Key Events: EBB and the Road to Freedom

This timeline tracks key events in the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her anti-slavery poetry, and the fight for abolition across the British Empire. In doing so, it contextualizes EBB and her work within the scope of British sociopolitics, charting historical moments of overlap and divergence between the two.

Timeline

British Coat of ArmsAn amendment of the Colonial Governors Act (1700), the Criminal Jurisdiction Act holds colonial officials accountable to the Court of King’s Bench in England for crimes committed in the colonies. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

On 6 March 1806, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born as Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett in Coxhoe, County Durham, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett, a son of the landowning "Barretts of Jamaica," and Mary Graham Clarke, whose family also benefitted from slave labor and the sugar trade in the West Indies. In addition to her famous marriage to fellow poet Robert Browning, EBB would become one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian period and is now most known for her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese and verse novel Aurora Leigh. 


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Emily Crider

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In a development inspired by the testimonies of enslaved and formerly enslaved campaigners such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, as well as British abolitionists like Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, the official Act of Parliament abolishing the British slave trade was passed on March 25, 1807, to begin on May 1st of that year. Though landowners were still permitted to use their existing enslaved labor force (slavery itself wouldn't be officially outlawed in the British Empire until 1833 with the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act), this marked the first major success in the campaign to end slavery in the British Empire.


Associated Places

Westminster

by Emily Crider

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It is estimated that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote "The African," an early work of juvenilia, between 1820 and 1822, when EBB was around 16 years old. The narrative poem, which tells the story of a runaway slave based on a story shared with her by her paternal cousin Richard Barrett, is the first and longest of EBB's anti-slavery poems and effectively reveals her early investment and participation in abolitionist discourse. Having never been published, "The African" exists only in manuscript form.  

First page of "The African" manuscript.First page of "The African" manuscript.


Associated Places

Hope End (Childhood Home of EBB)

by Emily Crider

Also known as the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions and, later, the London Anti-Slavery Society, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded with the purpose of advocating for the eradication of slavery in the British Empire. Following the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, a new organization, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was formed in its place, shifting the focus to abolition on a global scale.


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Emily Crider

The Baptist War

25 Dec 1831 to 5 Jan 1832

Lasting from Christmas day in 1831 until its eventual suppression on January 5, 1832, the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt was led by Black Baptist preacher Sam Sharpe. The uprising began as a strike centered on demands for increased wages but became violent on December 27th with the burning of the Kensington Estate in Montego Bay. Despite a crucial victory early on due to stockpiled weapons and ammunition, the enslaved workers' cause was weakened when martial law was enacted on December 31st, and the forces surrendered entirely by January 5th. The uprising became one of the largest in the West Indies, involving nearly 60,000 members (or 20%) of the island's enslaved population. By the end of the fight, rebel forces had set fire to over 100 properties. There were no deaths on the side of the colonial military and over 500 on that of the enslaved Jamaicans--207 killed during the revolt and another 310 to 340, including Sharpe, executed afterward. Despite the defeat of the enslaved population, the revolt played a crucial role in furthering abolitionist causes across the British Empire, as seen in the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act in August of the following year.


Associated Places

Jamaica
Greenwood Great House

by Emily Crider

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In 1833, Elizabeth Barrett Browning published "The Appeal," the second of five anti-slavery poems EBB wrote throughout her life, for the first and only time. EBB published the volume in which it appeared, titled Prometheus Bound, translated from the Greek of Æschylus, and Miscellaneous Poems by the Translator, anonymously. Notably, the poem's 1833 publication aligns it with the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act, which outlawed slavery across the British Empire.


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Emily Crider

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British Coat of ArmsThe Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 received the Royal Assent (which means it became law) on 29 August 1833. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire; Britain’s colonial slaves were officially emancipated on 1 August 1834 when the law came into force, although most entered a form of obligatory apprenticeship that ended in 1840. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus
Mississippi Delta
New Orleans

by David Rettenmaier

Though American sculptor and artisti Hiram Powers created The Greek Slave as a representation of Turkish atrocities committed during the Greek War of Independence, it quickly became a commentary on slavery in the United States. In the late 1840s and later in the 1850s, the statue was shown in various U.S. cities to mixed reactions. In 1845 and 1848, it made appearances in London and was featured in the U.S. exhibit at the Great Exhibition of 1851.


Associated Places

Hiram Powers's Studio
Crystal Palace, Hyde Park

by Emily Crider

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning published "The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim's Point" for the first time in the 1848 edition of the Boston-based abolitionist publication The Liberty Bell. The third of five anti-slavery poems EBB wrote throughout her life, "The Runaway Slave" is the first of these works to directly address the issue of slavery beyond the scope of the British Empire, which had outlawed slavery in 1833.


Associated Places

Faneuil Hall

by Emily Crider

Photo of CarlyleOn December 1849, Thomas Carlyle published “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question” in Fraser’s Magazine; the article was later republished in his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays as “On the Nigger Question.” Image: Photograph of Thomas Carlyle, circa 1860s, by Eliott & Fry. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

Elizabeth Barrett Browning originally published "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave" in the first volume of Charles Dickens's Household Words. Because the statue was, at the time of the poem's inception, being displayed across the U.S. and Britain, it is likely that EBB either saw the statue (or a model cast) for herself at the studio of Hiram Powers, with whom she and Robert Browning were acquainted and near-neighbors in Florence, prior to its journey, or saw it as part of the United States exhibit at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave" is the fourth of EBB's five anti-slavery poems and is primarily responsible for shifting the statue's popular context away from that of the Greek War of Independence that had initially inspired Powers' work and towards broader questions of morality surrounding slavery abroad in the United States.


Associated Places

Hiram Powers's Studio
Crystal Palace, Hyde Park

by Emily Crider

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning first published "A Curse for a Nation" in the 1856 edition of Boston-based abolitionist publication The Liberty Bell. Like "The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim's Point" before it, "A Curse for a Nation" directly addressed and reflected ongoing abolitionist debates in the United States, particularly as the country spiraled closer to the start of the Civil War. EBB would republish "A Curse for a Nation" a few years later in her collection Poems before Congress (1860), and this recontextualization led much of her British readership to interpret the piece as a criticism of the British government for failing to support the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy that lasted from 1848 to 1870.


Associated Places

Faneuil Hall

by Emily Crider

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Engraving of a photo of BrowningOn 12 March 1860, publication of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Poems before Congress. Image: An 1871 engraving of an 1859 photograph of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (photograph by Macaire Havre, engraving by T. O. Barlow). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"

Related Articles

Marjorie Stone, “On the Post Office Espionage Scandal, 1844″


Associated Places

Umbria

by David Rettenmaier

On June 29, 1861, at the age of 55, Elizabeth Barrett Browning passes away of an undiagnosed illness at Casa Guidi, the home in Italy that she shared with her husband Robert Browning. As a child, EBB had been weakened by a series of ailments—viral infections, measles, and various other pains and fevers—and, though the Italian climate had proven largely beneficial for her poor health, she never fully recovered.  


Associated Places

Casa Guidi

by Emily Crider

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Gordon, a Jamaican former slave and elected member of the Jamaica House of Assembly, is executed by hanging after a court martial condemns him to death for his alleged role in encouraging the Morant Bay rebellion.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

Photo of John EyreA rebellion by Black peasants against unjust treatment by Jamaican courts breaks out at Morant Bay, Jamaica on 11 October 1865. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Morant Bay, Jamaica
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

Photo of John EyreThe Jamaica Committee, a coalition of politicians, writers, and scientists, is organized to seek governmental and legal accountability for the actions undertaken by Governor Edward John Eyre and his subordinates during thirty days of martial law in the aftermath of the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

Major Reform League march and demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London on 11 February 1867.

Related Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Trafalgar Square, London

by David Rettenmaier

Photo of John EyreThe Jamaica Committee’s first attempted indictment, at Market Drayton in Shropshire, of Edward John Eyre, ex-Governor of Jamaica, for the murder of George William Gordon; hearing ends in Eyre’s discharge by the grand jury. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Market Drayton in Shropshire
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

A Middlesex grand jury at London’s Old Bailey criminal court dismissed charges brought by the Jamaica Committee against Colonel Abercrombie Nelson and Lieutenant Herbert Brand for the murder (via illegal court martial) of George William Gordon at Morant Bay, Jamaica in October 1865. The trial was a result of the Morant Bay Rebellion of 11 October 1865.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

London's Old Bailey
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

A bomb planted by Irish Fenians at Clerkenwell Prison in London exploded on 13 December 1867, killing over a dozen people and injuring many more.

Related Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Clerkenwell Prison in London

by David Rettenmaier

Photo of John Eyre3 June 1868 saw the last, unsuccessful action against Edward John Eyre. This was the final effort by the Jamaica Committee to prosecute ex-Governor of Jamaica Edward John Eyre under the Colonial Governors Act for abuse of power in imposing an extended period of martial law during the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion; the case is sent forward to a grand jury, but Eyre is not indicted. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

Photo of John EyreAppeal before the Exchequer Chamber of the civil suit brought by Jamaican citizen Alexander Phillips against ex-Governor of Jamaica, Edward John Eyre, for assault, battery and false imprisonment during martial law from October 13 to November 13, 1865 at Morant Bay, Jamaica, results in the upholding of the Jamaica Assembly’s Indemnity Act for military and administrative actions under martial law, nullifying Phillips’s right to sue Eyre in English courts. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus

by David Rettenmaier

Criminal Jurisdiction Act passed

Birth of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

British Slave Trade Abolished

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Writes "The African"

Founding of the Anti-Slavery Society

The Baptist War

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "The Appeal"

Slavery Abolition Act

Hiram Powers Sculpts "The Greek Slave"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim's Point"

Carlyle's "Negro Question"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "A Curse for a Nation"

Poems before Congress

Death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

George William Gordon executed

Morant Bay Rebellion

“Jamaica Committee”

Trafalgar Square demonstration

Edward John Eyre indictment hearing

Nelson and Brand charges dismissed

Clerkenwell Prison bombing

Edward John Eyre acquitted

Civil suit against Edward John Eyre nullified

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Chronological table

Displaying 1 - 24 of 24
Date Event Created by Associated Places
22 Jun 1802

Criminal Jurisdiction Act passed

British Coat of ArmsAn amendment of the Colonial Governors Act (1700), the Criminal Jurisdiction Act holds colonial officials accountable to the Court of King’s Bench in England for crimes committed in the colonies. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
6 Mar 1806

Birth of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

On 6 March 1806, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born as Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett in Coxhoe, County Durham, England. Her parents were Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett, a son of the landowning "Barretts of Jamaica," and Mary Graham Clarke, whose family also benefitted from slave labor and the sugar trade in the West Indies. In addition to her famous marriage to fellow poet Robert Browning, EBB would become one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian period and is now most known for her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese and verse novel Aurora Leigh. 

Emily Crider
25 Mar 1807

British Slave Trade Abolished

The Palace of Westminster, Drawn by J. Shury & Son, Printed by Day & Haghe

In a development inspired by the testimonies of enslaved and formerly enslaved campaigners such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano, as well as British abolitionists like Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, the official Act of Parliament abolishing the British slave trade was passed on March 25, 1807, to begin on May 1st of that year. Though landowners were still permitted to use their existing enslaved labor force (slavery itself wouldn't be officially outlawed in the British Empire until 1833 with the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act), this marked the first major success in the campaign to end slavery in the British Empire.

Emily Crider
1820 to 1822

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Writes "The African"

It is estimated that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote "The African," an early work of juvenilia, between 1820 and 1822, when EBB was around 16 years old. The narrative poem, which tells the story of a runaway slave based on a story shared with her by her paternal cousin Richard Barrett, is the first and longest of EBB's anti-slavery poems and effectively reveals her early investment and participation in abolitionist discourse. Having never been published, "The African" exists only in manuscript form.  

First page of "The African" manuscript.First page of "The African" manuscript.

Emily Crider
31 Jan 1823

Founding of the Anti-Slavery Society

Also known as the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions and, later, the London Anti-Slavery Society, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded with the purpose of advocating for the eradication of slavery in the British Empire. Following the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, a new organization, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was formed in its place, shifting the focus to abolition on a global scale.

Emily Crider
25 Dec 1831 to 5 Jan 1832

The Baptist War

Adolphe Duperly, The Destruction of Roehampton Estate. 1832
Adolphe Duperly, The Destruction of Roehampton Estate. 1832

Lasting from Christmas day in 1831 until its eventual suppression on January 5, 1832, the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt was led by Black Baptist preacher Sam Sharpe. The uprising began as a strike centered on demands for increased wages but became violent on December 27th with the burning of the Kensington Estate in Montego Bay. Despite a crucial victory early on due to stockpiled weapons and ammunition, the enslaved workers' cause was weakened when martial law was enacted on December 31st, and the forces surrendered entirely by January 5th. The uprising became one of the largest in the West Indies, involving nearly 60,000 members (or 20%) of the island's enslaved population. By the end of the fight, rebel forces had set fire to over 100 properties. There were no deaths on the side of the colonial military and over 500 on that of the enslaved Jamaicans--207 killed during the revolt and another 310 to 340, including Sharpe, executed afterward. Despite the defeat of the enslaved population, the revolt played a crucial role in furthering abolitionist causes across the British Empire, as seen in the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act in August of the following year.

Emily Crider
1833

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "The Appeal"

The title page of Prometheus Bound.
The title page of Prometheus Bound.

In 1833, Elizabeth Barrett Browning published "The Appeal," the second of five anti-slavery poems EBB wrote throughout her life, for the first and only time. EBB published the volume in which it appeared, titled Prometheus Bound, translated from the Greek of Æschylus, and Miscellaneous Poems by the Translator, anonymously. Notably, the poem's 1833 publication aligns it with the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act, which outlawed slavery across the British Empire.

Emily Crider
29 Aug 1833

Slavery Abolition Act

British Coat of ArmsThe Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 received the Royal Assent (which means it became law) on 29 August 1833. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire; Britain’s colonial slaves were officially emancipated on 1 August 1834 when the law came into force, although most entered a form of obligatory apprenticeship that ended in 1840. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
1841 to 1843

Hiram Powers Sculpts "The Greek Slave"

The Greek Slave.
The Greek Slave.

Though American sculptor and artisti Hiram Powers created The Greek Slave as a representation of Turkish atrocities committed during the Greek War of Independence, it quickly became a commentary on slavery in the United States. In the late 1840s and later in the 1850s, the statue was shown in various U.S. cities to mixed reactions. In 1845 and 1848, it made appearances in London and was featured in the U.S. exhibit at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Emily Crider
1848

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim's Point"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning published "The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim's Point" for the first time in the 1848 edition of the Boston-based abolitionist publication The Liberty Bell. The third of five anti-slavery poems EBB wrote throughout her life, "The Runaway Slave" is the first of these works to directly address the issue of slavery beyond the scope of the British Empire, which had outlawed slavery in 1833.

Emily Crider
Dec 1849

Carlyle's "Negro Question"

Photo of CarlyleOn December 1849, Thomas Carlyle published “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question” in Fraser’s Magazine; the article was later republished in his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays as “On the Nigger Question.” Image: Photograph of Thomas Carlyle, circa 1860s, by Eliott & Fry. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
26 Oct 1850

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave"

Title page of the first volume of Household Words.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning originally published "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave" in the first volume of Charles Dickens's Household Words. Because the statue was, at the time of the poem's inception, being displayed across the U.S. and Britain, it is likely that EBB either saw the statue (or a model cast) for herself at the studio of Hiram Powers, with whom she and Robert Browning were acquainted and near-neighbors in Florence, prior to its journey, or saw it as part of the United States exhibit at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave" is the fourth of EBB's five anti-slavery poems and is primarily responsible for shifting the statue's popular context away from that of the Greek War of Independence that had initially inspired Powers' work and towards broader questions of morality surrounding slavery abroad in the United States.

Emily Crider
1856

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Publishes "A Curse for a Nation"

Title page of the 1856 edition of The Liberty Bell.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning first published "A Curse for a Nation" in the 1856 edition of Boston-based abolitionist publication The Liberty Bell. Like "The Runaway Slave of Pilgrim's Point" before it, "A Curse for a Nation" directly addressed and reflected ongoing abolitionist debates in the United States, particularly as the country spiraled closer to the start of the Civil War. EBB would republish "A Curse for a Nation" a few years later in her collection Poems before Congress (1860), and this recontextualization led much of her British readership to interpret the piece as a criticism of the British government for failing to support the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy that lasted from 1848 to 1870.

Emily Crider
12 Mar 1860

Poems before Congress

Engraving of a photo of BrowningOn 12 March 1860, publication of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Poems before Congress. Image: An 1871 engraving of an 1859 photograph of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (photograph by Macaire Havre, engraving by T. O. Barlow). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"

Related Articles

Marjorie Stone, “On the Post Office Espionage Scandal, 1844″

David Rettenmaier
29 Jun 1861

Death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

On June 29, 1861, at the age of 55, Elizabeth Barrett Browning passes away of an undiagnosed illness at Casa Guidi, the home in Italy that she shared with her husband Robert Browning. As a child, EBB had been weakened by a series of ailments—viral infections, measles, and various other pains and fevers—and, though the Italian climate had proven largely beneficial for her poor health, she never fully recovered.  

Emily Crider
2 Oct 1865

George William Gordon executed

Gordon, a Jamaican former slave and elected member of the Jamaica House of Assembly, is executed by hanging after a court martial condemns him to death for his alleged role in encouraging the Morant Bay rebellion.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
11 Oct 1865

Morant Bay Rebellion

Photo of John EyreA rebellion by Black peasants against unjust treatment by Jamaican courts breaks out at Morant Bay, Jamaica on 11 October 1865. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
Dec 1865

“Jamaica Committee”

Photo of John EyreThe Jamaica Committee, a coalition of politicians, writers, and scientists, is organized to seek governmental and legal accountability for the actions undertaken by Governor Edward John Eyre and his subordinates during thirty days of martial law in the aftermath of the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
11 Feb 1867

Trafalgar Square demonstration

Major Reform League march and demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London on 11 February 1867.

Related Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
27 Mar 1867

Edward John Eyre indictment hearing

Photo of John EyreThe Jamaica Committee’s first attempted indictment, at Market Drayton in Shropshire, of Edward John Eyre, ex-Governor of Jamaica, for the murder of George William Gordon; hearing ends in Eyre’s discharge by the grand jury. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
11 Apr 1867

Nelson and Brand charges dismissed

A Middlesex grand jury at London’s Old Bailey criminal court dismissed charges brought by the Jamaica Committee against Colonel Abercrombie Nelson and Lieutenant Herbert Brand for the murder (via illegal court martial) of George William Gordon at Morant Bay, Jamaica in October 1865. The trial was a result of the Morant Bay Rebellion of 11 October 1865.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
1 Dec 1867

Clerkenwell Prison bombing

A bomb planted by Irish Fenians at Clerkenwell Prison in London exploded on 13 December 1867, killing over a dozen people and injuring many more.

Related Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
Jun 1868

Edward John Eyre acquitted

Photo of John Eyre3 June 1868 saw the last, unsuccessful action against Edward John Eyre. This was the final effort by the Jamaica Committee to prosecute ex-Governor of Jamaica Edward John Eyre under the Colonial Governors Act for abuse of power in imposing an extended period of martial law during the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion; the case is sent forward to a grand jury, but Eyre is not indicted. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier
Jun 1870

Civil suit against Edward John Eyre nullified

Photo of John EyreAppeal before the Exchequer Chamber of the civil suit brought by Jamaican citizen Alexander Phillips against ex-Governor of Jamaica, Edward John Eyre, for assault, battery and false imprisonment during martial law from October 13 to November 13, 1865 at Morant Bay, Jamaica, results in the upholding of the Jamaica Assembly’s Indemnity Act for military and administrative actions under martial law, nullifying Phillips’s right to sue Eyre in English courts. Image: Photograph of Governor Edward John Eyre, circa 1870, by Henry Hering. The Caribbean Photo Archive. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″

David Rettenmaier