Tacky's Revolt

Tacky's Revolt
Part of the Seven Years' War

A French illustration of the revolt made in 1800
Date7 April 1760 – Late 1761
Location
Result Revolt suppressed
Belligerents
 Great Britain
Colony of Jamaica
Jamaican Maroons
Jamaican Cromanty
Commanders and leaders
Robert Spragge
William Hynes
Hugh Forsyth
Charles Swigle
Tacky 
Apongo
Cubah
Simon
Strength
Unknown Hundreds
Casualties and losses
60 whites killed
60 free blacks killed
1,100+ rebels killed
500+ rebels sold into slavery

Tacky's Revolt (also known as Tacky's Rebellion and Tacky's War) was a slave rebellion in the British colony of Jamaica which lasted from 7 April 1760 to 1761. Spearheaded by self-emancipated Coromantee people, the rebels were led by a Fante royal named Tacky. It was the most significant slave rebellion in the West Indies between the 1733 slave insurrection on St. John and the 1791 Haitian Revolution. The rebels were eventually defeated after British colonial forces, assisted by Jamaican Maroons, waged a gruelling counterinsurgency campaign. According to historian Trevor Burnard, "[in] terms of its shock to the imperial system, only the American Revolution surpassed Tacky's War in the eighteenth century." It was also the largest slave rebellion in the British West Indies until the Baptist War of 1831, which also occurred in Jamaica.[1]

  1. ^ Craton, Michael. Testing the Chains. Cornell University Press, 1982, p. 138.