Peter Espeut | Remember the Underhill meetings

The year 1865 is remembered for many reasons. It was a year of suffering for most Jamaicans, following previous years of sufferation. The UK had raised the tariffs on Jamaican sugar, which now had to compete against slave-grown sugar from Cuba and Brazil. Estates were closing, leading to high unemployment, and people were dropping out of the labour force. Estates were reducing the amount of sugar under cultivation, and cutting staff. Estate work was hard to come by, and when available, wage rates had fallen – conservatively – by an average of 35 per cent.

The cholera epidemic of 1851 in Jamaica killed 40,000 people, or 10 per cent of the island’s population. This had been followed in 1851-1852 by a smallpox epidemic, and then a measles epidemic which killed thousands more. There had been a serious drought which had negatively affected both plantations and peasant farms. Starvation was on the land.

In 1861 only 13 per cent of the population was literate, yet in that year the Jamaica House of Assembly (JHA) voted only £2,500 to educate the 65,000 children of school age. Clearly a literate labour force was not in the national plan. It was the churches who had to rise to the occasion to try to educate the population, but they did not have the resources to educate everyone.

The tax burden on the poor had increased, while the wealthy were given tax relief. Toll gates charged peasants on the way to market, therefore with no cash yet in their pockets to pay.

At the same time, the US Civil War (between the northern and southern states) was in full swing; food and textile prices were high. Times were tough!

Praedial larceny and petty theft increased. The number of prisoners in the island’s penitentiaries jumped from 283 in 1861 to 629 by 1864; in 1865 there were 710 prisoners, 617 of them held for larceny. Edward John Eyre, appointed Governor of Jamaica in 1864, introduced measures to provide punishment on the treadmill for certain offences, and flogging as the penalty for stealing food. Memories of slavery were triggered.

WROTE A LETTER

On January 5, 1865 the Rev. Edward Underhill, secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society in England, wrote a letter to the Rt. Hon. Edward Cardwell, MP, secretary of state for the colonies, on the terrible social conditions in Jamaica. Underhill’s letter directly criticised both governor and assembly, and called on the Colonial Office to conduct an official Inquiry into how Jamaica had been governed since Emancipation. Underhill believed that both governors and assembly had wasted the opportunity that Emancipation had provided to build a new and just society in Jamaica.

[As an aside, some of us think that our Independence has been wasted by the parties that have governed us since 1962, but we have no outside power to complain to].

On January 27, 1865 Secretary Cardwell wrote Underhill acknowledging receipt, and advising that he had forwarded the letter to Governor Eyre, asking him to comment on its contents. Eyre had the letter printed and widely distributed in Jamaica: “to the Custodes of parishes, to the judges and magistrates, to the Bishop of Kingston, and through official channels to the clergy and ministers of all denominations requesting them to furnish him with the materials for his reply” to Secretary Cardwell.

The planters and most of the JHA rejected Underhill’s analysis of the Jamaican situation, but the Baptist and Methodist churches wrote supporting Underhill’s analysis.

George William Gordon, assemblyman for St. Thomas-in-the-East, sent a response to Secretary Cardwell accusing the government of corruption. “From gross mismanagement and for wasteful purposes, the taxation of the country is increased, without corresponding benefit to the general community”. He specifically accused Governor Eyre of using public funds for his personal benefit (he bought a piano for himself); he accused the government of establishing toll roads on public highways to raise government revenue; and the proposal to use public funds to build a slipdock. Governor Eyre took a strong dislike to this vocal civil society advocate.

Public meetings to discuss Underhill’s letter (called Underhill Meetings) were held in several parishes, including in Kingston, Westmoreland, St. James, Hanover, St. Mary, St. Elizabeth, Clarendon, Vere, St. David and St. Thomas-in-the-East. Resolutions with good ideas were passed to be sent to Governor Eyre and Secretary Cardwell.

CAME TOGETHER AS EQUALS

For the first time in Jamaica’s history (and maybe the only time) a cross-section of Jamaicans of all classes, colours, and stations in life came together as equals to discuss matters relating to the common good. The system on which Jamaica’s economy, society and polity was based was openly challenged. This moment could – even at this early stage – have been the beginning of a national movement, but it was not to be.

At an Underhill meeting in Morant Bay on August 12, 1865 chaired by George William Gordon, a number of resolutions were passed. A deputation of six led by Paul Bogle was mandated to seek an audience with Governor Eyre. In September, the delegation walked the 45 miles to Spanish Town to present the resolutions from the meeting, but Governor Eyre refused to meet with them. They could not have been happy as they walked back to Stony Gut.

Reading the resolutions passed at the many Underhill meetings, I am impressed how genuine consultation among the people led to such positive and constructive ideas. How different are the many so-called ‘Town Hall Meetings’ where the government tells the attendees what they plan to do, and call it ‘public consultation’?

In 1865 Jamaica was being governed, not in the interest of the people, but in the interest of the planters. As a result of the events of 1865 the Jamaica House of Assembly was abolished, and the private sector (the planters) ceased to directly govern Jamaica.

How can Jamaica move forward from where we are today?

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com