Hon. George William Gordon
George William Gordon was born to a slave mother and white planter in 1820. He became a self-educated businessman, politician and landowner in the parish of St Thomas.
Gordon had established his own Native Baptist church, of which Paul Bogle was a deacon, and was a member of the Jamaica Assembly. He became the voice of the people, who did not qualify to vote, and had subdivided his own lands, selling lots cheaply to the people and organising marketing of their produce at a fair price.
Gordon urged the people to protest against and resist the oppressive and unjust conditions under which they were forced to live. He was accused of instigating the Morant Bay Rebellion. In October, 1865 following the rebellion, George William Gordon was taken from Kingston to Morant Bay, where he was charged for complicity in the rebellion and executed. Gordon's death and the brutality of Governor Edward John Eyre's suppression of the revolt was cause for concern in Britain.
In 1969, when Jamaica decimalized its currency the Hon. George William Gordon appeared on the ten dollar note (now a coin).
