Montego Bay, Jamaica & Sam Sharpe
Yesterday found me in Jamaica for the first time. We ported in Falmouth.
I started my morning off practicing guitar and drafting an email and letter to our Senators and House of Representatives, in regard to events following the current administration of our Executive Branch. It was penned rather angry, so I am revising it this morning and maintaining any warranted sharp corners to my words. I would hope that if you are upset as I am, you would do the same. Speak your mind to your representatives. Not everyone in history has had that luxury. Allow me the privilege of sharing one such person with you:
Sam Sharpe.
Sam Sharpe was a slave in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was enslaved on both the Croydon Plantation as well as in St. James. He was owned by Samuel Sharpe, Esquire a local attorney.
Sam Sharpe was a man of exceptional intelligence and was a baptist lay preacher. He believed all men were created equal in the image of God, and therefore, slavery was wrong. He preached about the injustices of slavery and read the works of abolitionists.
In 1831, Sharpe organized a passive resistance movement against slavery in St. James, Trelawny, and Westmoreland by demanding pay for work done. Set to begin during Christmas 1831, the strike turned into an armed rebellion. The uprising was savagely suppressed by the English. Hundreds of enslaved people were caught, tried, and executed in Montego Bay Market Place on May 23rd 1832, where I stood yesterday.
However, the widespread nature and seriousness of the rebellion convinced the British Government that the time had come to end the enslavement of African People. This took place on August 1st 1834. Sam Sharpe did not die in vain. He was hung where I stood.
This was the beginning of a long and continuing fight for freedom by Jamaicans. They received their independence from the British in 1962, at the cost of massive inflation to their new national currency: what was once 40 to 1 US Dollar, is now 250 to 1 approximately. This was the cost of their emancipation.
May we all truly cherish that which rights we have to speak our mind without the cost of our own life.
WHO IS MIKE VITALE?
I am a storyteller, songwriter, singer, music producer, traveling musician, Jungian dream analyst, all-around curious fellow (Spiritual, Mathematical Historical, Scientific), Taoist, and much much more, based out of Los Angeles, California. I’m constantly releasing new music, in all sorts of different genres. You can listen to me below, on Spotify: