Rumours circulated among the local Baptist ministry that he was carrying documents signed by William IV that would grant full emancipation.

The enslaved labourers, following the example of their ministers, were convinced that the Jamaican government and the plantation owners would capitulate quickly – they were prepared to use force, however, if military action was taken against them.

The governor appointed Colonel William Grignon, a prominent St. James lawyer and militia commander, to suppress the strike and force the slaves back to work.

[8] Grignon led his militia against the slaves, expecting them to scatter easily, but strong resistance from rebels armed with stockpiled guns and ammunition forced a retreat.

[10] Sir Willoughby Cotton of the British Army assumed responsibility for dealing with the rebels and enlisted the Jamaican Maroons of Accompong Town to confront Sharpe's followers in the second week of January 1832.

After the rebellion, an estimated 310 to 340 enslaved Jamaicans, including Sharpe, Gardner, and the other captured slave leaders, were killed through "various forms of judicial executions".

[15] An 1853 account by missionary Henry Bleby described how the courts commonly executed three or four persons simultaneously; bodies were then piled up and taken by Black labourers to be dumped in mass graves on the outskirts of town.

[17] As a result of the Baptist War, hundreds of slaves ran away into the Cockpit Country in order to avoid being forced back into slavery.

When Burchell and Knibb gave their accounts before the House of Commons, the representatives were outraged that white Englishmen had been abused for merely associating with rebellious slaves.