A rebellion broke out in the west of Jamaica. It was led by Sam Sharpe, a slave who was both literate and a Baptist deacon. What Sharpe had in mind was a form of strike. The rather modest demand he and his followers made was that they should be paid for their labour and they pledged to refuse to work after Christmas unless they were offered wages. So the most deadly slave rebellion in Jamaican history began as a sit-down strike in the cane fields, an almost Gandhian act of non-violent civil disobedience. The planters were already on edge and had been expecting some form of disturbance and they
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