The Morant Bay Rebellion occurred on October 11th, 1865. The rebellion was led by Paul Bogle, who brought together Jamaicans who wanted to protest their mistreatment and inequity that ultimately forced them into poverty. In response, Governor Edward Eyre, Jamaica’s governor at the time, responded to the rebellion in heinous acts of violence, killing hundreds of protesters. This resulted in many arrests without proper trials.

From the little documentation and research regarding this event, many of the well-known stories and names are linked to men. There were several women who were affected by this event, but not many people knew about their perspectives. To understand their own complex experiences and to shine a spotlight on women’s stories, our class is now beginning to unpack and analyze their documented testimonies from the Jamaican Royal Commission report.

When using Voyant tools to distant read rather than close read, I found that I was able to get a good general sense of the overarching context of their testimonies. It was interesting to see how they were boiled down. I found it particularly interesting to see which words were used the most. It gave me real numerical data to work with rather than relying on my own faulty observations.

While analyzing the frequency of certain words used within the testimonies through Voyant, I noticed that some words were highlighted in green or red. The words highlighted in red were negative. Words such as death, burn, and steal were all red. Words highlighted in green were words like mercy, strong, and protection. This was useful to me because I was able to create a graph of the most used highlighted words, and compare the usage. I noticed that there were far more red words, which gives me an idea of the collective hardship and struggle these women faced. Without having to read through the whole document, I already know that there is a dark tone throughout it all. The most used “positive” word is not exactly positive within this context, but actually just highlights how many of these were working or had family who worked.

Before engaging in this exercise, I was only familiar with the testimonies I had transcribed myself. I knew that there was so much more information and context within the entirety of the Jamaican Royal Commission report. Practicing distant reading allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the robust perspectives of these women. I could see the pattern of language, which may not seem very useful in learning about the nitty-gritty details of their situations, but it did provide insightful data that helped me gain a broader perspective.