BOGLE, PAUL (c. 1822–24 October 1865), a Jamaican farmer, activist, Baptist deacon, and national hero. He is best known as the leader and organizer of the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865, a crucial event in Jamaican history. His resistance and struggle for justice affected the lives of Black populations in Jamaica but also extended to the formation of racial consciousness beyond the island nation. Bogle was born as a free Black man. Wage labor had replaced slavery in Jamaica, but an informal system of servitude, discrimination, exploitation, and injustice largely remained in place.
Bogle was a supporter of George William Gordon, a member of the Jamaican House of Assembly and defender of the rights of Black Jamaicans. While Gordon worked within the government, Bogle worked locally—educating and training members through his congregation, the Native Baptist Church in Stony Gut, Saint Thomas parish. In 1865, he organized a meeting with Governor Edward John Eyre to speak on the continuing exploitation of Black populations, particularly rural Black peasants, to no avail. Unsatisfied, Bogle led a march from Stony Gut to the parish capital of Morant Bay. On October 11, 1865, when the march reached the Morant Bay Courthouse, a local militia opened fire on the group. For several days, Black peasants rose up and took control of the parish. Edward John Eyre quickly retaliated, declaring martial law on the island and sending troops to suppress the rebellion, which resulted in more than 400 deaths, with many others injured and imprisoned. Bogle was arrested and hanged.
Paul Bogle’s influence and leadership in the Morant Bay Rebellion ultimately paved the way for changes in the social, economic, and working conditions of rural Black populations not only in the parish of Saint Thomas but throughout the island. In Britain the public turned against Eyre and his brutal repression of the rebellion, which prompted the Crown to open a formal investigation into the events. A year later the Crown dissolved Jamaica’s representative system of government and established a colony government. Today, Paul Bogle is recognized as a national hero (formally named in 1969). He is depicted on the head side of the Jamaican 10¢ coin and was shown on the Jamaican $2 bill until it was phased out. In popular culture, Bogle is mentioned in songs by Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, and Lauryn Hill, among others.