4d – St James and Trelawny - Baptist War (1831 - 1832) Heart of the Resistance
Take our St James and Trelawny tour and you will travel back in time to hear stories of a people who believed they should be free and in so doing, through non-violent resistance against a repressive plantocracy, determined to make their freedom a reality. Here was the home of the Ethiopian Baptist movement in the north, we will spend the day exploring the churches established by the most prolific of all their ministers, New Yorker, Moses Baker. We will criss-cross this area visiting the site of the first chapel, Crooked Spring, then on to Salter’s Hil, it’s replacement to learn of the last gathering place of thousands of the enslaved just days before the Baptist War began. We will travel through what was the Adelphi plantation, where Baker began his ministry, before spending the rest of the day in Montego Bay town centre. There we will visit the Courthouse and harbour where Sam Sharpe was tried and executed, before visiting Montego Bay Baptist Church, pastored by both Baker and Burchell, Sharpe's ministers and the place where Sharpe was finally laid to rest.
The tour will conclude with a visit to the town centre to see the monuments to Sharpe and the men, women and children who were executed because of their admittance that they were Baptists, as much as for their involvement in the War. Our day will conclude