The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-06 00:00:00

A Missionary's View of the Jamaica Revolt.

The Scotsman publishes a letter from a missionary
in Jamaica, dated Nov. 3, which has been received
by a gentleman in Edinburgh. The writer says—
" You will be interested to know something of the
fearful outbreak of popular violence which took place
so unexpectedly in the eastern part of the island a
few weeks ago. The savage ferocity with which
they attacked and murdered the chief magistrate,
ministers, and other gentlemen assembled in the
Court House of Morant Bay, when deliberating on
the affairs of the ;parish, will be in all the public
prints. I will therefore endeavour to give you some
idea of its probable cause. The diabolical idea ap-
pears to have first entered into the mind of George
Wm. Gordon, about three years ago, of murdering
or banishing from the island all the white men and
respectable and influential brown men, and putting
it into possession of the blacks. He was a manwho
had a pretty good standing in society, and was
member of the Assembly for the parish of St.
Thomas-in-the-East, now almost desolated. He
made a great profession of religion, and was for a
time a leading member of Mr. Watson's church. He
was kind to ministers, and I have more than once
spent some time with him, and was pleased with the
Christian way in which he conducted his family, ge-
nerally presiding at worship one part of each day.
After he was elected member of Assembly he became a
loud and constant advocate for all popular rights.
On this account, and by his interminable harangue,
he disgusted many, and raised up a host of enemies
for himself in the Assembly. It was generally
thought that he was harshly treated both by the
Governor and the Custos of his own parish, now
murdered. And he got into violent quarrels with
the clergy and leading men of the parish. I have
no doubt he was mightily puffed up by the notice
that was taken of him, and especially as being gene-
rally accounted the leader of the popular party. In
all his ambitious desigis, finding himself constantly
thwarted and contemptuously treated by his oppo-
nents, the thought of getting rid of his enemies ap-
pears to have taken possession of his mind. To
accomplish the inferntl design, he seems to have
imagined that the only way was by an outbreak of
the people ; and that this led to the mad and
horrible thought of destroying all the present in-
fluential men in the island. It now appears that
for the last years he has been making preparations
for this general massacre, and for the last three
months has been indefatigable in maturing it * *
By the admirable still and promptitude of the
Governor the power of the rebels was in three
days annihilated, and in three weeks almost
every vestige of rebellion obliterated. I doubt
not, that in addition to the wide-spread desola-
tion it has occasioned to the parish in which it
broke out, and to the misery of untold multi-
tudes, whose houses have been burned, and they
themselves forced to hide in dens and thickets
to preserve themselves from military execution,
more than a thousand persons have been either shot
or hanged, and a great multitude severely lashed.
Such appears to be the end of this wicked revolt.
Gordon, some time ago, joined the Baptists, and
became a preacher among them, but I fear he was
a wicked hypocrite, and a savage at. heart. He was
hanged at the Court-house, where the slaughter
commenced, unpitied by all, and leaving a name to
be execrated by all good men.- What gave Gordon
considerable influence was the distressed state of
the colony. For some time the price of sugar in
the home market has been very low, which has
occasioned great loss to the planting interest ; and
they were compelled to reduce wages to the lowest
possible rate. Then the high rate of clothing,
and a great drought with which the island was
visited, brought the laabouring classes into great
misery. Many public meetings were held through-
out the island, and the distress of the labourers
brought very prominently into view, and also
many remedies suggested. Unfortunately little
sympathy was expressed by the leadine• men of the
island for the people. Though the rebellion is now
quashed, and will probably not be renewed, after
the fearful example made of the rebels, yet I fear
that there is no small disaffection still in the minds
of many of the people. The planters being brought
into great difficulties have been latterly peculiarly
severe upon the labourers. Many of the overseers
are magistrates, and often are severe in punishing
the people by fine and imprisonment, while the
people have no redress. At present a great multi-
tude are undergoing punishment for what no man
in the island ever considered au offence. The com-
mon fruits of the country, growing. near the road,
in open pastures, were freely taken by all classes, I
suppose, since the British landed upon the island.
This was a great help to the labouring classes, and I
believe did little injury to any one. It was like the
law among the Jews, by which any traveller was
permitted to pluck ears of standing corn as they
passed through the fields. Depriving the people of
such privileges, after their long enjoyment, pro-
duces a most powerful impression on popular feel-
ings. And I cannot help believing that the hundreds,
or perhaps thousands, who are now undergoing
punishment for disregarding the orders of the plan-
ters in this matter are becoming prepared for any
seditious movement."

The Rev. David King, formerly pastor of a United
Presbyterian Church at Kingston, Jamaica, writes to the
Daily Telegraph, as follows regarding Mr. G. W. Gordon :
"He was a member of a United Presbyterian Church in
Kingston, of whicli I filled temporarily the pulpit. He
aided and cheered me in the fulfilment of my duties. I
stayed with him occasionally, and we had excursions toge-
ther. He gave me his mind very freely on all sorts of
topics, secular and sacred, evincing no excitement or ex-
travagance in his views. I had every facility for knowing
what was thought of him by judges, magistrates, clergy-
men, and society in general ; and at that time every one,
from the highest to the lowest, spoke of him with esteem.
Mr. Womyss Anderson, a gentleman well known in
Jamaica, was one of the first who called my attention
specially to him by characterising him as "a man of
princely generosity and unbounded benevolence." To the
best of my recollection these were the very words he used
—they were certainly to that effect. A brief sketch will
indicate what foundation there was for this sort of eulogy.
Mr. Gordon was the son of a white gentleman, one of the
custodes of the island, much esteemed for his dignified,
hospitable, and obliging deportment. Like many in ele-
vated position and of refined manners he had children by
his slaves—born to slavery as their heritage. This was
the birthright of poor George Gordon. Being a very smart
boy, he taught himself with very little aid to read, write,
and cast accounts. By his diligence and intelligence he
continued to gather money, with which he bought his
freedom. Once free himself ho gained enough to emanci-
pate his sisters, and afterwards sent them to Europe for
their education—first, I think, to London, and then to
Paris. Through the reverses of the colony, the father,
from being very rich, came to lose all, and the coloured son
bought his estate—not, however, to deprive him of it,
but to leave him in occupancy, surrounded by the comforts
he had been accustomed to enjoy. So acted the son of the
bondwoman when the feelings of his fither's white wife
and her children would not allow him to enter the paternal
abode. Yet he always spoke to me with deferential regard
for his father, and never uttered a disrespectful word re-
garding Mrs. Gordon. He was tenderly sensitive. One
day as we were walking together he became pensive and
absorbed, and, after ceasing for a little time to speak or
listen, ho requested me to step aside with him. He stopped
before a slight elevation of the grass, and said to me, with
much emotion, 'My mother is buried there ; she was a
:negro and a slave, but she was a kind mother to me, and I
loved her dearly.' As he uttered these words his tears
trickled down upon her grave. The efforts of the son
could not make the impoverished father happy in Jamaica,
where he had long held a high position, and it was arranged
that Mr. Gordon, senior, with his family, should leave for
the mother country, chiefly or exclusively by the aid
which George's filial munificence provided. When the day
of departure was at hand the son said to me, You know
that I am not permitted to give my father valedictory
attentions. I have promised him that you will do so for
me, and will accompany him and his white family to the
ship: I did so, and I was struck to find that through a
distance of eight or nine miles the road, as we drove along,
was lined with groups of negroes, who had assembled to