History slavery Jamaica
📅 20 October 1969
📍 Jamaica
On 20 October 1969, Jamaica first celebrated National Heroes Day, formally honoring figures whose work included resistance to slavery, anti-colonial struggle, labor organizing, and nation building. The first cohort included Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, George William Gordon, Norman Manley, and Alexander Bustamante. Nanny of the Maroons and Samuel Sharpe were added to the Order of National Hero in 1982. The state commemoration brought resistance histories into national memory, while selection and timing also show that public recognition of enslaved people’s resistance was a political process shaped over decades.
On 8 July 1943, Alexander Bustamante launched the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), closely linked to the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the labor movement formed amid the 1938 upheavals. The party...
On 20 November 1944, Jamaica’s new constitution came into effect and universal adult suffrage was introduced. Adults aged 21 and older could vote without the property qualifications that had...
On 14 December 1944, Jamaica held its first general election under universal adult suffrage. The vote brought a much broader electorate into political life and elected the first House of...
On 19 September 1961, Jamaicans voted in a referendum on whether to remain in the West Indies Federation. A majority voted against remaining, and the result set Jamaica on a separate path toward...
On 6 August 1962, Jamaica became an independent state, ending formal British responsibility for governing the country. The locally drafted constitution came into effect, and the Jamaican flag was...
👉 Jamaica first observes National Heroes Day
Current
20 October 1969
On 20 October 1969, Jamaica first celebrated National Heroes Day, formally honoring figures whose work included resistance to slavery, anti-colonial struggle, labor organizing, and nation building....
On 1 August 1997, Jamaica reinstated Emancipation Day as a national public holiday, after the observance had been discontinued when independence celebrations replaced it in 1962. Restoring the date...
On 22 January 2009, Jamaica’s Cabinet approved the establishment of a National Commission on Reparations. Its remit was to consider proposals seeking reparations from countries involved in the slave...
On 17 September 2013, the first CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations concluded by constituting the CARICOM Reparations Commission. The conference followed a unanimous decision by Caribbean heads...
On 18 March 2014, CARICOM announced that its Heads of Government had accepted the Caribbean Reparatory Justice Programme as a basis for discussions on reparations for slavery and Indigenous...
On 7 September 2026, the Government of Jamaica filed a petition asking King Charles, as Jamaica’s head of state, to refer legal questions about chattel slavery in Jamaica to the Judicial Committee...
