battalions, but more than 200 slaves were killed by troops. Afterwards, more reprisals followed. The government tried, convicted, and hanged many of the ringleaders, including Sharpe, in 1832. A total of 310 to 340 were executed through the judicial process, including many for purely property offences such as theft of livestock. In the months leading up to his execution, while in jail, Sharpe had several meetings with Rev. Henry Bleby, a missionary, who reported that Sharpe told him: "I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live my life in slavery." The rebellion and government response provoked two detailed Parliamentary Inquiries. The Jamaican government's severe reprisals in the aftermath of the rebellion are believed to have contributed to passage by Parliament of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act and final abolition of slavery across the British Empire in 1838. Legacy In 1975, the government of independent Jamaica proclaimed Sharpe a National Hero, with the posthumous title of Rt. Excellent Samuel Sharpe. Also in 1975, Sam Sharpe Teachers' College was founded and named in his honour in Granville, a suburb of Montego Bay. Sharpe's image is used on the modern Jamaican $50 bill. The British jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine (of Jamaican parentage) included an instrumental composition "Samuel Sharpe" as a tribute on his 2012 album House of Legends. Sam Sharpe is referenced by Vybz Kartel in his 2019 song "Stand Strong". Daddy Sharpe: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Samuel Sharpe, West Indian Slave – Written by Himself, 1832, a fictionalized account of Sharpe's life, by Fred W. Kennedy, was published in 2008. See also History of Jamaica Slavery in the British and French Caribbean Thomas Burchell Further reading Rodriguez, Junius P. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2006. Reid-Salmon, Delroy, Burning for Freedom: A Theology of the Black Atlantic Struggle for Liberation. Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers, 2012. References External links Jamaican History Reid-Salmon, Delroy, Burning for Freedom: A Theology of the Black Atlantic Struggle for Liberation "Trailer - Samuel Sharpe" 19th-century Baptist ministers 19th-century Jamaican people 1801 births 1832 deaths Baptist deacon Jamaican Baptist ministers Jamaican rebel slaves National Heroes of Jamaica People executed by the Colony of Jamaica by hanging People from Saint James Parish, Jamaica