Morant Bay and the Eyre Controversy
ABSTRACT
This conference examined the historical and philosophical meaning of the “Eyre Controversy.” In the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica, the British military brutally suppressed and slaughtered hundreds of predominantly black land-rights protesters in the colony. The rebellion sparked a seminal event in the history of classical liberalism that bridged the older antislavery movement to the emergent classical liberalism of the late nineteenth century as several leading liberal intellectual figures in Britain pressed for murder charges against Lieutenant Governor Edward Eyre. The discussion concluded by exploring the Morant Bay fallout through its lasting influence on the contest between free and liberal and centralized, coercive political visions into the twentieth century.
READING LIST
From Liberty Fund
Lectures on Jurisprudence
by
By Adam Smith
Edited by R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, and P. G. Stein
Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, originally delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1762–1763, presents his “theory of the rules by which civil government ought to be directed.” The chief purpose of government, according to Smith, is to preserve justice; and “the object of justice is security from injury.” The state…
Additional Readings
A Collection of Historical Documents relating to the British abolitionist movement and the emergence of classical liberal political thought [compiled from public domain sources]:
A Collection of Historical Documents relating to the debate between Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill over the post-slavery status of black laborers in the West Indies [compiled from public domain sources]:
A Collection of Historical Documents relating to the immediate political backdrop to the Morant Bay Rebellion [compiled from public domain sources]:
A Collection of Historical Documents relating to the “Jamaica Committee” [compiled from public domain sources]:
A Collection of Historical Documents relating to the Eyre controversy [compiled from public domain sources]:
A Collection of Historical Documents relating to the extended political and philosophical legacy of the Morant Bay rebellion [compiled from public domain sources]:
Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume II. Edited by Edwin Canaan. London: Methuen, 1904.