History slavery Jamaica
📅 21 October 1865
📍 Jamaica
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 transferred to Morant Bay for trial. Gordon was a former enslaved woman’s son, landowner, Baptist leader and elected representative who publicly defended poor Black Jamaicans and criticized Governor Eyre. His trial and sentence became central to later disputes over colonial legality and the limits of emergency rule.
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...
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...
👉 George William Gordon is sentenced to death by court-martial
Current
21 October 1865
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...
On 23 March 1866, the British Parliament enacted the Jamaica Act, providing that constitutional acts passed by Jamaica’s legislature would take effect after the Queen’s assent was proclaimed in the...
