BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY: THE JAMAICAN SLAVE REBELLION OF 1831:

On Tuesday the 27th December 1831, a fire on Kensington Estate in St James one of the most important sugar parishes in Jamaica, mark the out break of a slave rebellion which swept the western parishes of the Island. The rebellion was precipitated by circumstances with negro slave rebellion were the classic ingredients for revolt, political excitement stirred by rumors of emancipation, economic stress, a revolutionary philosophy circulating among the slaves and the presence of a group of whites whom the slaves could identity as their allies. The Jamaican rebellion however was characterized by the fact that the missions were the source of the slaves philosophy and the missionaries themselves were cast in the role of the slaves allies. Further a network of independent  religious meetings which had developed round the mission churches, served the slaves as a ready made political organization and thus supplied an element for which there is a parallel in slave revolt.

Violent protest against slavery in the form of riots or rebellion had been endemic in 18th century Jamaica, the out breaks occurred on average every five years and two such effort, the Maroons wars of 1738   and 1795 secured freedom for small communities of ex-slave in the mountain districts. The country settled down untill the anti-slavery agitation in England when further disturbances took place. The most important was Demerara in 1823 in Jamaica itself, slave conspiracies were discovered in 1823 and 1824.