3-021-691 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The town of Morant, Morant Bay, Jamaica, 1865. Engraving of Port Morant, '...with the ruined Courthouse, from a sketch by Mr. Cyprian Bridge, R.N...It appears that, on the 7th of October, while the magistrates at Morant were trying the case of a negro accused of some trespass, a mob of negroes...broke into the Courthouse, beat off the policemen, and rescued the prisoner...When the negro mob appeared in Morant [the] volunteers, under the Deputy Clerk of the Peace, Mr. Cook, were drawn up in line before the Courthouse... the Riot Act was read, and the volunteers fired into the mob, doing great execution...Part of the mob seized the police barracks and appropriated the arms and ammunition found there; the others, smashing the windows of the Courthouse, and...set it on fire, which compelled its evacuation'. 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.