Slavery

This essay will also argue other factors played equally an important role in British abolitionist movement and subsequent emancipation in 1833. Later, this essay will look into the importance of Christian missionaries and how they indirectly brought about the Jamaican rebellion. However, it will be acknowledged this did have an impact on the emancipation movement in Britain, but the importance of religion was far greater in Jamaica. Therefore, this essay is in two parts. Part 1 will be discussing the influences of the French Enlightenment, the economic theory of Adam Smith and the Great Reform Act. Later, part 2 will discussing how Sam Sharpe used religious beliefs to great effect to start the Jamaican rebellion. Finally, part 2 will discuss how the education of slaves was important in bringing about the Jamaican rebellion.

When looking the Abolitionist movement in Britain is important to recognise the influence of the ideas of the French Enlightenment. It is clear some members of the British Parliament voted in favour of the Bill for religious and moral reasons in 1807. One such person was the duke of Gloucester who was quoted to have made his decision on the grounds of religion but also grounds of humanity (…). This is motivations seemed to have been shared by William Wilberforce, the leading figure of the Abolitionist movement in 1807. Even though Wilberforce did not express desire to emancipate slaves, one of the aims of the main aims of the bill was to ensure sense of duty of care towards the slaves in British Caribbean colonies. Wilberforce appears to have been portrayed accurately in the Television programme The Slavery Business: Breaking the Chains, which based on documentary evidence. In this programme, Wilberforc...

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... from being this education was Sam Sharpe. It is highly likely Sam Sharpe’s interpretation of newspaper reports was the foundation for his belief that the British Government had pass the emancipation of slavery. Robert Gardiner suggests in his witness testimony a number of slaves could read. This is backed up by another participation in the rebellion who tells us ‘we all believed this freedom business… form what we heard in the newspapers’ (…).This suggests that the slaves’ were keeping up with events in Britain by reading newspaper reports. As many slaves interpreted these reports in a way which would have as if emancipation had been passed, this must be seen as a reason for their change in attitude towards their Plantation owners. Therefore, the education provided by missionaries could be understood as contributing to the initial feeling of rebellion in Jamaica.