In recent years I have been in thoughtful contemplation regarding the significance of the 19th-century Haitian Revolution as a leading light in black liberation struggles in the African Diaspora in general and the 1865 Morant Bay uprising in particular.

Some of us are aware of the late 19th to mid-20th century Haitian connection by way of the Bahamian Dr Robert Love and his Jamaica Advocate newspaper and organisation. It may be a surprise in some quarters that there was a connection between the Haitian Revolution and the Paul Bogle 1865 uprising. The latter was a political charge made by Governor Edward John Eyre during the political crisis of that period. His concerns and further details of this link were the subject of detailed articles published by The New York Times in November and December 1865.

In terms of history, I am making the charge that Boukman, the obeah man from Jamaica that lit the spark for the Haitian Revolution, may very well have migrated from St Thomas to Haiti. The political setting in Jamaica leading up to 1865 was characterised by the tightening of franchise and political corruption. Don Robotham’s The Notorious Riot: The Socio-Economic Bases of Paul Bogle’s Revolt (1984) is useful in providing the social, political, and economic conditions that created the crises from the 1840s to the 1860s that culminated into the revolt. There is every reason to believe that not only the planters and the colonialists had political aims after 1838, but the black masses as well, above all, the people of Morant Bay in 1865. The major source of the problem: the land question, labour issues, and high rates of unemployment; high taxes, reduction in wages, and massive increase in cost of living; and questions regarding political power and justice.

A most comprehensive definition, description, and analysis of the poverty, distress, and social disarray in the years leading up to 1865 was done by Baptist missionary E B Underhill. George William Gordon, a member of the Assembly and a stern critic of the authoritative and corrupt governor, was a leading national advocate who toured the country to speak on the Underhill Papers. In addition to the meetings to discuss the papers, there were political discussions on allegations of corruption by the governor and the custos of St Thomas. The governor was accused by critics of being involved in what was called the Tram Car Affair and trying to sell public lands to private interests to set up toll roads. Of course this plan was resisted by the masses, especially by market sellers. It is important to note also that in the years leading up to 1865 there were the Toll Gate Riots in which the masses burnt and destroyed toll gates. There were also charges against the Custos of St Thomas Baron Von Ketelhodt that he stole money budgeted to treat the prevailing epidemic of that period.

THE HAITIAN CONNECTION TO THE 1865 UPRISING

Governor Eyre highlighted two main charges: that the Underhill meetings were fomenting “nationalism” and that the rebels in St Thomas planned to do as the Haitians had done in creating a State led by the black majority.

Citing from parliamentary papers of 1866, S Wilmot uncovered the real issue that worried the colonial Government, which was the role of the Haitian exiles in Kingston.

It was during my research activities at the Schomburg Research Library for Black Culture that I encountered the Haitian connection to the 1865 Paul Bogle uprising. The article ‘How it originated: Dreadful scenes at Morant Bay; plot to burn Kingston to inspire general rising’ (The New York Times, November 11, 1865) begins with the story that the revolt took place in the section of the island that is nearest to Haiti and that the local newspapers and the colonial authorities linked the leaders of the revolt. It reports that the governor alerted the colonial secretary that the Haitians were mixed up with Bogle and there was a communique from the leaders of the revolt to the Haitians that was intercepted by the colonial authorities. It was revealed that the document was intended to be delivered to Emperor Soulouque, an exiled Haitian president who lived in Jamaica with a contingent of military personnel on a ship.

The newspaper article said that the authorities uncovered a plot for the Haitians to assist in the burning of Kingston with a view to inspire a general rising. The Haitians were expelled from Jamaica. The New York Times was most curious about the role of the Maroons as collaborators with the colonial authorities against the rebels of the 1865 revolt.

There is evidence that there was a plan for an alliance between the Maroons and the leaders of the revolt. ‘A curious chapter in Negro history: The role of the Maroons of Jamaica; their original and present position’ (The New York Times, December 17, 1865) expresses alarm that the Maroons sold out the leaders of the uprising to the British colonialists for £400. Of course, the Maroons have a history of selling out to the British or, in their language, acting in compliance with the British-Maroon treaty. They sold out in the 1760 Tacky rising and in the 1832 Sam Sharpe Revolt.

Gad Hueman’s The Killing Time: The Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica (1996) offers a detailed account of the role of the Maroons not just in the capturing of Paul Bogle but also their role in the massacre of thousands of black people across the parish, including black businessmen, prosperous farmers and community leaders, and many people who may have been running at the sight of the members of the British navy and their Maroon collaborators. The massacre was conducted after the execution of the leaders of the revolt. The killing was so extensive that Hueman describes the scene as “nine miles of dead bodies” in St Thomas. It could be anywhere from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the black masses of St Thomas that were killed as an act of revenge and a lesson that colonial Jamaica will not tolerate a “black majority” republic like that which was created by the early 19th-century Haitian Revolution.

DEMOCRACY AND EMPIRE

It is important that we note that discussions on the 1865 events in Jamaica took place in England from 1865 to 1868. The focus of these discussions was not on Paul Bogle or the nine miles of dead bodies but on the hanging of George William Gordon and that Governor Eyre should have been tried for murder.

Bernard Semmel in Democracy Versus Empire, The Jamaica Riots of 1865 and the Governor Eyre Controversy (1969) writes that news of the revolt and the execution of Gordon, a personal enemy of the governor and a mulatto member of the Jamaican House of Assembly, took England by storm. Semmel informs that England was informed of the uprising and its associated events by the hysterical writings from the planters’ journals that portrayed the possibility of the slaughter of white people on the island, similar to what took place in Haiti nearly a century ago.

The articles from the Kingston newspapers were coloured with praises for Her Majesty’s forces for their reign of terror conducted not just against the rebels but also against a wide cross section of the black masses in St Thomas — innocent people. They provided details of the floggings, the hangings, the burning of business places and homes as well as the subsequent massacre of the enemies of The Queen.

The black people of St Thomas, in particular, and in Jamaica, in general, were given lessons they will never forget. No more Haiti in the region!

Louis E A Moyston, PhD, is a consultant and radio talk show presenter. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or thearchives01@yahoo.com.