Jamaica's history - always something new to find out!
  • home
    • start here >
      • links
      • about me
      • my blog >
        • comments
      • another blog
      • facebook page
      • just something special
    • my articles >
      • Sam Sharpe - a note 1831
      • PKB Memorial Fund
      • Mrs Seacole & Queen Emma
      • 1891 Exhibition
      • All but unique: H. A. Joseph
      • Three Historic Buildings
      • Andrew Bogle
      • Jamaican politics 1866-1920
  • people
    • - 'ordinary' people >
      • 'extraordinary' lives >
        • Marie Francis
        • William Henry Hinson
        • James H Blackwood >
          • teacher
          • politician
          • bee-farmer
          • Human Rights activist
    • remarkable families >
      • family of C E Moody >
        • Harold Moody
        • Elise Moody
        • Charles Aston Moody
        • Ludlow Moody
        • Ronald Moody
        • Locksley Moody
      • family of R M Nicholas
      • family of C A D Phang >
        • Rosalind
        • May
        • Hilda
      • family of H B Phillips
      • family of A T Stewart
    • in the churches >
      • George Fox and early Friends >
        • 1692 and beyond
      • Rev. S. J. Washington
      • Rev. W. Theo Bailey
      • Rev. E. E. Brown
      • Rev. I. N. D. Gordon
      • Rev. J. J. Fuller
      • Church of England >
        • Rev. Francis Humberstone
        • Rev. J. M. Trew
        • Edward Maunde Thompson
        • Rev. R. Gordon
        • Rev Dr Hugh Croskery
        • Rev. T. Banbury
        • Rev. R. O. Taylor
        • Rev. H. L. Phillips >
          • as an Episcopalian priest
        • Rev. C. C. Douce
        • Rev. A. Cole
        • A. L. "Teacher" Walcott
        • Rev. and Mrs W. A. Burris
        • Rev. W. L. Brown
      • the Moravians >
        • Rev. W. V. Moses
    • in education >
      • brief lives >
        • Thomas Terence Sherlock
      • Francis Williams
      • ~ Woodlawn 1896
      • Matthew Josephs
      • T. B. Stephenson
      • Robert Lindsay
      • W Thomas Linton
      • S. C. Thompson
      • W. H. Plant
      • Sigismund C. Walker
      • Thomas I. Brown
      • E. Luther Brookes
    • in legal professions >
      • Peter Moncrieffe
      • J. T. Palache
      • A. A. Fleming
      • H. R. Walters
      • H. A. Joseph
      • M. H. Spencer Joseph
      • J. L. King
    • in medical professions >
      • - doctors >
        • Sampson Altman
        • J. J. Edwards
        • A. J. Thomas
        • R. M. Stimpson
        • E. C. Kinkead
        • E. V. Smith
        • T. A. Dryden
        • Cicely Williams
        • Roderick Atkinson
        • - in the U.S.A. >
          • Simeon I. Battiste
          • David Newton Emanuel Campbell >
            • portable window fire-escape ladder
          • A. E. Forsyth
      • - dentists >
        • Pedro Pompey
        • A. T. Cooper
        • E. E. Clark
        • J. H. Nicholson
      • - dispensers >
        • Anthan F Berry
        • Charles E Moody
      • - nurses
      • - psychiatrists
    • in politics & public affairs >
      • early Black politicians [slideshow]
      • Edward Jordon
      • Jim Russell >
        • the 'Great War'
      • Colonel George Hicks
      • Samuel Page Smeeton
    • in business >
      • drogher/droguer women
      • Edward Vickars
      • Charles Phillip Lazarus >
        • Charles Philip Lazarus remembered
        • foundry >
          • - 'City of Kingston'
          • - Jamaica Cycle Company
        • building contracts
        • politics and public affairs >
          • 1909 Party of Progress
      • J. H. & J. O. Milke
      • beekeepers >
        • Hill/Darwin correspondence
      • Robert Mitchell Nicholas
      • Joseph Milward Gordon >
        • Gall's News Letter 1890
      • John Cassis
      • Jacob Hume Stewart
      • Christopher L Barnes
      • Ernest Clarke
      • Lance E. Drysdale
    • on the land >
      • John S. Levy
    • in sports >
      • athletics >
        • Alfred Reynolds Downer >
          • education
          • athletics career >
            • - amateur
            • - professional
          • . . . but after that
      • boxing
      • chess >
        • Arthur Ford Mackenzie >
          • tributes
      • cricket >
        • J. K. Holt, snr
        • S C Snow
        • O. C. 'Tommy' Scott
      • cycling >
        • Johnnie Weir
        • A. A. "Bill" Johnson
        • Washington 'Teacher' Battiste
      • football
      • horse racing
      • tennis
    • Maroons in Jamaica >
      • Gleaner references
      • 1796 Richard Brinsley Sheridan
      • 1802 Maria, Lady Nugent
      • 1836 Popular Encyclopedia
      • 1844 Edwin Tregellies
      • 1844 Philip Henry Gosse
      • 1859 Richard Hill
      • 1860 Atlantic Monthly
      • 1862 Edward Cust
      • 1865 Col. Fyfe
      • 1865 Once a Week
      • 1866 Charles Town Maroons
      • 1867 Trip to the Tropics
      • 1890 Historical Geography
      • 1898 New York Tribune
      • 1898 Edith, Lady Blake
      • my articles: >
        • 1996 'Trouble with the Maroons'
        • 2001 'A brave and loyal people'
    • . . . some more Jamaicans
    • and even more
  • places
    • Kingston & St Andrew >
      • various places >
        • Knutsford Pen
      • street corner cannons
      • the Old H-W-T Courthouse >
        • four 18th century houses >
          • Hibbert House >
            • Hibbert House - over time
          • Constantine House
          • Bull House >
            • Peter Blaise Desnoes
            • North Street Villa
          • Harmony Hall
        • 19th century
      • Kingston Market
      • Kingston Race Course >
        • Pratter's/Prater's Pond
      • Retreat Pen >
        • Peter Alexander Espeut >
          • P A Espeut interview
      • Waireka >
        • a trip to 'Wareka' 1896
      • Park Lodge >
        • Susan and Mary Burton >
          • Mount Mansfield
      • Date Tree Hall >
        • Blundell/Blundle Hall
        • Barkly/Clarendon Hall
      • the Parade >
        • - the Church
        • - Barracks
        • - Theatre
        • - Coke Chapel
        • - other buildings
        • Parade Gardens
      • Harbour Street >
        • The Treasury >
          • the Treasury clock
        • Streadwick's Marine Gardens
        • Breezy Castle
      • Up Park Camp
      • Admiral's Pen
      • Rockford Gardens
      • "Babbin's" Church
    • other parishes >
      • Old Harbour
      • Bog Walk Gorge
      • Fern Gully
      • Moneague Lakes
      • Colbeck Castle
      • Blue Mountain Estate
    • Botanical Gardens >
      • Wallen's Cold Spring
  • institutions
    • education >
      • elementary & all-age schools >
        • West Branch
        • Miss Knibb's School, Falmouth
      • secondary schools >
        • Collegiate School >
          • 1850s & '60s
          • 1870s
          • 1880s
          • 1890s
          • 1900 & after
          • headmasters
          • alumni
          • cricket
        • Potsdam
        • York Castle
        • Mary Villa College
        • Kingston High School for Girls
        • Kingston Technical High School
      • tertiary institutions >
        • 'the Mico'
        • Montego Bay Academy
        • University College
        • Kingston Commercial College
    • culture >
      • Victoria Institute >
        • - 'Victoria Quarterly'
    • sport >
      • athletics
      • boxing
      • cricket >
        • Kingston Cricket Club
        • Clovelly Cricket Club
      • cycling
      • football
      • golf
      • horse racing
      • tennis
    • security >
      • constabulary
      • West India Regiments
  • the arts
    • theatre >
      • Kingston's theatres >
        • Kingston Theatre
        • Theatre Royal
        • new Theatre Royal
        • Aaron Mendes Sollas >
          • Joshua A M Sollas
          • the Sollas family in Jamaica
      • actors & actresses >
        • Rudolph De Cordova
      • the comic tradition >
        • the Murray family >
          • H. G. Murray
          • A. C. Murray
          • W. C. Murray
          • legacy
          • Dr R. O. Murray
        • Lionel Trim
      • magic >
        • Prof. W. A. Barclay
    • magic lantern & beyond
    • literature
    • music and dance >
      • the classical musicians >
        • - Eleanor Alberga
        • ~ Neville Atkinson
        • - Nerine Barrett
        • - Richard Beckford
        • - Harold St Nicholas Cartier
        • - Frederic H. Cowen
        • - Noel DaCosta
        • - Louis Drysdale
        • - Samuel Felsted
        • - Maxine Franklin
        • - George and Hilda Goode
        • - David Johns
        • - John Lyon
        • - Marie McMarrow
        • - Edmund Reid
        • - Orrett Rhoden
        • - Oswald Russell
        • - Paul Shaw
        • - Don Shirley
        • - Stephen Tucker
        • - George Walker
        • - Curtis Watson
        • - Willard White
      • Jamaica Choir
      • 'practice dances'
    • art >
      • painting >
        • Zithri J Atkinson >
          • Bruce Grit article
        • Frederic E Church
      • sculpture
      • photography
  • events
    • & everything else >
      • - manumissions
      • - drugs >
        • - tobacco
        • - opium
        • - cocaine
        • - cannabis >
          • 1913 legislation
    • public holidays >
      • crop-over
      • May 24th
      • June 7 >
        • Port Royal 1667
        • Great Earthquake 1692
      • August 1st >
        • 1888 - 50 years
      • Christmas >
        • 18th century
        • 19th century >
          • Christmas with Belisario
          • Christmas in Kingston >
            • - Creole Airs
            • Christmas at the Asylum
          • and across the island
          • Christmas Races
        • early 20th century
        • lotteries & raffles
      • other days >
        • Valentine's Day
        • Mother's Day
    • exhibitions >
      • 1891 >
        • the phonograph
        • merry-go-rounds
        • Amphitrite
      • 1932 >
        • the Exhibition starts >
          • a walk around the Exhibition
        • Exhibition extended
        • Exhibition sports
        • - D T Wint
        • - 'Exhibition' Beecher
        • - W A W Mitchell
        • - L. A. Thoywell-Henry
      • 1934
      • 1946 - Exhibition that wasn't
    • natural disasters >
      • earthquakes >
        • - 1692
        • - 1907 >
          • Kingston burning
          • reports >
            • map
            • - Capt. T. T. Lovelace
          • damage
          • who was Joseph E Thomas?
          • afterwards
        • - smaller 'quakes
      • hurricanes >
        • Jamaica's climate
        • Dampier and hurricanes
        • 18th century >
          • 1780s - hurricane decade
        • 19th century >
          • - 1815
          • 1830s & 1840s
          • 1870s & 1880s
        • 20th century
        • 21st century
      • fires >
        • 1843 >
          • 1843 Colonial Magazine
        • 1862
        • 1875
        • 1882
      • diseases >
        • cholera
        • 'Dandy fever'
        • "Spanish" 'flu
home  >
my articles  >
Sam Sharpe - a note 1831

Sam Sharpe - a note, 1831

Picture
Kay Sullivan's Monument to the National Hero, Sam Sharpe, in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay.
Jamaican Historical Society Bulletin Vol 8 No 4 December 1981
The Jamaica Advocate: August 29th, 1896 p 3, cols 2-3
        
                    'An Episode with Many Lessons
        
         A correspondent in Montego Bay sent us this brief page from the unwritten history of the past.
        
               The following highly interesting occurrence took place in this town many years ago. It should prove particularly interesting at this August season, the anniversary of the Negro emancipation. My father was both an eye and ear-witness. Why such a wonderful event has never found its way into the History of Jamaica or of the
“Slavery Rebellion”, it is hard to tell.
        
               On the 30th May 1831, the martyrdom of Sam Sharpe took place on the scaffold in the Parade of this town in that portion near to the “cage”. Sharpe was, or had been, a slave at the time; could read and write so well, as to occupy a prominent position (that of deacon) in the then shamefully persecuted, but only Christian church at the time, the Baptist Society. In those days the poor negro’s life was in jeopardy if it were known that he could read. Sharpe’s name is mentioned in the “Memoir of William Knibb” lately published in England and now for sale in Jamaica. Every Jamaican should own one.
        
               Persecution, hanging, shooting, catting, tarring, feathering, martial law, DEATH, awaited every friend of, or sympathiser with the poor, downtrodden negro slave. For a long time authorities thirsted for Sharpe’s blood; for an equal portion of time he succeeded in baffling them; but they were determined to have him. He was decoyed by promises of trust and honour from the white man; he was taken, and truth, honour and pledge, all sacrificed in the glut for revenge and blood. He was lodged in the gaol of this town to await execution; but he had not to wait long, for, on the next day he was led forth to the place of execution on the Parade, under an escort of soldiers. He wore no shoes, but he had on a pair of socks. At the proper moment he mounted the scaffold, where he made a most affecting appeal, asseverating his innocence of being a participator in the rebellion, to the last moment. He then read from the Bible the (?)5th Psalm, and solemnly invoked the Almighty to send down a shower of rain as soon as he was dead, to prove his innocence to all. The day was known to persons yet alive to have been ‘clear and hot’. The trap door was put away and Sharpe dropped, and as soon as life could have fled, down came the shower of rain. The crowd melted away from very fear, rather than on account of the rain some ran home, of whom my relative was one; only officials bound by duty remained. It rained every day after for seven days. His body was buried in a felon’s grave by the authorities; but there were those who resolved that it should not remain there for ever, if they could help it.

 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

               Seven years after, his bones were disinterred in the night by two Christian Baptist Ministers of blessed memory (who took labourers with them), Revs. Wm. Knibb and J E Henderson (the latter gentleman was pastor at the Second Baptist Church in this town until his death) who brought them home to this town in their buggy. These bones are known to have been kept in the possession of an eminent gentleman of that period, Mr Lewin, in his store and residence, in the premises of (then) Mr John H James, Snr, opposite the (now) Second Baptist Chapel . They were subsequently decently arranged, placed in a coffin made for the purpose with a hinged lid and fastening, and deposited in a vault also made for that purpose under the floor beneath the platform of the Communion table in the First Baptist Chapel. There they lay -  a holy relic -- in peace, and as it was supposed, in safety until the coffin was, but a very few years ago to everyone’s surprise, discovered to be empty; some dastardly, sacrilegious impecunious monster having assisted in purloining them it is believed as near as possible known, to sell them to a young medical student.
        
               Sharpe’s daughter, Mrs Gaynor, now an old lady (she was 2 or 3 years old when it happened) is still in Montego Bay. She lives with her daughter, Mrs Scott, a respectable young married lady; they are both members in the Second Baptist Chapel. The old lady, when spoken with on the subject, invariably melts into tears at the thought of her father’s [body] — a vary precious sacred relic, sacred to all who love their homes and esteem their privileges -  having been stolen. On application to the minister, any one will be allowed to have a look at the empty coffin in the vault.
        
                                                 A Native of Montego Bay'
                                                       
                                                    -------------------   
    

   This extract from the Jamaica Advocate is not a very accurate account of the events of 1831-32; for one thing the date of Samuel Sharpe’s execution is incorrect and the place of execution is questionable. One suspects that the story of the shower of rain proving Sharpe’s innocence grew up after the event. It is, however, an interesting reflection of popular feeling on the matter.
   Of more interest perhaps, is the reference to Sharpe’s daughter and grand-daughter and it is to be hoped that enquiries being made in Montego Bay may throw further light on the question of Sharpe’s descendants, if any.
   I am particularly interested in the reference to ‘Mr Lewin’ and I would be glad of any assistance readers could give in identifying this gentlemen. I have noted a number of references to Mr Lewin, whose name is given as Israel Levi Lewin in one place, as a friend of the missionaries. However, reference is also made to a Mr Levine in the same connection. This aroused a query in my mind, as to whether this Mr Lewin/Levine was identical with Mr Sidney Lindo Levien (or Leveen) who was also in Montego Bay in 1831-32 and involved in the events of that time. If anyone could help me with information about Israel Levi Lewin, or Sidney Lindo Levien (in connection with 1831, not 1865 in which I already know of his involvement) I would be most grateful.    J.L.
        

[For more details reference may be made to Samuel Sharpe: from slave to  National Hero by C S Reid, published in 1988.]

comments please  > > >
Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.