On October 11, Paul Bogle, a respected black man in the community, marched with a group to Morant Bay. When they arrived at the court house they were met by a small volunteer militia who opened fire on the group, killing seven. Immediately, the militia retreated but the group that day killed 18 people, officials and militia, and had taken the town. In the days that followed some 2,000 rebels roamed the countryside, killing two white planters and forcing others to flee for their lives.
Governor Edward Eyre sent troops to hunt down the poorly armed rebels, and bring Paul Bogle back to Morant Bay to be hung. Despite the fact that these troops were met with no resistance, the soldiers shot and hanged everyone they came across, mostly innocent people without a trial. One soldier said, "we slaughtered all before us...man or woman or child”. In the end, 439 blacks were killed in the repression and 354 executed after "trials" that ranged from the whim of an individual officer to the judicial lynching of an official court martial. Paul Bogle was, of course, among those hanged. Over 600 men and women, including pregnant women, were flogged and received up to 100 strokes. To increase the severity of the punishment the cord strands of the cat were twined with wire. In addition, many received long prison sentences.
On August 6th 1962, Jamaican Independence Day was born! After years of Spanish and subsequent British colonial rule, Jamaica was finally allowed to govern its own political, economical, and social affairs.
The Spanish claimed the Island in 1494 when Christopher Columbus discovered it on one of his voyages to the Caribbean.
The British took over in 1655, after a short battle with the Spanish, but that only lasted