"[T]he uprising was put down within a week, in the month that passed before the decree expired the military was allowed an orgy of shooting, flogging and more or less arbitrary executions. The Cornhill Magazine put the number of deaths at 439 and floggings at 600.
If this had been all, there would probably have been a transient fuss in England, after which (Governor) Eyre's career would have continued to flourish..."
However,
"The controversy was not about whether there had been a necessity for martial law to be invoked at Morant Bay: there almost certainly had been. It was ostensibly about the unnecessary duration of the decree and the abuse of the powers it created; but neither of these features distinguished it from the measures adopted in response to other such risings. What gave the outrage a focus was that Eyre had personally authorised the arrest in Kingston of a man named George Gordon, and what today would be called his extraordinary rendition to Morant Bay. Arriving there on a Saturday, Gordon was given an instant trial without access to counsel and hanged two days later."
"Gordon was that dangerous thing, a rogue member of the ruling elite: but he was racially and economically compromised, and that made him not only dispensable but serviceable as an example to others. All Eyre needed was an excuse and an opportunity to sweep him into the net of bloody reprisal..."
