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SMITH MEMORIAL CELEBRATES 172ND ANNIVERSARY

Nov 14, 2015 News

Smith Memorial Congregational Church, Brickdam, will celebrate its 172th Anniversary this month. The occasion will be marked by a service on Sunday at 09:00 hrs for public worship.
The church stands on the southeastern shoulder of Brickdam, Georgetown. It was erected to the memory of Reverend John Smith, a London Missionary Society Minister, who was sentenced to die by hanging for the role he allegedly played in the notorious East Coast Demerara Slave Insurrection of 1823. He died while a prisoner on death row, on February 6, 1824. He subsequently came to be referred to as the ‘Demerara Martyr’, as a result of the circumstances surrounding his death.
Smith arrived in Demerara in February 1817, to succeed the Reverend John Wray at Bethel Chapel, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara. Smith, like his predecessor, Wray, gave religious instructions to the slaves. He taught them to read the Bible and Catechism.
He along with the Rev. John Wray and the early missionaries laid the foundation for organized schooling and elementary primary education for their congregations.
Quamina, a slave, was Senior Deacon at Bethel Chapel located at Le Ressouvenir. His son, Jack Gladstone, and other slaves suffered death for the role allegedly played by them during the 1823 uprising, which had as its goal, the freedom of the slaves.
On November 24, 1843, exactly 20 years after the date on which the Reverend John Smith was sentenced to death, Smith Memorial Congregational Church was opened as a tribute to the work and suffering he had to endure on behalf of his deacons, members and other followers.

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