The Smith Memorial Congregational Church on Brickdam celebrates its 170th anniversary next Sunday, November 24. The occasion will be commemorated by an anniversary service starting at 9am, a press release from the church said.
The building was erected as a tribute to the late Reverend John Smith, a London Missionary Society Minister. Smith was sentenced to hang after being found guilty of incitement in relation to the East Coast Demerara Slave Insurrection of 1823, as well as not reporting the conspiracy to the authorities. While not guilty of the former, he does seem to have been guilty of the latter.
Smith was pardoned by the king in London, but died of tuberculosis in prison on February 6, 1824, before the pardon arrived. He later became known as the ‘Demerara Martyr’ because of the circumstances surrounding his death.
Smith, who arrived in Demerara in February 1817, came to take over his predecessor Reverend John Wray’s role as minister and teacher to the enslaved on Le Resouvenir Plantation. He was based at the Bethel Chapel there. Smith taught the slaves who attended the chapel to read the Bible and catechism, but his work was vigorously opposed by the planters of the area.
Quamina, a slave and senior Deacon at the Bethel Chapel was the nominal head of the Demerara Rising, while his son Jack Gladstone was probably the real leader. Many of the rebels were sentenced to death for taking part in the revolt, which was put down with great brutality, despite the fact it was largely non-violent in character.
On November 24, 1843, exactly twenty years after John Smith’s sentence was handed down, the Smith Memorial church was opened as a tribute to him.
