Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica

From Jamaica Wiki

Here we have another Parish on the beautiful island of Jamaica. Named Saint Thomas, it has a population of 93,000 as of 2001. It is geographically situated at the south-eastern end of Jamaica in the County of Surrey. We currently find a preponderance of British sounding names for almost all the cities. Originally named by the Spaniards back in the sixteen hundreds, with the arrival of the British everything was gradually renamed to resemble "cities back home." Saint James Parish covers an area of 742.8 square kilometers.

School children of Saint Thomas will memorize their capital city as Morant Bay and agriculture and manufacturing as their foremost industries. Some major cities are Golden Grove, Bath, Seaforth, and Port Morant. Yallas is a town that will cause US readers to wonder if the city of Dallas in Texas was derived from Yallas. According to size, Saint Thomas is the ninth according to size.

Christopher Columbus landed on Jamaica in 1494, two years after "discovering" America. Many people find it difficult to think of it as a discovery since the indigent population had been there for forty years. On the island lived a large number of Tainos/Arawaks. Cattle were introduced to Jamaica by the Spaniards. In Morant Bay and Yallahs in this parish. In 1655 with the British capture not only the British took over but they invited residents from other colonies to join them. Unfortunately two thirds of them came down with illness (fever of some type) and died. The group included the Governor of Nevis and his family.

Next came the French invasion. That was in 1674. Admiral Du Casse captured many slaves from the British. The word settler sound like it would describe a group of good people. The word invaders do not carry the same connotation. In either case it seems to be the indigent population that suffers.

The Morant Bay Rebellion is a fascinating part of Jamaica's history. In 1865 the ex-slaves were going through a period of severely unfair situations. When Paul Bogle led a large group of farmers to ask the Governor to grant land tenure in a fair way it ended up being a civil war. At one point when the authorities (they had already been refused help from Governor Eyre in Spanish Town) tried to repel them, the protesters threw stones at them. The volunteers responded by shooting into the group. Seven of the protestors ended up dead. Their retaliation was to return later and burn down the Courthouse. The unfortunate citizens trapped inside tried to escape but were shot by the rioting crowd.

George William Gordon, one of the British rulers attempted to help the farmers and workers. No good deed goes unpunished. His fellow Brits took him out and hung him. The next day they also hung Paul Bogle. Before this entire rebellion was ended the British had killed more than 430 people. It was a sad period in the history of Jamaica's Parish of Saint Thomas...

It wasn't until 1969 that Paul Bogle was named an official National Hero. One of the others honored with the title was George William Gordon who had tried to do what he considered the right thing to do.