History slavery Jamaica
📅 13 October 1865
📍 Jamaica
On 13 October 1865, Governor Edward John Eyre declared martial law in Surrey County, excluding Kingston, after the Morant Bay uprising. Although the uprising was suppressed within days, martial law remained for 30 days. Troops and Maroon forces carried out killings, floggings, executions and the destruction of homes. A later Royal Commission described the excesses; accounts estimate 439 Black Jamaicans killed and about 1,000 homes burned. This was state violence against a population already excluded from effective political power after emancipation.
On 28 May 1838, the House of Commons voted 250 to 178 for a government motion declaring that it was not advisable to take steps to implement the resolution for immediate abolition passed six days...
On 16 June 1838, Governor Lionel Smith assented to an act passed by Jamaica’s Council and Assembly to end praedial apprenticeship from 1 August. He described it as the total abolition of praedial...
The remaining apprenticeship system ended in Jamaica, bringing legal freedom to people still bound to plantation labor after 1834. Communities gathered in Spanish Town to hear Governor Lionel Smith...
On 7 October 1865, Paul Bogle and other residents attended Petty Sessions at the Morant Bay courthouse, where Alexander White and Lewis Miller faced charges including assault and trespass. Disputes...
On 11 October 1865, several hundred Black Jamaican men and women, many from surrounding villages, marched into Morant Bay during a Vestry meeting. After militia fired on the crowd, protesters fought...
👉 Governor Eyre declares martial law across most of Surrey County
Current
13 October 1865
On 13 October 1865, Governor Edward John Eyre declared martial law in Surrey County, excluding Kingston, after the Morant Bay uprising. Although the uprising was suppressed within days, martial law...
On 21 October 1865, Jamaican politician George William Gordon was sentenced to death by a court-martial at Morant Bay. He had been arrested in Kingston, which was outside the martial-law zone, and...
On 23 October 1865, George William Gordon was hanged after a rapid court-martial during martial law. The execution of an elected Jamaican politician who had not been present at the Morant Bay...
On 24 October 1865, Baptist deacon and community leader Paul Bogle was hanged at Morant Bay after capture and trial under martial law. Bogle had organized resistance to court injustice and led the...
On 13 November 1865, the thirty-day period of martial law in Surrey County ended. The uprising had been suppressed within days, yet emergency rule continued while Black Jamaicans faced military...
On 23 January 1866, the Jamaica Royal Commission began its inquiry into the Morant Bay uprising and the colonial government’s response. The commissioners interviewed witnesses and examined the actions...
