The Smith Memorial Congregational Church, Brickdam, celebrates its 169th anniversary on Sunday, November 18 with a special service at 9 am.
The church was erected in memory of the Rev John Smith, who was accused, among other things, of inciting the East Coast Rising of 1823. Smith, of the London Missionary Society, had been brought to Bethel Chapel on Le Resouvenir Plantation in 1817 to convert the enslaved population there. As well as catechizing the slaves, he also taught them to read and write, as a consequence of which he was unpopular with both the plantocracy and the colonial authorities in Georgetown.
Several of the main leaders of the insurrection were associated with the Bethel Chapel, and after it was crushed, John Smith was put on trial and given a death sentence. It had to be confirmed in London before it could be carried out, however, and there his case generated a great deal of sympathy. King George IV granted him a pardon, but before it arrived in Georgetown, Smith died in prison of tuberculosis on February 6, 1824, and was buried in what was then the town cemetery where St Philip’s Church now stands.
The 1823 uprising was put down with great ferocity, even although the rebels had exercised exceptional restraint and hardly any whites were killed. Nevertheless, a large number of men were hanged for their part in the rebellion.
