Editing John Smith (missionary)

{{short description|English missionary (1790-1824)}}
{{use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = John Smith
| other_names   = 
| image         = File:John Smith, Missionary to Demerara, friend of slaves.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1790|06|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[Northamptonshire]], [[United Kingdom]]
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1824|2|6|1790|06|27|df=yes}}
| death_place   = [[New Amsterdam, Guyana|New Amsterdam]], [[Demerara]]
| nationality   = 
| occupation    = missionary
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works =
}}

'''John Smith''' (27 June 1790 – 6 February 1824) was an English missionary and abolitionist whose experiences in the [[British West Indies]] attracted the attention of the anti-slavery campaigner [[William Wilberforce]]. As a result of his actions, trial by court-martial and subsequent death whilst under imprisonment, Smith became known as the "Demerara Martyr".<ref name=martyr>[http://guyanachronicle.com/wallbridges-the-demerara-martyr/ "Wallbridge's 'The Demerara Martyr'"]. ''Guyana Chronicle''. 13 August 2011</ref> His case, and news of the enormous size of the uprising and the brutal loss of African life, caused a great awakening in England, strengthening the [[abolitionist]] cause which eventually succeeded in British territories worldwide in 1838.

==Biography==
Smith was born an orphan on 27 June 1790 in Northamptonshire. He received his early education only at Sunday school, and trained to be a baker, after which he applied to be a missionary. He married Jane Godden. On 12 December 1816 he was ordained at Tonbridge Chapel.<ref name=martyr/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://abolition.e2bn.org/resistance_53.html |title=Case Study 3: Demerara (1823) – Quamina and John Smith |access-date=21 November 2009 |publisher=The Abolition Project}}</ref>

Smith arrived in [[Demerara]] under the auspices of the [[London Missionary Society]] on 23 February 1817.<ref name=martyr/> He lived at the 'Le Resouvenir' plantation, where he preached at Bethel Chapel, primarily attended by African slaves.

In the morning of 18 August 1823, in what is known as the '[[Demerara rebellion of 1823]]', about ten to twelve thousand slaves drawn from plantations on the East Coast of the Demerara colony rebelled, under the belief that their masters were concealing news of the slaves' emancipation.

Smith was subsequently charged with promoting discontent and dissatisfaction in the minds of the African slaves, exciting the slaves to rebel, and failing to notify the authorities that the slaves intended to rebel. In his trial he was defended by [[William Arrindell]].<ref>{{Cite book | title = The Solicitors' Journal and reporter | volume = VII | location = London | publisher=Yates and Alexander | year =1863 | pages = 266 }}</ref> John Smith was arraigned in a [[court-martial]] before Lt. Col. Goodman on 13 October.<ref>Bryant (1824), pg. 91.</ref>

Smith's trial concluded one month later, on 24 November; Smith was found guilty of the principal charges, and was given the death sentence; he was transferred from Colony House to prison. Bryant suggested that a pre-existing illness was the cause of Smith's demise on [[6 February]] 1824, before the intended Royal reprieve arrived; he asserted that Smith had been ill for some time, but that his accommodation was airy and spacious and that had been looked after with "utmost attention and kindness".<ref>Bryant (1824), pg. 94.</ref> Others, namely Jakobssen (1972) Craton (1982), however, state that Smith died in a damp prison of consumption.<ref name=Sheridan>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/nwig/article/view/3455/4216 |format=pdf |first=Richard B. |last=Sheridan |title=The Condition of slaves on the sugar plantations of Sir John Gladstone in the colony of Demerara 1812 to 1849 |journal=[[New West Indian Guide]] |volume=76 |year=2002 |number= 3/4 |pages= 243–269|doi=10.1163/13822373-90002536 |hdl=1808/21075 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Out of fear of stirring up slave sentiment, the colonists interred him at four a.m., without marking his grave. His death was a major step forward in the campaign to abolish slavery. News of his death was published in British newspapers, provoked enormous outrage and garnered 200 petitions to Parliament.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/burychainsprophe00hoch |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/burychainsprophe00hoch/page/328 328] |quote=unmarked grave by lantern light. |title=Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |first=Adam |last= Hochschild |date=February 2006 |isbn=0-618-61907-0}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Quamina]]
*[[Jack Gladstone]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
*{{Cite book |url=http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/search~S29?/hMCFICHE+3289/hmcfiche+++++3289/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=hmcfiche+++++3289&1%2C1%2C |title=Account of an insurrection of the negro slaves in the colony of Demerara, which broke out on the 18th of&nbsp;August 1823. |first= Joshua |last=Bryant |publisher=A. Stevenson at the Guiana Chronicle Office|year=1824 |location=Georgetown, Demerara}}
*{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzBeW7arNbMC&q=crowns+of+glory+tears+of+blood&pg=PP1 |title=Crowns of glory, tears of blood: the Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823
 |first= Emília |last=Viotti da Costa |date=18 May 1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=0-19-510656-3}}

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[[Category:1790 births]]
[[Category:1824 deaths]]
[[Category:Protestant missionaries in Guyana]]
[[Category:English Protestant missionaries]]
[[Category:People from Northamptonshire]]