.
But Erye sent a warship to Morant Bay and poured
troops and Maroons into St. Thomas. The resistance
was ineffective. Martial Law had been proclaimed
and the revolt was put down with terrible severity.
Over 1,000 huts were burnt; nearly 600 people
were shot or hanged and a large number of men
and women were flogged. Gordon was arrested
as the instigator of this rebellion, but there
was no evidence whatever that he had deliberately
instigated it. He was illegally transferred
from Kingston, tried by court martial at Morant
Bay, found guilty and hanged.
Bogle
was captured and hanged. Attempts were made
to persuade him to state that Gordon had instigated
the revolt, but he persisted in stating that
Gordon knew nothing about it.
In
1866 early in January, a Royal Commission
arrived from England to enquire into the origin
and suppression of the rebellion.
Governor
Eyre was suspended, and the head of the Com-mission,
Sir Henry Stokes, became temporary Governor.
After thoroughly going into the matter, the
Commission found that ‘the disturbances had
their immediate origin in a planned resistance
to lawful authority; but that the punishments
inflicted during Martial Law were excessive;
that the punishment of death was unnecessarily
frequent; that the floggings were reckless,
and at Bath positively barbarous; and that the
burning of 1,000 houses was wanton and cruel.’
Eyre was then recalled and dismissed from the
Imperial Service.
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