3d – St Thomas – Bogle, Gordon and Morant Bay Genocide 1865

How about spending a day with us in St Thomas, possessing churches once pastored by African Jamaicans, Parson Kellick  and Paul Bogle, and the birthplace of George William Gordon. It is the parish of the last known community of Ethiopian Baptists who experienced persecution and genocide in Morant Bay.  We will travel through 11 fingers and  Yallah’s as we make our way to Morant Bay.  Stops will be made at the Courthouse the site of the riot which led to the genocide of over 1,000 in a month by Governor Eyre, causing the demise of the movement. 

We will visit sites of persecution, the most infamous being Stony Gut where it’s chapel and village was raised to the ground.  In this parish of persecution where freed Africans were still  being called ‘slaves,’ we will walk the streets of Morant Bay, Mill’s River and Somerset where much of the killings took place.  Before we say goodbye to St Thomas we will visit Fonthill Chapel and the site of Alexander Bedward’s first church, which he named in remembrance of the Ethiopian Baptist movement.


We will conclude our tour firstly with a visit to Moses Baker Baptist Church, the only place on the island which demonstrates a remembrance to one of the most effective leaders of the movement in Jamaica. Then we shall go on to the mineral baths, discovered by an enslaved African, and whose waters are said to have healing powers.


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