60,000 Slaves. 1 Christmas Strike. A Rebellion That Freed Millions. On Christmas Day 1831, a Baptist deacon named Samuel Sharpe organized a peaceful general strike across Jamaica. He told 60,000 enslaved people to simply refuse to work until they received better wages and working conditions. It was supposed to be nonviolent resistance. Two days later, nearly every sugar plantation on the island was burning. This is the Baptist War—the largest slave rebellion in the British Caribbean. According t