***
An Ancestor’s Part In
A Historical Event:
Thomas Girvan at
Morant Bay,
Jamaica,
1865
***
Morant Bay Rebellion
Excerpts from The Report on the Eyre Commission:
1866
Report by the Colonial Office,
1866.
Excerpts from Papers of Testimony of Colonists to Justify the Decision of
Governor Eyre to Deploy the Military to
Suppress the Rebellion.
***
PAPERS LAID BEFORE THE JAMAICA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY:
(For Thomas Girvan’s deposition to the Commission, scroll to the very end of the textual presentation of the excerpts).
N.B. The word ‘Buckra’ sometimes spelled ‘Backra’ was a word used by slaves to depict White slave owners. After emancipation in 1833, the word evolved to depict White people in general and later sometimes was expanded to depict people of elevated status, i.e., a’ big shot’, so to speak. (See this context in one of the testimonies to the Eyre Commission in the passage below.)
Mr, Alexander Chisholm, manager of Golden Grove estate, states, that about June last there was a great gathering of all the labourers from the neighbouring estates at a Baptist meeting house at Stoakes Hall ; that he went there but could not get near enough to hear what was said inside, but that a black man named Morris Brooks said to him ” We will soon turn (become) buckra ourselves”, others used threatening language and he was compelled to ride away.
Some Testimonies of Colonists to the
Eyre Commission,
1866
***
…To produce any adequate effect upon such a population (the Jamaican peasantry), numbering as they do some 350,000, as following about 13,000 whites who are scattered amongst them in isolated and unprotected positions and widely separated from each other, it was of paramount importance that punishment for such serious offences as rebellion, arson, and murder, should be prompt, certain, and severe. It could only be made so by the continuance of the military tribunals until all the parties captured as principals had their cases inquired into and dealt with summarily and they must fight for it. He remonstrated to the custos and said, ‘Really, your honour, this is treason.’
R. G. Harrison, serjeant of volunteers, states, he several times heard a man named McTarvish say that ” He would like to kill every Scotchman in the district, and that ” there would soon be a war in Jamaica against the white people.”
E. N. Harrison, serjeant-major of volunteers, heard McTarvish say ” He would ” like to destroy every Scotchman and overseer, but never mind, war will soon be in ” Jamaica.”
6 PAPERS LAID BEFORE THE JAMAICA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY:
Gordon D. Ramsay, inspector of police, affirms that it was openly and generally asserted in the disturbed districts that the rebellion was premeditated and organised with a view to the extermination of the whites.
The Rev. J. Sloane, LL.B., island curate of Saint Andrew’s, Golden Grove, states, that the negroes were in the habit of stealing everything, that no trust could be placed in their most solemn asseverations. That in September1864 he was violently assaulted by a man and woman when merely trying to induce them to leave his land, where they were not only trespassing but creating a great noise ; he states that frequent meetings were held at nights up to 2 and 3 in the morning, that he heard beating of drums and a fife playing quite lively tunes from midnight for a couple of hours after, and that he thinks there were secret meetings for the purposes of drilling.
He states that after the massacre the signal came from Morant Bay and was under stood by a certain party and a council of war called, that the time was one when the negroes could not be got together unless by previous concert, and yet there were 800 negroes collected at Golden Grove, that they established a strategic occupation of all the outlets from Plantain Garden river, stopping and questioning all persons attempting to pass . The Rebel leaders are also said to have exercised absolute control over the excited mob, and through their influence cane fields and sugar works were left uninjured that the negroes might have them for themselves.
John M.Mais, book-keeper of Golden Grove, states, that being ill when the Rebels came to Golden Grove, he was unable in the first instance to escape, and when the people of Golden Grove proposed to destroy the great house he heard some of those who had come up from Morant Bay, tell them to desist, as well as to leave everything untouched, saying that the house and contents were wanted for General Paul Bogle. They immediately left. Mr. Mais subsequently escaped through the woods to the sea.
William Coley, a deserter from the 1st West India Regiment, deposes that since the rebellion Archibald McLeish, of Roses Valley, and Joe Davy, of Evergreen district (both in St. Elizabeth), have been and are still in the habit of holding night meetings from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., at the house of William Chambers, where Joe Davy kept guard ; they asked me if I was a soldier,and whether I would join and drill them. I refused, on which they threatened to report me. I reclined outside the house and heard William Chambers say they must make haste and get powder and guns, and those that had no guns must bring machetts, that they must go down and burn Mr. Coke’s house at Oxford and shoot him. They agreed to commence the first day of Christmas.
Samuel C. Stines, in charge of a store in the parish of St. Elizabeth, states, that in August and September last the negroes repeatedly observed, ” We are not going to buy ” goods now, we will soon get them for nothing, you stop and see if we don’t.”
On another occasion, a negro told a coloured man in the same store, that ” All the ” coloured and white people’s days would soon be over, they should not rule the country ” any longer.”
Dr. Lawson, senior magistrate of St. James, gives several instances of persons being punished for using seditious or rebellious language, and of intentions and attempts to burn down property in Montego Bay.
W. Fletcher, inspector of police for Clarendon and Vere, reports that about the time of the outbreak in St.Thomas-in-the-East an attempt was made to burn down the court house at Chapeltown, by the aid of Kerosine oil; he also gives instances of black people being heard to say they would ”soon be free, and that the lands would soon be divided,” that the ”people of Clarendon ought to break out,” and the speaker ”knew whose head “would first be taken off.” He speaks also of the general assertion and belief in the parish that “an intended slaughter of the whites and coloured inhabitants of the Island ” was to have been carried out on Christmas Eve.”
Rev. D. B. Panton, island curate of St. George’s, states, ” The outbreak (at “St.Thomas-in-the-East) was local, but the seditious spirit was general. The germs ”of sedition were to be found in every parish, but more especially in those parishes ”most frequently visited by the late G. W. Gordon. There were districts in each ”parish where no seditious spirit existed, but such is the want of moral stamina in the ”negro character, that had the tide of rebellion flowed in his neighbourhood, he must ”inevitably have gone with the stream, although in his heart cursing the seditious ”movement.”
Rev. H. Isaacs, island curate in St. Andrew’s, bears the same testimony as to the tendency of the black population to go with the stream.
Rev. C. B. Chandler, island curate in St. Ann’s, gives an instance in which Mr. Gyles, proprietor of the ”Recess estate,” in St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, upon refusing to rent out to the negroes some of his lands which they wanted, was coolly told, ”Mr, ” Gyles, you won’t rent us your land now, but let we tell you the time is soon coming”.
8 PAPERS LAID BEFORE THE JAMAICA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY:
Mr. James Stewart, attorney for Agualta Vale, in Metcalfe, gives instances in which parties used seditious or threatening language in his district; in one a man named Thomas Campbell said, ”If the rebels had come to this parish he would have joined “them in cutting off Mr. Hosack’s and Mr.Prendergast’s heads.”In another, a man threatened Mr. Swire, and other gentlemen, that ”they could go on, they were only ”over them until Christmas.”
Mr. H. F. Mackay, a planter of Bath, states, that early in the morning after the massacre two black men stopped him and asked where he was going, and upon his asking what is that to you, they remarked ”Never mind, my boy, we’ll soon have you,” and on his asking what they meant, they observed, ” Don’t you hear there is a row at Morant Bay, ”as soon as the fellows come up this side to meet us we will know where to find you.” Bath is 14 miles from Morant Bay. Mr. Mackay states that on his return to Bath in the afternoon he found an immense crowd of 1,500 to 2,000 people collecting from the different negro settlements.
Thomas Girvan, an engineer at Plantain Garden River estate, states, that on the fore noon of the 12th October the labourers on the estate were surrounding the grindstone in noisy groups grinding their cutlasses, and were using very threatening language to the manager and book-keepers. Plantain Garden River is 21 miles from Morant Bay. (For the complete testimony of Thomas Girvan, scroll to the red text at the very bottom of this page.)
Mr, Alexander Chisholm, manager of Golden Grove estate, states, that about June last there was a great gathering of all the labourers from the neighbouring estates at a Baptist meeting house at Stoakes Hall ; that he went there but could not get near enough to hear what was said inside, but that a black man named Morris Brooks said to him ” We will soon turn buckra ourselves ;”others used threatening language and he was compelled to ride away.
A black man from Hanover selling provisions at Town Head market took a drink with his companion (also a Hanover man) at the shop of Mr. J. Buckner, his toast being :He ” hoped every mulatto man and buckra in the country would soon be governed by rugger.”
After the insurrection broke out a man named David Barham went into Buckner’s shop, was exceedingly insolent, and said, ” If he stopped there until night he would ” make every damned mulatto in the quarter smell hell,” (a favourite expression of the negro).
Rev. Charles Magnan, stipendiary curate in Westmoreland, states, two men in the King’s part of this district said they wanted Jamaica to become like Hayti, and if the Rebels only came that way they would join them ; and two young women, daughters of a respectable brown person, were told by two men whom they met when walking out, that their heads would be cut off at Christmas.
H. Prendergast, justice of the peace of St. George’s, asked the people (after the August holidays) why they did not turn out to work, and was informed they were ” waiting for” the new law.” Mr. Shaw states that a similar expression was used in Metcalfe, only there it was stated that a band of people were coming round by way of St. Thomas-in-the-East with a new law to compel the planters to give 2*. or 3s. per day wages.
Rev. Mr. Hime, island curate of St. George’s, states that amongst the labourers of the estates of Lawlayton and Spring Garden a general feeling was evidenced in favour of the Rebels in St. Thomas-in-the-East, and that he has little doubt if the opportunity had offered they would have joined them.
The Hon. L. Mackinnon, custos of Vere, states that his parish was the very powder magazine of sedition, and that it was only by sending down daily to notify to the black people the examples being made in St. Thomas-in-the-East that they were kept quiet until a detachment of troops could be obtained; that he was warned by a respectable old black man to take precautions, and that the head man at Pusey hall openly avowed his desire to seize the arms of the police and begin the row in Vere.
Rev. T. Orgill, island curate of Portland, expresses his opinion that the intention to rebel was general, based upon the facts that the insurrection travelled 40 miles in two days, the readiness with which the insurgents were joined in their progress, and the easy conversion of multitudes hitherto peaceable into insatiable robbers and even murderers when their victims could be overtaken.
Considerable disaffection was also manifested in the neighbourhood of Lamb’s river. In the Darleston district considerable disaffection prevailed, and a large number of old muskets and other fire-arms had recently been repaired by the black people. Mr. Vickers expresses his opinion that a repetition of the scene enacted at Morant Bay court house was only averted by the presence of military and ships of war.
J. Patterson, justice of the peace of Monklands, states that the people in the upper part of the parish of St. David’s were all ready to join in the rebellion.
15413. B
The Hon. C. Royes, custos of St. Ann’s, states, that rumours of seditious language and threats were plentiful, but only in one instance could he trace them to an authentic source. Many of the negroes hoped the rebellion would not come there, but none said it should not.
T. Mitchell, inspector of police for Trelawney, states, that shortly after the outbreak at Morant Bay a spirit of disaffection appeared in his parish; one man said If he had twelve like himself he would go on a certain day into the shops and cut off the heads of every white man in Falmouth ; another said The rebels from Morant Bay would soon be at Hampshire, and he would shoot all the white men about that district.
Charles McLean, clerk of the vestry, St. David’s, states, that ill feeling and dissatisfaction on the part of the labouring classes was daily increasing; decisions of courts of law, were held in no respect ; proclamations and messages from the Queen were treated with contempt and called lies, red lies.
James Sullivan, a labourer, states, that on 12th October a man named Chrystie, in St. David’s, said publicly, ” I hear they kill the Baron at Morant Bay, and I am going to ” sharpen my cutlass back and belly, and go down there.”
The Hon. J. Hollingsworth, custos of Manchester, reports the arrival on the 28th December of nine prisoners charged with conspiracy to commit murders and arson. They were brought in by the Maroons under magisterial warrants.
P. Harrison, senior magistrate of St. Dorothy’s, reports, that on the 13th December eleven men were brought before the justices for illegal drilling and were committed for trial.
Sir W. Fitzherbert’s son states that at Blue Mountain estate, 7 miles from Morant Bay, on going out early in the morning he saw six negroes grinding their cutlasses and soon afterwards others. Before he could get his breakfast theRebels were upon him and cut down his book-keeper by his side; he himself narrowly escaped. In answer to a remark that he was a stranger in the country, the blacks said They did not know one buckra from another and would kill all. Mr. Fitzherbert was of opinion the outbreak began sooner than it was meant to do, he had heard that all the parishes were to begin together on the 26th December.
Rev. J. Williams, rector of Spanish Town, and acting archdeacon of Middlesex, after labouring for thirty years, during which he has had much experience amongst the blacks, says that ” As a body there is little they desire so much as the complete possession of the ” country, and that you could not find one in a hundred that would not put forth his ” hand to effect his object (if it could be done safely, that is, without detection) by the ” destruction of the white man ; because they regard him as an oppressor, inasmuch as ” he is in possession of what they imagine belongs to themselves by right, and by the ” secret will of the Queen and people of England.
J. F. Danvers, who was just appointed sub-agent for immigration a little while before the rebellion broke out, states that from his travels (in October) through St. Ann’s, Trelawney, and St. James, he can safely say that the bad feeling was not confined to St. Thomas-in-the-East alone. He heard that the negroes intended destroying the coloured population as well as the whites, with the intention of having the Colony to themselves.
Rev. Bassett Key, island curate in St. Elizabeth’s, is strongly convinced that the whole •negro population were and are in a disaffected and rebellious state ; he refers to the capture of several men near Keynsham for holding meetings whereat schemes of murder and plunder were canvassed and agreed on ; he reports that persons have been heard to say that the troops would soon be gone, and then those who brought them should get what they wanted ; and that had not the arrests mentioned been made it was the intention of the seditiously disposed to have cut off communication between the camp and the rest of the district by destroying the bridges.
Many members of Mr. Key’s own church, who are communicants, live in the districts where the meetings have been held, and must, he says, have known of them, but not one has come forward to tell. The “old time” negroes express a very bad opinion of the present generation. Mr.Key speaks of the extreme ferocity of the negro character, and gives several instances of brutal cruelty to their children. When riding out to Stewart Town in Trelawney in December last, Mr. Key overtook six black men in the dark, marching two and two, with very bright sharp cutlasses and little bundles strapped between their shoulders, evidently not returning from labour.
In Montego Bay he was informed by a clergyman that before the troops arrived persons were heard about the streets saying, ” Six black birds to one white pigeon.” ‘You are the smoke, wait till the fire comes.”
Mr. J. Harvey, attorney for Colonel Dawkins’s estates in Vere, states that a servant girl in his employ heard a man in Vere say in reference to the chopping or cutting up the white men in St.Thomas-in-the-East,”So we want (or would do) to do with them down here.”
J. F. Danvers, who was just appointed sub-agent for immigration a little while before the rebellion broke out, states that from his travels (in October) through St. Ann’s, Trelawney, and St. James, he can safely say that the bad feeling was not confined to St. Thomas-in-the-East alone. He heard that the negroes intended destroying the coloured population as well as the whites, with the intention of having the Colony to themselves.D. Ewarr, stipendiary justice, thinks there was a preconcerted insurrectionary organisation, which Bogle and his followers carried into effect by riot, plunder, and blood on the 11th October, and three days after.
Rev. Bassett Key, island curate in St. Elizabeth’s, is strongly convinced that the whole •negro population were and are in a disaffected and rebellious state ; he refers to the capture of several men near Keynsham for holding meetings whereat schemes of murder and plunder were canvassed and agreed on; he reports that persons have been heard to say that the troops would soon be gone, and then those who brought them should get what they wanted ; and that had not the arrests mentioned been made it was the intention of the seditiously disposed to have cut off communication between the camp and the rest of the district by destroying the bridges.
Many members of Mr. Key’s own church, who are communicants, live in the districts where the meetings have been held, and must, he says, have known of them, but not one has come forward to tell. The “old time” negroes express a very bad opinion of the present generation. Mr.Key speaks of the extreme ferocity of the negro character, and gives several instances of brutal cruelty to their children. When riding out to Stewart Town in Trelawney in December last, Mr. Key overtook six black men in the dark, marching two and two, with very bright sharp cutlasses and little bundles strapped between their shoulders, evidently not returning from labour.
In Montego Bay he was informed by a clergyman that before the troops arrived persons were heard about the streets saying, ” Six black birds to one white pigeon.” ‘You are the smoke, wait till the fire comes.”
R. Buchanan, acting stipendiary justice, St. James, is of opinion that the outbreak at Morant Bay was part of a predetermined and deliberate movement prematurely developed, and that a general revolt was intended at a later and not distant period. Threatening and warning letters were received in the district; acts of arson also occurred in St. James’, and seditious and threatening language was uttered in the presence of a crowd and elsewhere. Instances are given of both. Mr.Buchanan believes the spirit of disaffection still to exist, and be only kept under by the presence of the troops.
As a proof that the rising at Morant Bay was not merely local, Mr. Downer states that within three days the whole population of the parish was in arms; that one band was in full operation in the work of destruction at Monklands; another at Bath; another in the Plantain Garden River district, and another at Manchioneal, proceeding onwards and threatening Port Antonio. Mr.Downer also gives the deposition of Charles Oakley that on the 9th October at a meeting at Stony Gut, Paul Bogle and others made the arrangements for meeting at Morant Bay on Wednesday, the 11th, as the time was come for them, and all who had guns or cutlasses were to bring them.
B. Davis, clerk of the peace, St. George’s, states, that in that district persons openly expressed themselves in the market-place as ready to join the Rebels if they came, and destroy the whites. He says no one in St.George’s questions the fact that the blacks of the parish were ripe for revolt, or doubts that a spirit of disaffection existed and still exists in other parishes.
Mrs. Herschell heard the Rebels at Potosi say they were going to kill all the white men, but were not going to hurt the white ladies, but reserve them for themselves.
R. Kirkland, justice of the peace, heard the Rebels at Bath state ” they would ” cut the throat of any white and coloured man they found ; that every white man’s ” throat must be cut, but the estates and women saved.”
Mr.Harrison, of Hordley, heard the Rebels say”One white devil is dead, give it them ” all, don’t spare one ;” again, ” We will rip up the women and children, as we can’t get ” the men. Mind the back door, don’t let one of the damned women go, we will ” rip them up this night ;” again, ” The women must have gone into the trash house, we will burn it down and roast them all up ;” again, after breaking into the liquor store and drinking, ” Never mind de buckra women and pickinny, we get dem bye and bye ” when we want them.”
….Ayre for his prompt and energetic action in sending up the Jamaica military so soon, and thus checking in the bud the ravages of a deep laid plan for a damnable and barbarous rebellion throughout the whole Island.
Declared before me this 6th day of January 1866, Samuel Shortridge, J.P., St. Thomas-in-the-East.
January 9, 1866. Thomas Girvan.— I am an engineer and reside in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East.
I was at Plantain Garden River Estate on the 12th of October last, the day following the outbreak of the rebellion at Morant Bay. On the forenoon of that day I requested the manager of the estate to send me some hands to lift and put in to position a heavy piece of machinery. “He told me he did not think ” he could get them as all the people had struck work owing to a report of an outbreak at Morant Bay, “where it’s said they have killed all the whites.” I did not believe it at that time,but shortly after I went down to the work yard to try and procure as many hands as I required.
I found a large number of the labourers on the estate surrounding the grindstone in noisy groups grinding their cutlasses. I saw little prospect of getting any work done that day, therefore prepared to return home ; but before I had left the people were using very threatening language to the manager and book-keepers. All that night I heard the blowing of shells all round about where I live. The following morning I started away down the river, but on the way was met by a black man, who told me not to go down the river, for the people had killed Mr. Hire and a lot more of the white people, and all the others had run away. However, I did not believe him and went on (the same man had been Mr. Hire’s servant), when, about a quarter of a mile from P. G. R. works, I heard a fearful noise and pulled up. They were then breaking down the great house at Winchester. I then rode on to a hill close to the works. The people were then rushing down in bands, some armed with guns, others with sticks, but most of them with cutlasses, and each party was headed by one blowing a shell ; some of them taunted me from the road, crying, “Buckra, why you no come down the river this morning, you head no cut off yet;” others cried,”For we time come now, colour for colour.”
I stayed till I saw them rush in and sack Mr. S. Shortridge’s house, then I thought of my own house and started for it. On my way I passed a few people armed with sticks, who threatened to beat me, but after some talk among themselves allowed me to pass. When I got near home I came off the horse and was standing on a fallen tree, when another band passed ; one of their number rushed up to me with his cutlass and swore he would have my head off, but an old man called out, ” No kill that buckra, we hear charges about him already,” so I escaped. A steamer came into Port Morant that evening and fired off some guns, which changed at once the conduct of the people in my neighbourhood. They dispersed,and the carrying of plunder ceased during the day ; few or no lights did I see in their houses that night.
On the following day a number of them came to my house shouting their war-cry, which was ” Hell” and “Lion,””Colour for colour.” When they came into the house they had no fire-arms,nothing but cutlasses. They told me if I had come out to them with gun or cutlass they would have killed me, or if I had been a planter they would have cut off my head. One said,we want all them “cotch buckra “for kill.” I said I am a Scotchman, but they said,”You no a planter.” They then went in to my store-room and took all the liquor they could find and a few other articles, such as knives, and then went away.
From what I saw of the rebellion I am of opinion that if it had not been so promptly headed and hemmed in there would have been few, if any,”whites”who would have seen 1866;and I consider that the heart felt thanks of every loyal citizen in Jamaica is due to Governor Eyre for the able and energetic manner in which he stopped the black fanatics who were lashed into rebellion through the fallacious teachings and canting hypocrisy of the Baptists.
Declared before me this 9th January 1866, Thomas Girvan. Saml. Shortridge, J.P.