3-021-174 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Head-quarters of officers and sailors at Morant Bay, Jamaica, 1865. Engraving from a sketch by Quartermaster T. J. Mills, showing '...the house which was lately the Post Office at Morant Bay, but which is now occupied by the officers and head-quarters of the combined force of [British] soldiers and sailors stationed in that little town'. The Morant Bay Rebellion (11 October 1865) began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people. After seven men were shot and killed by the volunteer militia, the protesters attacked and burned the courthouse and nearby buildings. Twenty-five people died. Over the next two days, poor freedmen rose in rebellion across most of St. Thomas-in-the-East parish. The Jamaicans were protesting against injustice and widespread poverty. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.