Paul Bogle and the Morant Bay Uprising

ON OCTOBER 11, 1865, exactly 158 years ago, Paul Bogle and his supporters marched from Stony Gut to the courthouse in Morant Bay in St Thomas to seek justice. What they got instead was a stand-off from the authorities who were meeting in the vestry. The local militia was also there. They had anticipated the arrival of the throng.

But who was this man, whose leadership, in retrospect, inadvertently brought down Governor Eyre and changed the course of governance in Jamaica? He was born about 1820 in slavery as James Bogle, and lived in the Spring Garden/Stony Gut area in St Thomas. His name was changed after he became a native Baptist. It is written that he had fathered at least three children – William, Richard and Cecelia.

VOICE OF THE POOR

Bogle was a small farmer and baker who had properties, owned horses, and was a deacon who had built his own chapel. He was baptised by George William Gordon, the mulatto son of a white planter and one of his enslaved Africans. Bogle and Gordon had much respect and admiration for each other, and they were to become the voice of the poor, suffering people of St Thomas.

At the time, Edward John Eyre, the British colonial governor, was in charge of the administration of the colony, in which there were dissenting voices, much discontent among the laity and in the Assembly over the state of affairs of the country. They were cries for social justice, and Gordon protested against the ill-treatment and injustice meted out to the poor. There were much economic suffering and appalling social conditions.

Through his friends and supporters in the Assembly, Governor Eyre enacted legislation prescribing harsh punishment, such as flogging for stealing fruits and vegetables. When Bogle and his supporters marched from Stony Gut to Spanish Town, St Catherine, with a petition, Eyre refused to entertain them.

DISTRESS OF THE COLOURED POPULATION

Things were so bad that Baptist missionary, the Rev Edward B. Underhill, secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society in London, wrote a letter to the secretary of state, Edward Cardwell. That was January 1865. Underhill said he had been getting many letters from the people of Jamaica about the “distress of the coloured population”. He said, inter alia, “The simple fact is that there is not sufficient employment for the people; there is neither work for them, nor the capital to employ them.”

The letter was eventually sent to Governor John Eyre, who asked the parish custodies and the heads of religious denominations to investigate Underhill’s “allegations”.

“In the meantime, I may state that I believe Dr Underhill’s letter contains a very exaggerated view of the state of the colony and of the labouring class”, Governor Eyre said in his response.

Absolutely nothing was done to alleviate poverty and injustice, and things came to a head on Saturday, October 7, when Bogle and his followers, armed with bludgeons and accompanied by music, attended the trial of a black man from Stony Gut who was arrested because he trespassed on a long-abandoned estate. Another peasant from Stony Gut was arrested because he spoke out in court against his unjust arrest. Bogle and the others rescued him, and the police severely beaten, after which Bogle and company retreated to Stony Gut.

POLICEMEN BEATEN

On Monday, the 9th, six policemen went to Stony Gut with warrants to arrest 28 peasants. When they arrived a conch shell was blown, and a mob with guns, cutlasses, pikes and bayonets appeared. Three policemen were beaten, handcuffed and forced to take an oath to abandon the whites and join the blacks.

Custos Baron von Ketelhodt was out of the parish. He returned the following day at noon. He wrote a letter to Governor Eyre apprising him of the incident of October 7. There were talks that Bogle and his followers would return to Morant Bay, for they had sent a petition to the governor asking for protection from the police because they were “Her Majesty’s loyal subjects”. They said if protection were refused “we will be compelled to put our shoulders to the wheel”.

Fearing another disturbance, Governor Eyre sent 100 troops from Kingston to Morant Bay by ship, and instructed Custos Ketelhodt by way of letter. With that done, Governor Eyre set off to Flamstead, his mountain retreat, for a dinner party to be held the following day.

On Wednesday, October 11, while Governor Eyre was enjoying himself at Flamstead, the vestry was meeting in the courthouse. But Bogle was not done. He led two bands of citizens on a march from Stony Gut to Morant Bay. Their arrival was “heralded by the sound of horns, conch shells, fifes and drums, and armed with heavy sticks … cutlasses … long staves, some of them with spikes or cutlasses lashed to them … ”.

At the courthouse, someone in Bogle’s band tossed a stone at the authorities. The magistrate ordered the militia to fire into the crowd. It did, and Bogle’s supporters retaliated. When the fighting was over, way into the night, some 18 whites were killed and 31 injured.

MARTIAL LAW

The custos was among the dead. The courthouse, the school, and other buildings were destroyed by fire. Bogle and his surviving followers fled to Stony Gut. The governor responded with the imposition of martial law by sending troops to Stony Gut, where over 400 peasants were killed and the village razed.

Bogle himself was captured on October 22 on the main road between Torrington and Stony Gut. Along with some of his followers, Bogle was hanged, on October 24, from the centre arch of the burnt-out courthouse at Morant Bay as “a rebel and devil incarnate”. George William Gordon was brought by boat from Kingston to Morant Bay and hanged on October 23.

Governor Eyre was recalled and tried for the hanging of Gordon, but he was not convicted. The system of government change to Crown Colony, and it remained so until 1944.