"Skin for Skin": Biblical Language in Jamaica's Morant Bay Rebellion
In October, 1865, Paul Bogle and a few hundred Black residents of rural Jamaica rebelled against the vagaries of an overly zealous magistrate. They set the courthouse at Morant Bay on fire and killed over a dozen people, mostly white. In the savage government reprisals that followed, over 430 Black...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2022
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In October, 1865, Paul Bogle and a few hundred Black residents of rural Jamaica rebelled against the vagaries of an overly zealous magistrate. They set the courthouse at Morant Bay on fire and killed over a dozen people, mostly white. In the savage government reprisals that followed, over 430 Black Jamaicans were executed. Here, I observe how biblical language played a central role in public discourse about the rebellion. I focus on the rebellion's slogan: skin for skin. I trace the interpretive history of this phrase drawn from the book of Job, showing how it became associated with advocacy for Black rights. And I examine the social context of Bogle's use of the phrase to call for a Black alliance that crossed ethnic, religious, and class lines. I thus further a critical trajectory that has recognized the importance of biblical language to race talk in the age of emancipation. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfac071 |