Gordon's Rebellion

After the initial riots took place, troops under the guidance of General Abercrombie Nelson and Governor Eyre started arresting people and killing blacks in reign of terror linked to the events. During this time, the Governor also arrested George William Gordon on October 20, 1865 in Kingston located in the parish of St. Andrew. Officials transported Gordon to Morant Bay to be tried for high treason, which meant he was denied the right to due process of the law. The court found him guilty of all crimes and he was executed on October 23, 1865. In a letter written to his wife, Gordon proclaimed his innocence and that he did not “deserve this sentence, for I never advise or took part in any insurrection. All I ever did was to recommend the people

In the eighteenth century, sugar production gave England the power it needed to help maintain its imperial endeavors; India altered the economic future in the nineteenth century. At the same time, a balance of power shifted because the power of Britain’s landed class switched to the industrial, professional, and commercial class. The events of 1857 shook London because “all classes of Englishmen” became passionate the Indians revolted during the mutiny and committed crimes against English women. In terms of social relations and identity, those in the rebellion reestablished themselves as “other” because they threatened 13, 000 white settlers on the island and this fed into the fear that already existed in the metropolis. Yet, these racial ideals existed in the colonies thirty years earlier as Englishmen went to explore and live savages, but the government viewed these issues as colonial problems, but this change by 1857 because the “English public saw the colored man as the personification of malice.” These feelings fed into the upcoming debates that involved Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mills because these intellectual white men created the cultural class battle that changed how the people perceived the

The Committee served as an ad hoc association that reflected the efforts of anti-slavery groups and other individuals who were critical of the rebellion. While the group started to establish themselves in the House of Commons, The Royal Commission released their findings and found that Eyre acted in an appropriate manner; yet, he abused the use of martial law because he maintained it for too long, which led to further chaos and destruction on the island. Accordingly, A.V Dicey stated that martial law meant “the suspension of ordinary law and the temporary government of a country.” In a legal sense, rebellion, “according to martial law, either by death or otherwise, as to them shall seem expedient for the punishment and suppression of all rebels in their rural districts, and to arrest and detain in custody all persons engaged in such rebellion.” The legal issue of rebellion and martial law included a number of colonial uprisings that changed the way the government perceived the actions to handle events. . According to Finlason, Eyre would look towards former cases about martial law in the colonies that were sanctioned by Parliament to back up his use of the law in Morant Bay. The case of Demerara proved quite useful because it involved a slave uprising in 1823; the