The 2025 Sam Sharpe Lecture
 

This year's lecturer Dr Selina Stone brings a prophetic and deeply theological lens to the Sharpe legacy of "liberation from below”, writes Wale Hudson Roberts

There is a tragic deficit in public knowledge about Sam Sharpe.

We don’t even know what he truly looked like—only a traditional pen-and-ink drawing survives, and many doubt its accuracy. Nor do we know the original African name of his family, recorded only by the slaveholder’s name: Archer.

But what we do know is this—on 28 December 1831, in and around Montego Bay, Jamaica, enslaved people initiated a strike. They downed their tools, sat down, and refused to return to work unless they were paid fair wages.

At the heart of this extraordinary act of resistance was Sam Sharpe: a Baptist deacon, deeply rooted in his faith, and a member of the congregation led by English missionary Thomas Burchell. Under Sharpe’s leadership, the strike spread across four parishes, engaging around 20,000 enslaved individuals.

It began as a peaceful protest. But the brutal backlash by plantation owners transformed it into what some now call the Baptist War. The reprisals were devastating. More than 500 enslaved people were publicly executed, their deaths weaponised to instil fear.

Shortly before his own execution, Sharpe’s defiant words rang out:

“I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery.”

Those words capture not only his character but also the sheer inhumanity of slavery.

Today, Sam Sharpe is recognised as a National Hero of Jamaica. His rebellion was not just a turning point for the Caribbean—it remains a powerful moment in the global story of resistance. Sharpe stands as a lasting witness to what theologians and activists call “liberation from below”—freedom birthed not from the hands of the powerful, but from the courage of the oppressed.

Since 2012, the Sam Sharpe Lecture has carried that legacy forward, beginning with Professor Robert Beckford and carried on by voices like Professor Verene Shepherd, Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, Rt Revd Dr Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Revd Bev Thomas, Professor Kehinde Andrews, Professor Anthony Reddie, the late Revd Dr Joel Edwards, Revd Dr Carlton Turner, and many more. Together, they have used the Sharpe motif to expose and challenge global systems of racial, economic, and spiritual oppression.

This year, we are honoured to welcome Dr Selina Stone, a leading voice in contemporary theology and ethics at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity. Author of Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith (2023) and The Spirit and the Body: Towards a Womanist Pentecostal Social Justice Ethic (2023), Dr Stone brings a prophetic and deeply theological lens to the Sharpe legacy. 

Her lecture will explore how theology can either bind or break us - and how we might reclaim theological education as a tool of spiritual and social transformation.

Join us for what promises to be a powerful and stimulating evening:


The Sam Sharpe Lecture 2025 – 'Free Indeed: From Theological Mis-Education to Teaching for Liberation’
27 October
7:00pm
In partnership with the University of East London, Docklands Campus, University Way, London E16 2RD
 

Please register online as soon as possible. This is a night not to be missed.
 

The Revd Wale Hudson Roberts is Baptists Together Justice Enabler