Joseph Matthew Sebastian

Joseph Matthew Sebastian (7 July 1891 – 25 June 1944) was a Caribbean trade union leader and politician.

Joseph Matthew Sebastian was born in 1891 in Johnson's Point, in the Parish of St. Mary, Antigua.

The three formed the Universal Benevolent Association, which was also responsible for teaching reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic.

It was at this point that Sebastian resigned his teaching position to become the newspaper's managing editor, and president of the Union.

Before his death, Sebastian bought the rights to the newspaper, and he owned the printing press that was used at The Union Messenger.

Sebastian always put at the top of The Union Messenger, the famous lines from Abraham Lincoln's second Inaugural Address, "With malice towards none, with Charity for all, with firmness in the right."

"[1] Through The Union Messenger, Sebastian placed special emphasis on the problems faced by the disenfranchised population of St. Kitts and Nevis—housing, health and sanitation, education, and exploitation of children.

While some copies exist in private collections, most of Sebastian's editorials were destroyed when the courthouse at East Square Street burned down.