Morant Bay

Today in 1865, black Jamaicans rose up against white supremacy.George William Gordon at Morant Bay (Wikimedia Commons)After decades of courageous activism by characters like Olaudah Equiano and William Wilberforce, the British slave trade was abolished by an act of parliament in 1807.Slavery itself was outlawed two decades later, in 1833.These were immense legislative victories for the cause of emancipation, but the exploitation of black lives was hardly ended by them.In Britain’s Caribbean colonies, nominally freed slaves were forced to continue working for their former masters for several years by a system of ‘apprenticeship’.