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Suppression of the Baptist War

Brathwaite is credited with the assertion that after the Baptist War that out of the106,000 concentrated slaves present in the western parishes of Jamaica between

some 18,000 were involved in the revolt and among them two were executed for

directly for their part in the rebellion.

It was clear that Samuel Sharpe was acceptant of the fact that the planters were, in

words used by Brathwaite, so ‘intransient’ that they may not be willing to even

speak with the enslaved. He knew they would use force to overwhelm the revolt but

not to the level of which actually occurred.

The day set for the initial strike was the 28 th of December however incidents at Salt

Spring Estate on the 15 th led authorities [Montego Bay] magistrates to send

commanding orders to the militia to send out a company of the 22 nd Regiment in the

bay to quell a possible small scale uprising; however as Palmyra and Hampton as

well as many other estates burnt to the ground it was clear that ‘Pandemonium

reigned’ as Phillip Sherlock terms it.

Towns people took comfort that on New Year’s Day a party of marines from Port

Royal arrived on the HMS Sparrowhawk with General Sir Willoughby Cotton,

commander of British forces in Jamaica. The fleet stationed at the port disembarked

with about 300 soldiers and 16 artillery men with 2 field pieces and rockets.

Round One went to two bands made up of 500 horribly armed and trained men who

challenged the St. James Militia commanded by Colonel Grignon. The Colonel

reported that the regiment refused to remain at post however this was because he

retreated the entire squad to Montego Bay, allowing the rebels to move into

Savanna-La-Mar; but they lost tow of their leaders Johnson and Alexander Campbell.

For a while the freedom fighters held the initiative however in early January the

tides began to shift from pressure from the marines and the St. Elizabeth and

Westmoreland Militias. Cotton slowly increased his forces with more marines and

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100 extra soldiers from Kingston with a back force inclusive of the Accompong

Maroons in case the tides shifted again.

The inability of the rebels soon became their downfall and Governor Lowry, Earl of

Belmore announced that the freedom fighters were driven into the interior of the

country and their numbers had dramatically decreased; however they were still a

threat, so the governor had to continue Martial Law for thirty more days.

The calculation was inaccurate and yes the end was in sight for the rebellion despite

the bravery of the enslaved. Cotton had closed the slaves off to the mouth of the

Great River Valley at Roundhill while taking Montpelier and the Great River

Barracks. By January 26 the freedom fighters were forced to take up refuge in the

forests in small bands, and by the end of March Sam Sharpe gave himself up joining

Linton, Dehaney and other leaders in prison.

When the war had ended Sherlock concludes that institutionalised terror from the

plantocracy and military in the form of customary floggings, summary trials and

hanging took place. About 750 slaves and 14 free persons were convicted of alleged

participation in the rebellion and in that number about 580 were executed. Fourteen

Whites and three browns were killed and 12 whites and three browns wounded.