| If you are planning to take a vacation in | | | | associated with Paul Bogle and George William |
| Jamaica, you should look into the various all | | | | Gordon, women also played crucial roles, for |
| inclusive packages, honeymoon packages and | | | | example organising many of Paul Bogle's |
| the beach house villas. You should also | | | | meetings. |
| familiarize yourself with Jamaican politics | | | | |
| and history, as they will play a bigger role | | | | One Caroline Grant was referred to by a |
| that you think on your Jamaican vacation. | | | | police officer at Morant Bay as 'a queen of |
| Both men and women created the culture of | | | | the rebels', while Grant and Sarah Johnson |
| open rebellion that characterized the slavery | | | | ordered fleeing men to return to the scene of |
| world, and helped propel the movement towards | | | | action. Elizabeth Taylor even beat Joseph |
| emancipation and full freedom. | | | | Williams when he tried to run away. |
| | | | Additionally, as Clinton Hutton tells us, |
| In the 1831 'Christmas Rebellion' intimately | | | | women like Caroline Grant, Sarah Johnson and |
| associated with one of its outstanding | | | | Ann Thompson raided police stations for guns |
| leaders, Sam Sharpe, women's roles have been | | | | and ammunition; and Elizabeth Taylor |
| recorded by contemporary observers. | | | | mobilized support for the cause. Radical |
| | | | women joined their male colleagues in the |
| This rebellion erupted in St James. The main | | | | decolonization movement that intensified |
| cause was enslaved people's belief that they | | | | after 1865. For after the brutal suppression |
| were to be 'freed at Christmas ...and that | | | | of the Morant Bay Rebellion, the state |
| their freedom order had actually come out of | | | | reacted by removing the elective principle in |
| England but was being withheld and that they | | | | government and installing the Crown Colony |
| only had to strike en masse, and they should | | | | system of government. |
| gain their object'. Enslaved men and women | | | | |
| from pens and plantations in Trelawny and St | | | | The ruling elite believed that the potential |
| James had apparently agreed that any attempt | | | | for radical transformation would be |
| to force them back to work after the | | | | considerably diminished once measures to curb |
| Christmas holidays was to be met by setting | | | | the freedom of African-Caribbeans by |
| fire to the properties, (though not their | | | | retaining control of the government were |
| huts and provision grounds). | | | | effected. However, despite their optimism, |
| | | | protest action, far from decreasing, |
| The inequities of post-slavery Jamaican | | | | escalated after 1865. |
| society ensured that the descendants of | | | | |
| enslaved peoples would continue the struggle | | | | In one sense, Caribbean rebel women |
| for complete emancipation; emancipation not | | | | sacrificed their own feminist concerns |
| just as an event, but also as a condition of | | | | initially in solidarity with their male |
| human progress. Protest action, the most | | | | counterparts during the height of the |
| notable being the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, | | | | decolonisation movement. |
| was widespread in the post-1838 period and | | | | |
| was attributable to the failure of | | | | Despite the association of the Caribbean |
| post-slavery regimes to deliver on the | | | | labour movement of the 1930s, the franchise |
| promise of freedom by honouring freed | | | | movement of the 1940s and the independence |
| people's claims to citizenship, civil rights | | | | struggles of the 1960s with men like |
| and political enfranchisement. | | | | Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley, women |
| | | | were very much involved. |
| While the Morant Bay Rebellion has been | | | | |