West Indies Cricket Fans

'ON THE MAIN road leading to St Thomas in the vicinity of Bull Bay stands a historic marker mounted by the Jamaica National Trust Commission (which was replaced by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust in 1985) dedicated to the memory of Jack Mansong. A slave who also became known as Three Finger Jack, his exploits as a guerilla fighter, starting in 1780 until his death in January 1781, sparked a wave of literary works which kept his legend alive well beyond the shores of Jamaica....Describing him as a "folk hero-villain", L. Alan Eyre, writing in the Jamaica Journal Volume 7, Number 4, in 1973 said: "It is a fact that more 'biographies' of Jack have been published than of any West Indian before or since - somewhere approaching 20 in all, almost all written in Britain and almost all anonymous!" In the article titled 'Jack Mansong Bloodshed or Brotherhood', Eyre notes: "Not only did books about him become popular, and one or two are known to have been bestsellers in Britain, but a pantomime of his life had the rare distinction of being a sensation at Covent Garden, Haymarket and Victoria theatres in London. This musical Obi - or Three Finger Jack - had a run of at least nine years!"...Described as "the terror of Jamaica", the exploits of this slave bandit-outlaw struck fear into the hearts of many up to 50 years after his death. The truth about his life seems to have been overtaken by fanciful stories, with the many and varied accounts making it difficult, if not impossible, to untangle the facts from the legend....Believed to be a giant in stature, standing close to seven feet tall, he became known as Three Finger Jack after losing two digits in a fight with a Maroon known as Quashie, who would eventually be credited with killing him. Alone and unarmed, he reportedly had time only to seize a machete before being shot three times, when attacked by Quashie and six others, according to Eyre's account. Mortally wounded, Jack threw himself off a precipice and Quashie followed. The two engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Jack putting up a good fight before succumbing to Quashie.'

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2011 ... lead5.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am currently doing research for my PhD which will show that Quashie most likely changed his name to John Reeder, and later he and two other Maroons named Sam Grant and William Carmichael Cockburn, formerly Little Quaco, claimed credit for killing Jack, and received pensions from the colonial authorities for many years for this claim.

Edward Jordon (1800 – 1869)



Newspaper editor, statesman, and political activist, Edward Jordon helped galvanize public opinion against slavery in Jamaica among the free mulatto class using his newspaper The Watchman.

Jordon, a Jamaican mulatto, enjoyed more privileges and a higher social status than the slaves, but was barred from enjoying basic civil rights, such as voting or giving evidence in court, because of his non-white status. Jordon emerged as an outspoken member of the mulatto group, actively using his newspaper to lobby for their interests. He surprised many, however, by also being very sympathetic to the slaves, regularly publishing articles criticizing the harsh treatment they experienced.

In 1832 he printed an editorial calling for the planters to "knock off the fetters, and let the oppressed go free". In response the Jamaican planters had Jordon tried for sedition, which carried the death penalty. Though the charge was eventually dropped, Jordon spent six months in prison before his release.

Jordon continued campaigning against slavery even after his release, and after winning the Kingston seat in the House of Assembly in 1835 he helped implement the articles of the Emancipation Act of 1834.

Jordon went on to have a prolific career in public and private service. He founded another newspaper, The Morning Journal, and became manager of the Kingston Savings Bank, and director of the Planters' Bank. At various times he held the offices of Mayor and Custos of Kingston; Speaker of the House of Assembly and Colonial Secretary. A memorial statue of him was unveiled in Kingston in 1875, and can be seen today in the St. William Grant Park in downtown Kingston.

http://jis.gov.jm/stalwarts/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://jamaicasforgottenjournalists.wee ... -1861.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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"Michael Norman Manley ON OCC (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Coming from a prosperous background, Manley was a democratic socialist. According to opinion polls, he remains one of Jamaica's most popular Prime Ministers since independence."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Manley" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"William Knibb, OM (7 September 1803 – 15 November 1845) was an English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica. He is chiefly known today for his work to free slaves. On the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, Knibb was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. He was the first white male to receive the country's highest civil honour. Knibb's elder brother Thomas was a missionary-schoolmaster in Jamaica. When Thomas died at 24, William volunteered to replace him. A dedication service was held in Bristol on 7 October 1824, two days after he had married Mary Watkins (or Watkis). The newly-weds sailed to Jamaica on 5 November 1824. William was aged just 21. Knibb found six English Baptist missionaries, African-Caribbean Baptist deacons, and thriving congregations already in Jamaica when he arrived. Together they were following the pioneering work of the African preacher George Lisle, a former slave from Virginia who had arrived in 1782 and founded a Baptist church in Kingston. Knibb began work as the schoolmaster of the Baptist mission school in Kingston and worked closely with fellow missionaries Thomas Burchell and James Phillippo, who formed a trio. In 1828 he moved to Savanna-la-Mar. In 1830 he became the minister responsible for the Baptist church at Falmouth, which had regular congregations of 600 when he arrived. He remained there as minister until he died."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Knibb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Liele, unlike all other 'religionists' to visit Jamaica before, came voluntarily, not part of the 'establishment', of the same colour as the majority, and did not operate as a landowner or slave trader. His presence excited the masses, and within a few years his first congregation at East Queen Street swelled to approximately 500 members. This was the first Baptist church established in Jamaica. Liele had come from the USA where already his life and witness made indelible mark upon US history. He is recognised today as the first ordained black preacher in America, the pioneer of the Black Church in the USA. His conversion at age 23 so transformed his life that his master freed him to preach the gospel. He came to Jamaica as America's first missionary overseas thirty-three years before Adoniram Judson sailed for Burma and became hailed in missions history as the Father of American Missions. In his native Georgia he had preached throughout the War of Independence, and attracted an impressive number of followers. This led to his establishing, in 1779, along with one of his followers, Andrew Bryan, the first Black Baptist Church in America. When he came to Jamaica in 1783, he began preaching in the dusty streets of Kingston, and gradually reached into the canefields in neighbouring parishes, eventually witnessing islandwide. Three Moravian missionaries had preceded him, but they were from Germany, white, kept slaves, operated in one parish (St. Elizabeth), and enforced such restrictions that their growth was slow and minimal. They did not excite the masses. The impact of Liele approximately 30 years later was startling and substantial. The plantocracy were so alarmed that they began to fear the uprising of the slaves. Not surprisingly then, the local Legislature passed a law to effectively put an end to all non-conformist preachers, for Methodists had arrived in 1798 and had begun to make an impact among mulattos. The law required all non-conformists (non-Anglicans) to get a licence to preach, from the Bishop of London, in London. While the white non-conformists were prepared to challenge the law, the blacks (Baptists) were in no such position. However, one of their member made a master move by writing to the British Baptists for help. In response, the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in England sent their first missionary to Jamaica ­ John Rowe. He arrived in 1814 but died of a fever in 1816. The BMS sent successors, and they did noble, spiritual work, leading in the struggles that led to the Emancipation of slavery in 1838."

http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/ ... mind4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We've spoken about Busta...how about Alan Coombs?

'Coombs, who was also a product of this environment, described the very modest circumstances in which he and Buchanan started the JWTU. "On the 17th day of May, 1936, I contracted six labourers in the Kingston Race Course and they pledged themselves to be members of the society, which they asked me to find a suitable name for." He could hardly have known that within a year this organisation would attract islandwide support and lay the foundations for what would emerge from the labour rebellion of 1938. The first phase of organisational effort climaxed in October with the JWTU participating in a labour conference at Liberty Hall along with members of the UNIA, the ex-servicemen and the Masons' Co-operative Union. Finally, on December 30, Coombs and his union felt confident enough to challenge the colonial administration by staging a march of the unemployed. After disregarding the advice of the Deputy Mayor to turn back, the marchers were charged by the police. A description of this event was provided by Coombs in his memorandum to the Moyne Commission: "The people, all unarmed, were only carrying flags and banners bearing the words 'Starvation, Nakedness, Shelterless'. The Union Jack was torn in pieces ? while the poor and unfortunate people received their floggings which necessitated many going to the hospital for treatment." Coombs responded by threatening a larger demonstration, and, more importantly, called on progressive persons island-wide to become representatives of his organisation. It was at this point in the development of the union that Coombs set out to enlist the support of men of "education and intelligence." Alexander Bustamante was one of the very few to respond and, after attending his first meeting, he became the union's treasurer. Both men now moved more decisively to organise dock workers, railway men and employees of the KSAC in the city, as well as workers in Spanish Town and the banana ports of Pt. Maria and Oracabessa. In return for his financial support, Bustamante quickly became the dominant personality with his energy, flamboyance and the status which automatically accompanied a near-white man of affluence. This was the platform which facilitated Bustamante's direct access to the masses and provided him with the opportunity to parade his genius for demagogy and to demonstrate his genuine empathy for the poor, his absolute fearlessness of the colonial authority and his love of country. By October, Bustamante made Coombs an offer that he could hardly refuse - continued financing of the union in exchange for the presidency. Coombs accepted and in handing over the presidency declared, "It gives me sincere and heart felt pleasure to voluntarily relinquish my position as president ... to our esteemed and devoted friend Mr. Alexander Bustamante."'

http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/ ... ocus3.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay (September 15, 1889[1] – May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American writer and poet, who was a seminal figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote four novels: Home to Harlem (1928), a best-seller that won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo (1929), Banana Bottom (1933), and in 1941 a manuscript called Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem that has not yet been published.[2] McKay also authored collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932), two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and My Green Hills of Jamaica (published posthumously), and a non-fiction, socio-historical treatise entitled Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). His 1922 poetry collection, Harlem Shadows, was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance. His Selected Poems was published posthumously, in 1953."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_McKay" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-we-must-die/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

St William Grant....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._William_Grant" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'In 1934 he served as a delegate to the UNIA convention in Jamaica, where he was expelled from UNIA by Marcus Garvey himself for "misrepresenting the aims and objectives of the organisation". Remaining in Jamaica, Grant continued both to earn his living as a cook and participate in activism, this time as a labour leader. In May 1938 the dockworkers of the United Fruit Company were on strike. Bustamante and Grant were known as orators promoting and directing the strike. Both were arrested on 24 May, and remanded in custody by a police inspector. While Bustamante submitted to arrest, St. William Grant protested and was badly beaten. Both were charged with inciting unlawful assembly and obstructing the police, were refused bail and as a form of humiliation were stripped down to their underwear. The events led to further strikes and riots, until Bustamante and Grant were freed by a court on 28 May. According to Dr Orville Taylor, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, "had it not been for St. William Grant, history might not have known Bustamante". Grant had a falling out with Bustamante and never became part of the Jamaica Labour Party. In 1947 he contested the West Kingston division for the People's National Party in the first Municipal (KSAC) elections after adult suffrage and was beaten by more than 2 to 1. He never resurfaced in any other political contest. However, in 1950 Bustamante recommended that Grant be appointed watchman at the central Housing Authority (later the Ministry of Housing) in which post he remained until his death.'

A truly informative topic. Thank you

howzdat wrote:A truly informative topic. Thank you

My pleasure....

Someone should start one on great Guyanese in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hart_(Jamaican_historian_and_politician" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

"Richard Hart was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on 13 August 1917, of mixed heritage that included Sephardic Jewish and African. He was the son of Ansell Hart, a Jamaican solicitor and author of a 1972 historical study of George William Gordon. Hart was educated in Jamaica and in England, where he was sent to boarding-school at Denstone College in Staffordshire. He returned to Jamaica in 1937, and became a founding member of the People's National Party (PNP) in 1938; he was on the party's Executive Committee from 1941 to 1952. He had the responsibility of drafting a model trade union constitution as a member of Norman Manley's 1938 Labour Committee assisting Alexander Bustamante in the formation of a trade union, and in 1940 was arrested for organising a demonstration demanding Bustamante's release from prison. Hart sat the English Law Society examinations in Jamaica, qualifying as a solicitor in 1941. In 1942 he was imprisoned without trial by the British colonial government for his political activities. In 1954, Hart – who self-identified as a Marxist – was one of four PNP members who were expelled from the PNP for their (alleged) communist views. The other three members were Frank Hill, Ken Hill and Arthur Henry, and they were collectively referred to as "the four Hs". Hart was also very active in the trade union movement in Jamaica in the 1940s and 1950s, and worked as a member of the Executive Committee of the Trade Union Council from 1946 to 1948. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Caribbean Labour Congress from 1945 to 1946 and Assistant Secretary from 1947 to 1953. Believing in the importance of popular education to empower people and raise the level of political consciousness in the community – to which his first book, The Origin and Development of the People of Jamaica (1952), was dedicated – Hart helped establish the People's Educational Organisation (PEO), which organized a bookshop and held meetings and debates, including on the type of political party that was needed. Together with other radical thinkers and activists he then formed the People's Freedom Movement (which was later renamed the Socialist Party of Jamaica). The party disbanded in 1962."

I have a couple of Hart's books on my shelf...they're excellent! One of them is one of my key texts for my PhD.