Samuel Sharpe

Samuel Sharpe was an enslaved Jamaican Baptist deacon and the principal organizer of the 1831–32 Baptist War, also known as the Christmas Rebellion. He initially promoted a peaceful strike for better treatment and freedom, but the resistance escalated into a major uprising across western Jamaica. Captured after the rebellion was suppressed, Sharpe was executed in Montego Bay on May 23, 1832; his leadership helped hasten the abolition of slavery in Jamaica, and he was later named a Jamaican National Hero.