Tacky's War

The leader of the rebellion, Tacky (Akan spelling: Takyi), was originally from the Fante ethnic group in West Africa and had been a paramount chief in Fante land (in the Central region of present-day Ghana) before being enslaved. He and his lieutenants planned to take over Jamaica from the British, and to create a separate black country.[2] The uprising was inspired by the successful resistance of the Asante Queen Nanny and the Jamaican Maroons during the First Maroon War of the 1730s.

Before being a slave, he was a king of his village. He himself recalled selling his rivals of the Ashanti, Nzema and Ahanta, off into slavery as spoils of war to the British. But ironically, he would become a slave himself when a rival state defeated his army in battle and sold him into slavery, and he ended up in Jamaica. According to J.A. Jones, who claimed to have met him while being held captive by Tacky while trying to get an interview with him, in his memoirs he wrote that Tacky spoke very fluent English (which was indeed common for the ruling class of Fantes at the time).[3]

Also according to Jones, he was discovered in a cave a year before the rebellion took place, planning with his comrades: Quaw (Fanti Ekow), Sang, Sobadou (twi Sobadu), Fula Jati and Quantee (twi Kwarteng). All except Fula Jati were of Akan descent.[3]

The slave revolt was a coordinated island-wide conspiracy, led by a secret network of Akan (Coromantee) slaves.[4]

Sometime before daybreak on Easter Monday, 7 April 1760, Tacky and his followers began the revolt and easily took over the Frontier and Trinity plantations while killing their masters. Bolstered by their easy success, they made their way to the storeroom at Fort Haldane where the munitions to defend the town of Port Maria were kept. After killing the storekeeper, Tacky and his men stole nearly 4 barrels of gunpowder and 40 firearms with shot, before marching on to overrun the plantations at Heywood Hall and Esher.[2][5]

By dawn, hundreds of other slaves had joined Tacky and his followers. At Ballard's Valley, the rebels stopped to rejoice in their success. One slave from Esher decided to slip away and sound the alarm.[2] Obeahmen (Caribbean witch doctors) quickly circulated around the camp dispensing a powder that they claimed would protect the men from injury in battle and loudly proclaimed that an Obeahman could not be killed. Confidence was high.[2][3]

On April 9, Lieutenant Governor Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet dispatched a detachment of the 74th regiment, comprising between 70 to 80 mounted militia from Spanish Town to St Mary.[6]

These militia soldiers were joined by Maroons from Moore Town, Charles Town, Jamaica and Scott's Hall (Jamaica), who were bound by treaty to suppress such rebellions. The Maroon contingents were commanded by Moore Town's white superintendent Charles Swigle, and the Maroon officers reporting to him were Clash and Sambo from Moore Town, Quaco and Cain from Charles Town, and Cudjo and Davy the Maroon from Scott's Hall.[7]

Tacky's rebels burnt houses at Down's Cove in coastal St Mary. On April 12, the militia under Captain Rigby and Lieutenant Forsyth arrived at Down's Cove, where they were met by Charles Town Maroons (who were still called Crawford's Town Maroons by the colonial writers) led by Swigle, and a contingent of black soldiers. Tacky's men attacked Forsyth's contingent, and killed a number of white soldiers, losing only three freed slave rebels in the process. Tacky himself was reportedly wounded in the assault.[6]

Captain Hynes led his black regiment and Swigle the Charles Town Maroons in pursuit of Tacky through the forested mountains of the interior, and in "a rocky gully, between two steep Hills," defeated Tacky's men in a skirmish and captured a few of the rebel slaves. A day later, on April 13, the Maroons continued their pursuit of Tacky's men through the woods near Friendship estate.[6]

When the militia learned of the Obeahman's boast of not being able to be killed, an Obeahman was captured, killed and hung with his mask, ornaments of teeth and bone and feather trimmings at a prominent place visible from the encampment of rebels. Many of the rebels, confidence shaken, returned to their plantations. Tacky and 25 or so men decided to fight on.[2]

On April 14, other Maroon parties from Scott's Hall and Moore Town joined the Charles Town Maroons, and led by Swigle, they engaged Tacky's men in a battle in Rocky Valley, and routed them, defeating and killing a number of the slave rebels. Tacky and the remainder of his men went running through the woods being chased by the Maroons and their legendary marksman, Davy. While running at full speed, Davy shot Tacky and cut off his head as evidence of his feat, for which he would be richly rewarded. Tacky's head was later displayed on a pole in Spanish Town until a follower took it down in the middle of the night. The rest of Tacky's men were found in a cave near Tacky Falls, having committed suicide rather than going back to slavery.[2][8][9][6]

In May and June, a number of Tacky's men, who had surrendered, were executed after trials in Spanish Town and Kingston. One rebel named Anthony was hanged, while another named Quaco was burnt at the stake. Another two were hung up in chains, and starved to death.[6]

In June 1760, similar plots had been discovered in Manchester Parish, and the now-defunct parishes of Saint John, Saint Dorothy and Saint Thomas-ye-Vale. In Saint Thomas-in-the-East Parish (present day Saint Thomas Parish, a slave rebellion was betrayed by a conspirator named Cuffee, after which 19 rebels were executed. A similar planned revolt in Lluidas Vale, Jamaica in St John was also betrayed, this time by three rebel slaves. The conspiracy at Cocoa Walk Plantation at St Dorothy was revealed, and in July four of the rebels were executed, while another six were re-sold into slavery in a neighbouring Spanish colony.[10][6]

In July, another revolt in Saint Thomas-in-the-East Parish was crushed by a Maroon party led by Swigle, killing one leader named Pompey, while another named Akim hanged himself.[6]

It was also discovered that slaves in Kingston had elected a female Fante slave named Cubah (a British misnomer of the Fante day name “Akuba” or "Akua") the rank of 'Queen of Kingston'. Cubah (Akua) sat in state under a canopy at their meetings, wearing a robe and a crown.[11]

It is unknown whether there was any direct communication between Cubah's people and Tacky's, but when discovered, she was ordered to be transported from the island for conspiracy to rebel.[12] Whilst at sea, she bribed the captain of the ship to put her ashore in western Jamaica where she joined the leeward rebels and remained at large for months. On being recaptured, she was executed.[5]

The rebellion didn't end there, as other rebellions broke out all over Jamaica, many of which were rightly or wrongly attributed to Tacky's cunning and strategy. Other slaves learned of Tacky's revolt, which inspired unrest and disorder throughout the island. Rebels numbering about 1,200 regrouped in the unsettled mountainous forests in western Jamaica, under the leadership of a rebel slave christened Wager, but going by his African name of Apongo. They attacked eight slave plantations in Westmoreland Parish and two in Hanover Parish, killing a number of whites.[4][6]

Refugees, both white and black, fled the Westmoreland capital of Savanna-la-Mar and on May 29, an attempt by the Westmoreland militia to storm the rebels' barricaded encampment was soundly defeated and repelled. On June 2, however, bolstered by militias from two more western parishes, a detachment of British soldiers and sailors, and the skilled Maroon warriors of Accompong Town, the colonial forces successfully stormed the barricade and drove the slave rebels out following a two-hour battle, killing and capturing scores of rebels. A party of Accompong Maroons led by Maroon Captain Quashee, reporting to white superintendent John Kelly, captured six rebel slaves in one skirmish.[4][6]

On June 10, on the outskirts of the estate of Mesopotamia, owned by Joseph Foster Barham I, a detachment of soldiers and militia defeated a band of rebel slaves, killing about 40 and capturing another 50.[4]

The rebel slaves continued fighting for the rest of the year in western Jamaica, forcing the governor, Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet, to continue imposing martial law in Westmoreland and surrounding areas.[4] In mid-June, there were uprisings in Saint James Parish, Jamaica and Hanover, which were quickly suppressed. On June 20, the militia killed and captured 100 rebel slaves in Westmoreland. On June 22, one of the rebel slaves was given a speedy trial for the murder of two white children, and once convicted, was burnt alive.[6]

On July 3, the "King of the Rebels" Apongo was among those rebel slaves captured by the militia. Another rebel named Davie was executed by being put in the gibbets to starve to death, which took a week to reach its conclusion. Apongo himself was hung up in chains for three days, after which he was taken down and burnt to death.[6]

The remaining rebels then fell under the leadership of an escaped slave named Simon, which took refuge in the Cockpit Country at a place called High Windward, from which they mounted a number of attacks on nearby plantations in Saint Elizabeth Parish. On December 23, in one such raid, Simon's rebels burnt down a house belonging to a Thomas Durrant, and shot another white man.[6]

In January 1761, Simon's rebels relocated to a place named Mile Gully, which was then situated in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. There were reports that Simon was shot and killed in a skirmish with a party sent to apprehend the rebel slaves, but that proved to be false as rebels led by Simon and another rebel slave named Damon continue to raid western estates.[6]

By late 1761, Governor Moore declared that the main western revolt was over. However, some remaining rebels then scattered in small bands, led by Simon and Damon, and operating from the forested interior of the Cockpit Country, they conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare for the rest of the decade, staging raids on plantations within their reach.[4][13]

In 1766, another rebellion took place in Westmoreland, also inspired by Tacky's Revolt. About 33 Akan slaves rose up in revolt, and killed 19 whites, before it was brutally suppressed.[14]

Most of the remaining rebels then moved to the south-western Saint Elizabeth Parish, where they operated out of the mountainous forests of Nassau Mountain.[4]

It took months and even years for order to be restored, depending on which parish the rebels operated from. Over 60 white people had lost their lives, and a similar number of free people of colour, in addition to 400 or so black slaves, including two ringleaders who were burned alive, and two others who were hung in iron cages at the Kingston Parade until they starved to death. More than 500 rebel slaves were "transported", or re-sold as slaves to new owners in the British colony in the Bay of Honduras. It is estimated that the destruction caused by Tacky's Revolt, and other spin-off rebellions, cost the Colony of Jamaica over £100,000, which is many millions in today's currency.[2][15]

The colonial Assembly passed a number of draconian laws to regulate the slaves in the aftermath of Tacky's Revolt. In addition, they banned the West African religious practices of obeah.[16]

Tacky Monument in Claude Stuart Park can be visited in Port Maria, St Mary. Tacky Falls is accessible by the sea but the overland route is considered by locals to be too tough to travel. The waterfalls have diminished over the years and mainly eroded rocks mark the course. The exact location of the cave where the remains of Tacky's men were found is not known.[2]

Tacky's Rebellion was, like many other Atlantic slave revolts, put down quickly and mercilessly by colonial officials. Planters severely punished rebel slaves. However, the spin-off rebellions lasted for several months and even years after the main revolt was crushed. In addition, there is no record of Simon or Damon ever being captured or apprehended by the Jamaican colonial authorities, or of their runaway communities being routed. It is possible that they may have merged with other successful runaway communities in subsequent decades, and they may have served as an inspiration for other slave revolts.

Contemporary historian Robert Charles Dallas wrote that in the 1770s, a community of runaway slaves formed the Congo Settlement in the Cockpit Country, and resisted efforts by the Accompong Maroons to break them up until the end of the century. It is possible that the rebel slaves of Simon and Damon, and those from the 1766 Revolt, made up a significant part of that community. Many of the survivors of this community went on to fight on the side of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) in the Second Maroon War.[17]

• Brown, Vincent (2020). Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0674737570.
• Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. (2006), Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion., Westport, CT: Greenwood
• Burnard, Trevor (2004), Mastery, Tyranny and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 170–72, ISBN 0-8078-5525-1
• Brown, Vincent (2013), Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760–1761: A Cartographic Narrative, Axis Maps