ty-five years,--in the parish of St.
Thomas in the East,--that very St. Thomas, possibly, whose court-house
was called forty years ago the "hell of Jamaica," and where is preserved
as a pleasant relic of the past a record book wherein the curious
traveller reads the prices paid in the palmy days of slavery for cutting
off the ears and legs, and slitting the noses, of runaway negroes. Had
these negroes of Morant Bay any special causes of exasperation? They
had. Their complaint was threefold. First, that the only magistrate who
protected their interests had been arbitrarily removed. Second, that a
plantation claimed by them to be deserted was as arbitrarily adjudged to
be the rightful property of a white man. Third, that the plucking of
fruit by the wayside, which had been a custom from time immemorial, and
which resembled the plucking of ears of corn under the Jewish law, was
by new regulations made a crime. Thus matters stood on the day of the
outbreak; a general condition of poverty and discontent throughout the
island; a special condition of exasperation in the parish of St. Thomas
in the East, and particularly at Morant Bay.

* * * * *

On the 7th of last October, a negro was arrested for picking two
cocoanuts, value threepence. This arrest had every exasperating
condition. The fruit was taken from a plantation whose title was
disputed, and upon which the negroes had squatted. The law which made
the plucking of fruit a crime was itself peculiarly obnoxious. The
magistrate before whom the offence was to be tried, rightly or wrongly,
was accused by the blacks of gross partiality and injustice. The accused
man was followed to the court by a crowd of his friends, armed, it is
said, with clubs, though this latter statement seems to be doubtful.
When a sentence of four shillings' fine, or, in default of payment,
thirty days' imprisonment, was imposed, the award was received in
silence. But when the costs were adjudged to be twelve shillings and
sixpence, there were murmurs. Some tumultuously advised the man not to
pay. Some, believing the case involved the title to the land, told him
to appeal to a higher court. The magistrate ordered the arrest of all
noisy persons. But these fled to the street, and, shielded by the
citizens, escaped. The next day but one, six constables armed with a
warrant proceeded to Stony Gut, the scene of the original arrest, to
take into custody twenty-eight persons