THE 1865 MORANT BAY Rebellion

THE PRELUDE TO THE REBELLION
With the British government’s passage of the Emancipation Act in 1834, the enslaved population throughout the colonies was granted freedom from working on the sugar plantations, and the right to establish themselves as free persons. However, by the 1860s, there was the growing feeling among the emancipated population that the British government’s interest in safeguarding their welfare in Jamaica was waning.