The Social History Project Department of History and Archaeology, The University of the West Indies, Mona Call for Papers The Terror Spread: The Morant Bay Rebellion and Jamaican History October 2015. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica was a watershed episode in British Caribbean history. Between October and November 1865 Governor Edward Eyre issued orders for the execution, beating and unlawful imprisonment of over one thousand free men and women. These atrocities were a panicked response to a struggle for justice in the eastern town of Morant Bay that was organized by members of the colony’s peasant majority denied their full rights after freedom from slavery in 1834. The horrific actions of the government dramatically transformed colonial Jamaican politics. Across the Atlantic events in Jamaica figured prominently in debates on race, freedom, the future of emancipation societies, imperialism, and resistance. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Morant Bay Rebellion the Social History Project of the Department of History and Archaeology, The UWI-Mona, will host in October 2015 a conference on the history and legacies of the rebellion. The Department invites proposals for individual papers and panels that examine the Morant Bay Rebellion from multiple perspectives. These include, but are by no means limited to: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Morant Bay Rebellion and Caribbean historiography; Slavery and Abolition; Jamaican political history; Postemancipation societies; The economic development of Jamaica; The road to Morant Bay; Peasant Resistance in the Nineteenth Century Caribbean; The socio-political legacies of the rebellion; Punishment and Policing in the colonial Caribbean; Gender and Class after slavery; The Morant Bay Rebellion in Caribbean Thought and Popular Culture; International repercussions of the Rebellion; Religion and political change in nineteenth century Jamaica; Memory and Memorials of the Morant Bay Rebellion.
Proposals should include name, title of paper, affiliation, and an abstract (no more than 300 words). Please send submissions to
[email protected] by October 11 2014.