The British population on Jamaica, as in…

The British population on Jamaica, as in many other British colonies, is fearful of a black uprising, following the massacres of Europeans during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

A two-year drought preceding 1865 has made economic conditions still worse for the population of former slaves and their descendants, and rumors have began circulating that white planters intend to restore slavery in Jamaica.

Early in 1865, Dr. Edward Underhill, Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society of Great Britain, had written a letter to the Colonial Office in order to express Jamaica's current poor state of affairs.

This letter had later been shown to Jamaica's Governor Edward Eyre, who had immediately tried to deny the truth of its statements, and Jamaica's poor blacks had begun organizing in "Underhill Meetings."

Peasants in St. Ann parish had sent a petition to Queen Victoria asking for Crown lands to cultivate as they cannot find land for themselves, but it had passed by Eyre first and he had enclosed a letter with his own comments.

The Queen's reply had left no doubt in the minds of the poor that Eyre had influenced her opinion—she had encouraged the poor to work harder, rather than offering any help.