The 1831 Sam Sharpe Rebellion

Samuel Sharpe, an enslaved man, lived on Croydon Estate in St James, but frequented Montego Bay. He got his owner’s full name, and was treated well by his owner and his family. Yet, in his book, ‘Death Struggles of Slavery’, Methodist Reverend Henry Bleby wrote , inter alia, “But he thought, and he learnt from the Bible, that the whites had no more right to hold the black people slaves; and, for his own part he would rather die than live in slavery.”

Sharpe, a Baptist lay-preacher, was given much latitude to meet with other enslaved people whom he taught the Gospel. He was a gifted speaker whose eloquence did not go unnoticed. “I had an opportunity of observing that he had intellectual and oratorial powers above the common order; and this was the secret of his extensive influence which he exercised, “ Bleby wrote. And after the ‘religious meetings’, Sharpe met with like-minded people, energising them against the system of oppression in which they had existed.

And the notion that William Wilberforce would deliver them from their bondage began swirling about 1815. The rumours were all over the plantations by 1823-1824, as there were also claims that the king of England had granted the enslaved their freedom, but the white masters were withholding it. Talks of rebellion were rife. The speculation was so intense and far-reaching that the king had to issue a proclamation to say that no such freedom was granted. The enslaved didn’t believe the proclamation; they were convinced that it was a fabrication by the planters.

Rumours of ‘freedom papers’

But it was not until 1831 that the rumours had reached their peak. In May, Reverend Thomas Burchell, who had established churches all over western Jamaica, left for England to restore his health. The assumption that Burchell had gone to obtain ‘freedom papers’ was widely made, and he would have returned with them in December.

“Such rumours, as had been going around, namely, that something was afoot for the holidays after Christmas, soon reached the ears of missionaries and planters alike,” writes Lloyd A. Cooke in The Story of the Jamaica Mission. The rumours were also heightened by the masters themselves, who suspected the British government secretly intended to free the enslaved. They were agitated.

Bleby wrote that Sharpe made good use of the rumours that slavery had been abolished. And in secret, Daddy Sharpe met with many of his followers to lay down plans for a general strike after their three-day Christmas holiday was over. They would refuse to work unless they were paid, and Sharpe thought that it would have been very difficult for the masters to force everybody to work against their will. Also, Sharpe maintained that they were only to use violent means if and when they were forced to defend themselves.

Sharpe’s military-like plan consisted of a main army, and local units. He tried to organise a mobile gang, which was to operate over a fairly large area, taking its members away from their homes. He sent a man named Gardner to lead this force into Westmoreland and Hanover. Also, on each estate or in each district where there was a cluster of smaller estates, a local unit was formed, and led perhaps by one of the people that he had been able to convince at his meetings.

Their job was twofold. They were to start with the strike, and if they did not get their freedom and payment for work done they would start to destroy properties. Fires would then be lit to signal that the rebellion had started. They were ready to fight for what they thought was their right – freedom. But some of his followers were not in agreement.

The freedom of which Sharpe told them was a notion that they could not resist, and they were thus impatient with Sharpe’s wait-and-see approach. And on December 27, the trash house at Kensington Estate in St James was lit, not by Sharpe, the conceptualiser. It signalled the start of the uprising. The flames leaped and spread to many estates all over western Jamaica, out of Sam Sharpe’s control.

Lives, limbs and properties were lost on both sides. The repercussions against the rebels were swift and brutal. Martial law was declared until February 1832. On May 23, Sam Sharpe was hanged in Montego Bay, and was buried in the sands on the beach. His remains were later exhumed and placed into the Baptist chapel. When Bleby visited him in his cell while he waiting to be executed, Sharpe told Bleby, “I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com