Verene Shepherd | Jamaica’s warrior woman – Kitty Scarlett

The majority of enslaved and free people who participated in the 1831-32 Emancipation War in Jamaica, which broke out on December 27, 1831, and ended by January 1832, and was led by now National Hero, Rt. Excellent Samuel “Daddy” Sharpe, were men. Based on the trial documents available, just about 36 of the 626 tried were women. The names of all 36, nearly half (16) from St Elizabeth alone, as well as the trial records are listed in CO 137/185/2/ Civil Courts, Parish of St James ff. 237 to 420, found in the UK National Archives. Isabel, alias Kitty Scarlett, of Cambridge Estate, St James, who was enslaved by one Phillip Anglin Scarlet, was one of the 181 to be tried overall and one of the 81 tried by “Civil Court” in St James, the other 100 having been tried by court martial.

The King against Isabel, otherwise called Kitty Scarlett, took place at a “Special Slave Court held at the Court House in the town of Montego Bay in the parish of Saint James in the said Island the Twenty eighth day of March in the second year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord William the fourth by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King and of Jamaica Lord Defender of the faith and so forth for the Trial of Slaves.”

The trial took place before Robert Thomas Downer, Joseph Bowen, and George Cragg, described as “Justices assigned to keep the peace in and for the said parish of Saint James and also to hear and determine divers Felonies Trespasses and other Misdemeanours in the said parish committed”. John Haughton, James Junior, John Parkinson, Daniel Delvaillie, Robert Young Scott, Thomas Burnell, Alexander Wark, Philip Young, Andrew Young, John Noble Mattick, Peter Reid, William James Angus, Thomas Smith, and Charles Balfour described as “good and lawful men of the said parish of Saint James” were duly summoned, empanelled, and sworn according to an act passed in 1831 entitled “An Act for the Government of Slaves”.

Those empanelled were to “enquire for and on behalf of our said Lord the King and the said Parish of Saint James and the Jurors for our said Lord the King upon their Oath aforesaid, [and to present and say] that a certain … negro woman Slave named Isabel, otherwise called Kitty Scarlett belonging to or in the possession of Philip Anglin Scarlett of the Parish of Saint James aforesaid Esquire – being a person of Evil mind and disposition on the Twenty ninth day of December in the second Year of the Reign of our said Lord the King and on divers other days and times as well before as after the day and Year last aforesaid with Force and Arms at the Parish of Saint James aforesaid did enter into and was concerned with divers Negro and other Slaves whose names are to the Jurors aforesaid at present unknown in Rebellion and in a Rebellious Conspiracy and diverse open Atrocious and Rebellious Acts did then and there commit for the purpose of obtaining by force and violence and by Acts of open Resistance to the lawful authorities of this Island the Freedom of …[herself] the said Isabel otherwise called Kitty Scarlett, and such other slaves whose names are to the Jurors aforesaid at present unknown, to the Evil Example of all other slaves in the like case offending against the form of the said Act of this Island and against the peace of our said Lord the King his Crown and Dignity.” And those jurors, upon oath, decided that “the said negro … woman Slave named Isabel, otherwise called Kitty Scarlett not having the Fear of God before [her] eyes but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil, and in pursuance of the said conspiracy so entered into as aforesaid, on the said twenty ninth day of December in the said second Year of the Reign of our said Lord the King with Force and Arms at Cambridge Estate in the parish aforesaid divers Buildings to wit, Dwelling Houses, Overseers House Boiling House Curing House, Trash House and other Houses on the said Estate in the possession of the said Philip Anglin Scarlett, there situate – feloniously wilfully maliciously did set fire to and the same Dwelling House, Overseer’s House, Boiling House, Curing House, Trash House and other Houses then and there by such firing as aforesaid feloniously wilfully and maliciously did burn and consume against the Form of the said Act of this Island and against the Peace of our said Lord the King his Crown and Dignity.”

Giving evidence against Kitty on March 29, 1832, were Bacchus, alias, Joseph Anglin, and September, alias, James Clarke.

Bacchus stated that “Thursday after Xmas he saw Kitty Scarlett set fire to, and burn down the new Trash House on Cambridge. […] she went to Negro House, took a fire stick and went down to the Works, and carried the fire stick with her, and said when she took the fire stick that she was going to burn down the Works. He believed her action had to do with the fact that “at Xmas master told her if she did not give the Man his [Crocal/Coral?] that she stole, he would not give her her Xmas allowance, and she said to master that she would not work after Xmas”.

Bacchus was asked by Mr Grignon if “plenty of Negroes were present when she set the fire?” and by a juror if “plenty of people were present when she took the fire stick at Negro House and said she was going to burn the Works?”, but there is no evidence of a response by Bacchus.

September (who was acquitted after his own trial), after being sworn, said he saw Kitty Scarlett put fire to the Trash House, “… the new one, at the topside, and then to the other one and both were burnt down. Works was burnt Thursday after Xmas”.

The court found Kitty guilty on the second count but not guilty on the first count but nevertheless ruled that “the said slave Isabel, otherwise called Kitty Scarlett, be taken from hence to the place from whence she came … to the place of Execution at such time and place as shall be appointed by His Excellency the Governor and there to be hanged by the neck until she be dead”– the fate of six other women protestors. However, the Punishment List for the Parish of St James showed that her sentence (like that of two other women, Sarah Jackson and Prescilla from St Elizabeth), was later commuted to “transportation” from Jamaica. The destination was not stated. Neither was the reason for the change.

Verene Shepherd is director of Centre for Reparation Research. Send feedback to reparation.research@uwimona.edu.jm