Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 03:57:05 +0000 From: TheBlackList-Cullection <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: The Christmas Rebellion: Remembering Sam Sharpe, Afrikan Hero
=+=+=+++=+==++==+=+=+++==+=+=+++=+==++==+=+=+=+++=+==++== Sent to your mailbox by TheBlackList:.net Conversation http://www.TheBlackList.net For the Future is a Conversation being fulfilled NOW. =+=+=+++=+==++==+=+=+++==+=+=+++=+==++==+=+=+=+++=+==++== CULLED FROM: Jamaica Gleaner Online Email Edition for Sunday | December 25, 2005 Remembering Sam Sharpe http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20051225/out/out2.html published: Sunday | December 25, 2005 by Arnold Bertram DECEMBER 27, marks the 174th anniversary of the Emancipation rebellion organised and led by Sam Sharpe. It forced the British Parliament to recognise that if they did not abolish slavery from above, the slaves were determined and able to do so from below. The extent to which this rebellion determined the timetable for the emancipation of slavery in Jamaica and the British Empire, should make its anniversary a most important national celebration. Equally, the life and work of Sam Sharpe deserve a special place in the collective memory of the nation. A NECESSARY CONTEXT Emancipation was one of the highpoints in that period between the American declaration of independence in 1776, and the Emancipation proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, in which the most profound advances in human freedom were achieved. There were four distinct but interrelated currents, which transformed the world of plantation slavery into the economic system of capitalism based on individual freedom and the industrial revolution. The first stream was the movement for self-determination which took centre stage with the American War of Independence (1776-1783). This was the blow which shook the British colonial empire and fuelled the aspirations of colonial peoples worldwide. The second was the idea that "all men are equal", which formed the centre piece of the American Declaration of Independence, and was even more forcefully expressed in the slogan of the French revolution of 1789 "freedom, equality and fraternity"! Revolutionary France gave impetus to the British Abolition Society led by Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkeson, and took the revolutionary decision of abolishing slavery in the French colonial empire in 1794. Third was the campaign to establish the superior productivity of free labour over slaves, which was the theme of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. Seven years later, James Watts' invention of the steam engine provided the basis for the industrial revolution in Britain and established factory production. Industrial output could no longer be produced or consumed by slaves. Free labour and free trade became the absolute prerequisites for the emerging world capitalist system. The fourth and final stream was the revolutionary movement of the slaves to win their own freedom. Some 4,000 blacks fought in Washington's army against the British. In 1791, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a slave in the French colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti), led the most successful slave revolution, which defeated in turn the local whites and the soldiers of the French monarchy, a Spanish invasion, a British expedition of some 60,000 men and a French expedition of similar size under Napoleon's brother-in-law to establish the first independent Negro state. It was in this international movement that two Jamaican slaves rose to prominence. The first was John Brown Russwurm, born in Portland in 1800, who in 1826 became the third black man to graduate from an American College. The following year, along with Samuel Cornish, he started Freedom Journal, the first black newspaper in North America and the first organ of the black liberation movement. The second Jamaican slave, Sam Sharpe, achieved even greater eminence and is fittingly the subject of this essay. THE APPROACH TO THE REBELLION Samuel Sharpe was born the same year as Russwurm in 1800, and consistent with the custom of the time, took the name of his master who owned Croydon Estate, a small property near Montego Bay. Sharpe, a literate and highly intelligent house slave, kept abreast of local and international events by reading both the English and Jamaican newspapers of the day, and was also a member of the Native Baptist Church. All those who knew him were struck by his intelligence, his powers of oratory, his commitment to freedom and his organising genius. In the decade preceding the Emancipation rebellion, there was a marked increase in slave rebellions and a growing belief that the British Parliament had granted emancipation, which was being held back by the local Assembly of white planters. The agitation for emancipation received a major impetus in 1829 with the publication of The Watchman by Edward Jordan, a freed man of colour and Robert Osborn, a mulatto. Finally in May 1830, the British Anti-Slavery Society proposed the immediate emancipation of slaves. The response of the local planters to the resolution took the form of parish meetings conducted in the full view and hearing of the slaves, which denounced the British Parliament and the Abolition movement. The resolution from the parish of St. Ann expressed the sentiment of planters islandwide who declared, "When we see ourselves scorned, betrayed, devoted to ruin and slaughter... we consider that we are bound by every principle, human and divine, to resist". The parish meeting in Trelawny went even further to petition the King, "that we may be absolved from our allegiance and allowed to seek that protection from another nation, which is so unjustly and cruelly withheld from us by our own". It was in this context that Sam Sharpe came to the inevitability of revolution and started organising. The Baptist Church, with its established decentralised corps of class leaders, who exerted real power and authority, provided the ideal vehicle for Sharpe's plan. Riding horseback at nights for as much as 26 miles, he converted the class leaders in the five western parishes to his cause and organised them for revolutionary action. THE REBELLION Sharpe's plan was to call a general strike immediately after the Christmas holidays, and to refuse to do any further work on the plantations until a system of wage payments was agreed on. It was the refusal of the planters to yield to this demand and the counter-revolutionary violence of the white militias, led by General Sir Willoughby Cotton, the officer commanding the British troops in Jamaica, which escalated the conflict. The signal for the start of the rebellion on the night of December 27 was the torching of Kensington Pen in the parish of St. James by an enslaved man, John Dunbar. The razing of this property was perfectly suited for sending a clear signal to rebels on the other properties to join the protest. The fighting lasted until the end of January 1832, and involved close to 60,000 men and women. It not only engulfed the parish of St. James, but also spread to the other four western parishes as well as to Manchester, and even as far away as Portland and St. Thomas. It is significant that Sharpe's army also included a number of freedmen and one white man, a Mr. Ellery. The suppression was brutal. Six hundred and nineteen rebels were killed, of which 312 were executed by the slave courts and Courts Marshall. In contrast only 14 whites were killed and another 12 wounded. Sharpe himself was executed in the square at Montego Bay. The Methodist minister, Henry Bleby provides us with a moving account of how he met his death. "He marched to the spot where so many had been sacrificed to the demon of slavery with a firm and even dignified step, clothed in a suit of new white clothes?..He seemed to be entirely unmoved by the near approach of death and addressed the assembled multitude at some length in a clear unfaltering voice". The following year the British Parliament abolished slavery. While many factors contributed, there is no doubt that Sam Sharpe and the Emancipation rebellion forced the timetable. It is to Sam Sharpe's merit that the Emancipation rebellion was the first to demand freedom for all. All previous rebellions, including the Maroon wars, had limited their demand for freedom to those who fought. THE WEAKNESS OF OUR INTELLECTUAL TRADITION In 1978 the administration of Michael Manley declared Sam Sharpe a National Hero. The justification written by the eminent sociologist, Edward Braithwaite, provided invaluable insights into Sharpe. However, the first major study on Sharpe had been undertaken as early as 1954 by Richard Hart, but only published in 1980. Hart, a Jamaican born in the upper classes of Jamaican society, has devoted his considerable intellect and energy to the struggles of the poor. Since Hart's study, there has only been a monograph by the Baptist minister, Sam Reid. The noted historian Verene Shepherd is to be commended for publishing an essay, which for the first time brings to light the other leaders who assisted Sharpe in the planning and execution of the rebellion. Despite these efforts, Jamaicans by and large remain ignorant of the immense contribution of Sam Sharpe. As we again ignore his anniversary this year, the question we must ask is whether Jamaica can really move forward with the self confidence and sense of pride, without making its most fundamental achievements a part of the national consciousness. Arnold Bertram is a former Member of Parliament. _________________________________________________ Whited Out? Blacklisted? Blacked Out? White Washed? Get TheBlackList! Satisfy the Need to KNOW(ledge)... http://www.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList ...So Now You Know...WHAT NOW? ------------------------------ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Clean water saves lives. 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