THE JAMAICA REBELLION, 1865.
In October, 1865, a rebellion broke out amongst the black population of
Jamaica. On the 7th of that month, at the Petty Sessions at Morant Bay,
a prisoner, who had been convicted of an assault, was rescued from the
police, and on the 9th a warrant was issued for the apprehension of two
persons named Bogle and several others, who were stated to have taken an
active part in the riot of the 7th. Six policemen and two rural
constables proceeded, early on the morning of the 10th of October, to
execute this warrant at Stony Gut, about five miles from Morant Bay,
where Paul Bogle and some other of the alleged rioters lived. They found
Bogle in his yard, and told him that they had a warrant for his
apprehension. He desired to have the warrant read to him, which was
done. He then said that he would not go, and upon one of the policemen
proceeding to apprehend him, he cried out: "Help, here!" At the same
time, a man named Grant, who was with him, and who was addressed as
"Captain," called out, "Turn out, men." Almost immediately a body of
men, variously estimated at from 300 to 500, armed with cutlasses,
sticks, and pikes, rushed out from a chapel where Bogle was in the habit
of preaching, and from an adjoining cane-field, and attacked the
policemen.
The police were, of course, overpowered. Some of them were severely
beaten. Three of their number were made prisoners and detained for
several hours, being ultimately only released upon their taking an oath
that they would "join their colour," and "cleave to the black."
So far, perhaps, the disturbances might have been considered to be
nothing more than an ordinary riot; but the proceedings of the rioters
on the following day soon put their intentions beyond all reasonable
doubt.
On the 11th of October the Vestry, consisting of certain elected members
and magistrates, assembled in the court-house at Morant Bay about noon,
and proceeded with their ordinary business till between three and four
o'clock, when notice was given that a crowd of people was approaching.
The volunteers were hastily called together, and almost immediately
afterwards a body of men, armed with cutlasses, sticks, bayonets, and
muskets, after having attacked the police station and obtained
possession of such arms as were there deposited, were seen entering a
large open space facing the court-house, in front of which the
volunteers had been drawn up. The Custos, Baron Ketelhodt, went out to
the steps, and called to the people to know what they wanted. He
received no answer, and his cries of "Peace! peace!" were met by cries
from the crowd of "War!"
As the advancing mob drew near, the volunteers retired till they reached
the steps of the court-house. The Custos then began to read the Riot
Act. While he was in the act of reading it stones were thrown at the
volunteers, and Captain Hitchins, who commanded them, was struck in the
forehead. The captain, having received authority from the Custos, then
gave the word to fire. The order was obeyed, and some of the rioters
were seen to fall. The volunteers were soon overpowered, and the
court-house, in which refuge was sought, was set on fire. Many people
were barbarously murdered while trying to escape. Eighteen persons,
including the Custos, two sons of the rector, the Island Curate of Bath,
the Inspector of Police, the captain, two lieutenants, a sergeant, and
three privates of volunteers were killed. Thirty-one persons were
wounded.
After this the town remained in possession of the rioters. The gaolers
were compelled to throw open the prison doors, and fifty-one prisoners
who were there confined were released. Several stores were attacked, and
from one of them a considerable quantity of gunpowder was taken. An
attempt was made to force the door of the magazine, where about 300
stand of arms were stored. Fortunately the endeavour was not successful.
Major-General L.S. O'Connor, commanding the troops in Jamaica, was
inspecting the left wing of the 1st West India Regiment, under Major
Anton, at Up Park Camp, on the morning of the 11th of October, when the
news of the riot at Stony Gut on the 10th arrived, with a requisition
from Governor Eyre for 100 men in aid of the civil power. In less than
an hour Captain Ross's company paraded and marched to Kingston, where
they embarked in H.M.S. _Wolverine_. Unfortunately, it not being
supposed that there was any necessity for urgency, the _Wolverine_ did
not leave Port Royal for Morant Bay until daybreak on the 12th. At about
noon on the 12th the news of the massacre of the magistrates reached
Port Royal, where Major-General O'Connor was inspecting the detachment
of the 1st West India Regiment, under Captain Luke. In two hours from
the receipt of the intelligence, the company embarked on board H.M.S.
_Onyx_, and landed at Morant Bay on the morning of the 13th.
Captain Ross, on arriving at Morant Bay, had found the town deserted by
all the Europeans, except Mr. Georges, who was severely wounded with
three musket balls in his leg. The bodies of the unfortunate
magistrates, many of which were barbarously mutilated, were buried by
this company. This duty performed, the men patrolled the roads in the
neighbourhood, and many ladies, whose husbands had been murdered or
taken prisoners, and who had fled with their children, on the approach
of the rioters, to bamboo thickets or other shelter, hearing the sound
of the bugles, came in for protection. Numbers of them had passed the
night in copses, from which, trembling with terror, they had seen their
houses pillaged.
On the 12th of October, large parties of the rebels, armed with guns and
cutlasses, marched in military order through Bath and other contiguous
districts. Stores were pillaged, and property taken or destroyed. Blue
Mountain Valley Estate, Amity Hall, Monklands, which is sixteen miles
from Morant Bay, and Hordley Estate, were all attacked by the
insurgents, the occupiers barely escaping with their lives. At Blue
Mountain Valley and Amity Hall, barbarous murders were perpetrated.
On the 13th of October, martial law was proclaimed throughout the county
of Surrey (except the county and city of Kingston), and Major-General
O'Connor immediately took steps to hem in the disturbed districts. On
the 15th of October, a detachment of the 1st West India Regiment was
sent to Port Antonio; and at mid-day, Captain Hole, of the 6th Regiment,
with 40 men of his own corps, and 60 of the 1st West India Regiment,
under Ensign Cullen, marched from that place to Manchioneal, twenty
miles eastward of Port Antonio. On the same day, 120 men of the 6th
Regiment, under Colonel Hobbs, occupied (as head-quarters) Monklands, in
the district of the Blue Mountain Valley, about sixteen miles from
Morant Bay. Captain Strachan's company of the 1st West India Regiment
proceeded to Spanish Town, whence Lieutenant Allinson, with 31 men, was
sent on to Linstead, where a repetition of the Morant Bay massacre was
apprehended. A detachment of the 6th was sent to Buff Bay to protect
some valuable sugar estates.
On the 13th and two succeeding days the insurgents continued their
course through Port Morant northward to Manchioneal, and on to Mulatto
River and Elmwood; the last of which places is situated in the most
northerly part of St. Thomas-in-the-East, where that parish abuts upon
Portland. As they advanced with the cry of "colour for colour" they were
joined by a considerable number of negroes, who readily assisted in the
work of plundering. The houses and stores were sacked. The intention
also of taking the lives of the whites was openly avowed, and diligent
search was made for particular individuals. But in each case the
imperilled person had timely notice, and sought safety in flight.
Elmwood was the point furthest from Morant Bay to which the disturbances
extended; the arrival of the troops at Port Antonio, on the 15th,
putting a stop to the further progress of the insurgents northwards.
Thus in the course of four days the rebels had spread over a tract of
country extending from White Horses, a few miles to the west of Morant
Bay, to Elmwood, at a distance of upwards of thirty miles to the
north-east of that place.
In the meantime, detachments of troops were rapidly converging upon the
disturbed districts. As the rebels were reported to be occupying Stony
Gut, an almost impregnable ravine three miles in length, a detachment of
the 6th Regiment was sent to dislodge them. Captain Luke, 1st West India
Regiment, by a rapid and judicious movement of his company towards Cuna
Cuna Gap, rescued from the hands of the insurgents upwards of eighty
Europeans and influential people of colour, who had, with their wives
and children, been in hiding for three or four days in the woods and
mountains, and conveyed them to a place of safety. Captain Hole moved
towards Bath from Manchioneal, and, in a despatch to Brigadier-General
Nelson, he mentions "a meritorious act of three privates of the 1st West
India Regiment deserving commendation. The three men got separated from
their party, and proceeded as far as the Plantain Garden River, where a
great number of rebels are lurking. The soldiers encountering the
rebels, shot several--among them three of the murderers of Mr. Hire--and
brought back with them two cartloads of plunder, among which was some of
Mr. Hire's clothing, and other property."
Kingston, as has been said, was exempted from martial law, and
consequently became the refuge of the most disaffected people. Arrests
were made hourly, and upwards of two hundred political prisoners were
confined in the military custody of the 1st West India Regiment at Up
Park Camp, which was under martial law. Threats were daily circulated
that the city would be fired in various places, and the streets were
patrolled by day and night. Sunday, the 22nd of October, was said to be
fixed for a massacre of the loyal inhabitants while at church, and such
universal panic prevailed, that every place of worship was on that day
empty.
The insurgents gradually dispersed as the troops advanced, numbers being
captured. On the 23rd of October, Paul Bogle, the ringleader, was taken;
and, on the 24th, was tried and hanged. On the same day, George William
Gordon, a coloured member of the House of Assembly, who had been tried
by a court-martial on the 21st, and found guilty of complicity in the
rebellion, was hanged at Morant Bay. All the insurgents taken in arms
were put to death, and the houses of those who were known to have taken
part in the insurrection were burned. By these vigorous measures all
outward signs of resistance were crushed, and the movement prevented
from becoming general; though reports were constantly received from
various parts of the island, of disloyalty and seditious intentions.
On the 29th of October, letters D and F Companies of the 1st West India
Regiment, with Major McBean, Captains Ormsby and Smithwick, Lieutenants
Lowry, Niven, Hill, and Bale, and Ensign Cole, arrived from Nassau.
Detachments were at once sent to Port Maria under Captain Ormsby, to
Savannah la Mar under Lieutenant Hill, and to Vere under Lieutenant
Bale. The 2nd West India Regiment, arriving from Barbados, was stationed
along the north-western coast of the island.
From evidence subsequently obtained it was evident that the rising had
been long planned, and that the outbreak at Morant Bay was premature. It
is clear that meetings took place, where bodies of men were drilled,
oaths administered, and the names of persons registered. The insurgents
were so confident of ultimate success that the crops were uninjured, and
the buildings for the most part preserved; they openly avowing that they
intended taking them for themselves, when the whites were expelled. The
rebels appear to have expected that the Maroons would join them, but
that people remained faithful to their allegiance, and assisted in the
suppression of the disturbances.
Although all the rebels in the field were taken or dispersed before the
end of October, the island was not entirely quiet for some time after;
and as late as the 14th of December, a detachment of the 1st West India
Regiment, under Captain Ross, was sent from Black River to Oxford
Estate, thirty miles distant, that place being reported to be
disaffected.
Major-General O'Connor, in his despatch reporting the restoration of
order, says: "The men employed in the field, exposed to the tropical
sun, heavy rains, constant and long marches by day and night, have all
(the 2nd 6th Regiment, and the 1st West India Regiment) highly
distinguished themselves by their patience, perseverance, and general
good conduct." He might have added that the fidelity of the black
soldiers of the 1st West India Regiment could hardly have been put to a
more crucial test. Nine-tenths of those men were Jamaicans, born and
bred, and in the work of suppressing the rebellion they were required to
hang, capture, and destroy the habitations of not only their countrymen
and friends, but, in many instances, of their near relatives. Yet in no
single case did any man hesitate to obey orders, nor was the loyalty of
any one soldier ever a matter for doubt.
Governor Eyre having, by his prompt and vigorous measures, saved the
colony of Jamaica from a repetition of those horrors which devastated
the French West India Islands in the early part of the century, was
subjected to a most vindictive and ungenerous attack on the part of the
Exeter Hall party in England. By that party the judicial executions of
the rebels were stigmatised as "atrocities," while the massacre at
Morant Bay and the murders of the planters were only spoken of as
"unfortunate occurrences." Owing to their clamour, a commission was sent
out from England to inquire into the state of affairs in the colony. The
commission arrived at the following conclusion: "That though the
original design for the overthrow of constituted authority was confined
to a small portion of the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East, yet that the
disorder, in fact, spread with singular rapidity over an extensive tract
of country, and that such was the state of excitement prevailing in
other parts of the island, that had more than a momentary success been
obtained by the insurgents, their ultimate overthrow would have been
attended with a still more fearful loss of life and property."
Many of the disaffected negroes, finding that they were being backed up
by an influential party in England, preferred the most unfounded charges
against several of the officers who had been most active in the
suppression of the rebellion. Amongst others, Ensign Cullen, of the 1st
West India Regiment, was charged with having had three men wantonly shot
at Duckinfield Suspension Bridge, on the 21st of October, while on the
march from Manchioneal to Golden Grove; and Staff-Assistant-Surgeon
Morris, who had been in medical charge of Ensign Cullen's detachment,
was charged with shooting a fourth man.
After these charges had been allowed to hang over these officers' heads
for nearly a year, they were given an opportunity of clearing themselves
before a general court martial, which assembled at Up Park Camp on the
2nd of October, 1866, and terminated its proceedings on the 4th of
December. It is needless to say that both were acquitted.[59]
For the valuable and efficient services rendered by the regiment during
this rebellion, the House of Assembly in Jamaica voted the sum of L100
to be expended in plate.
In March, 1866, all being quiet in Jamaica, Captain Smithwick's company
returned to Nassau in H.M.S. _Sphynx_, being followed by Captain
Ormsby's company, in August, in H.M.S. _Barracouta_.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 59: The following was the composition of the court:
Lieutenant-Colonel R.T. Farren, C.B., Depot Battalion--President.
Major W.R. Williamson, 48th Regiment }
" J.H. Campbell, 71st " }
Captain F.D. Walters, 44th " }
" J.G. Day, 28th " }
" J.A. Barstow, 89th " } Members.
" J.L. Seton, 102nd " }
" C.V. Oliver, 66th " }
" J.T. Ready, 66th " }
Captain Maclean, Rifle Brigade--Officiating Judge Advocate.
Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel C.F.J. Daniell, 28th Regiment--Prosecutor.
]