John Smith

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". 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. Smith arrived in Demerara under the auspices of the London Missionary Society on 23 February 1817. 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.