Paul Bogle was a Jamaican Baptist deacon and activist. He is a National Hero of Jamaica. He was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay protesters, who marched for justice and fair treatment for all the people in Jamaica. After leading the Morant Bay rebellion, Bogle was captured by Jamaican Maroons, tried and convicted by the colonial government, and hanged on 24 October 1865 in the Morant Bay court house.
Bogle had become a friend of wealthy landowner and fellow Baptist George William Gordon, a bi-racial man who served in the Assembly as one of two representatives from St. Thomas-in-the-East parish. Gordon was instrumental in Bogle being appointed deacon of Stony Gut Baptist Church in 1864. Conditions were hard for black peasants, due to social discrimination, flooding and crop failure, and epidemics. The required payment of poll taxes prevented most of them from voting. In August 1865, Gordon criticised the governor of Jamaica, Edward John Eyre for sanctioning "everything done by the higher class to the oppression of the negroes".
Bogle concentrated on improving the conditions of the poor.