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Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War
A gripping account of the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world, an uprising that laid bare the interconnectedness of Europe, Africa, and America, shook the foundations of empire, and reshaped ideas of race and popular belonging.
In the second half of the 18th century, as European imperial conflicts extended the domain of capitalist agriculture, warring African factions fed their captives to the transatlantic slave trade while masters struggled continuously to keep their restive slaves under the yoke. In this contentious atmosphere, a movement of enslaved West Africans in Jamaica (then called Coromantees) organized to throw off that yoke by violence.
Their uprising—which became known as Tacky’s Revolt—featured a style of fighting increasingly familiar today: scattered militias opposing great powers, with fighters hard to distinguish from noncombatants. It was also part of a more extended borderless conflict that spread from Africa to the Americas and across the island. Even after it was put down, the insurgency rumbled throughout the British Empire at a time when slavery seemed the dependable bedrock of its dominion. That certitude would never be the same, nor would the views of black lives, which came to inspire both more fear and more sympathy than before.
Tracing the roots, routes, and reverberations of this event across disparate parts of the Atlantic world, Vincent Brown offers us a superb geopolitical thriller. Tacky’s Revolt expands our understanding of the relationship between European, African, and American history, as it speaks to our understanding of wars of terror today.
In the second half of the 18th century, as European imperial conflicts extended the domain of capitalist agriculture, warring African factions fed their captives to the transatlantic slave trade while masters struggled continuously to keep their restive slaves under the yoke. In this contentious atmosphere, a movement of enslaved West Africans in Jamaica (then called Coromantees) organized to throw off that yoke by violence.
Their uprising—which became known as Tacky’s Revolt—featured a style of fighting increasingly familiar today: scattered militias opposing great powers, with fighters hard to distinguish from noncombatants. It was also part of a more extended borderless conflict that spread from Africa to the Americas and across the island. Even after it was put down, the insurgency rumbled throughout the British Empire at a time when slavery seemed the dependable bedrock of its dominion. That certitude would never be the same, nor would the views of black lives, which came to inspire both more fear and more sympathy than before.
Tracing the roots, routes, and reverberations of this event across disparate parts of the Atlantic world, Vincent Brown offers us a superb geopolitical thriller. Tacky’s Revolt expands our understanding of the relationship between European, African, and American history, as it speaks to our understanding of wars of terror today.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 14, 2020
61 people are currently reading
1439 people want to read
About the author
Vincent Brown
3 books36 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Vincent Brown is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the author of The Reaper’s Garden, which won the James A. Rawley Prize, the Louis Gottschalk Prize, and the Merle Curti Award. He has received Guggenheim and Mellon New Directions fellowships. His online interactive map Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760–1761: A Cartographic Narrative has been viewed by 87,000 users in 184 countries, and his documentary Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, broadcast nationally on PBS, won the John E. O’Connor Film Award and was chosen as Best Documentary at the Hollywood Black Film Festival.
Vincent Brown is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the author of The Reaper’s Garden, which won the James A. Rawley Prize, the Louis Gottschalk Prize, and the Merle Curti Award. He has received Guggenheim and Mellon New Directions fellowships. His online interactive map Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760–1761: A Cartographic Narrative has been viewed by 87,000 users in 184 countries, and his documentary Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, broadcast nationally on PBS, won the John E. O’Connor Film Award and was chosen as Best Documentary at the Hollywood Black Film Festival.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
July 31, 2020
This rating may be unfair, but I found the book to be exhausting to read.
To be clear: Brown is an incredible researcher, and the content here is very valuable. His theses is also incredibly interesting: slavery as a form of continuous war, and slave revolts as part of a larger "world war" happening in the Atlantic in the latter half of the 18th century. Amazing stuff.
But Vincent Brown is a Harvard professor and a veteran academic. This book is written not for the casual summer reader or even the semi-serious historian. This is not pop history. It's HISTORY with a capital H. It is a book by a serious academic FOR serious academics. It reminded me of a lot of the research papers I was assigned as homework in college, and that's what reading this book felt like: heady, difficult homework.
Again, the rating may be unfair. It is perhaps more of a reflection on the reader than on the book, but I walk away mostly just being glad I've finished it and that I don't have to write a report on it!
To be clear: Brown is an incredible researcher, and the content here is very valuable. His theses is also incredibly interesting: slavery as a form of continuous war, and slave revolts as part of a larger "world war" happening in the Atlantic in the latter half of the 18th century. Amazing stuff.
But Vincent Brown is a Harvard professor and a veteran academic. This book is written not for the casual summer reader or even the semi-serious historian. This is not pop history. It's HISTORY with a capital H. It is a book by a serious academic FOR serious academics. It reminded me of a lot of the research papers I was assigned as homework in college, and that's what reading this book felt like: heady, difficult homework.
Again, the rating may be unfair. It is perhaps more of a reflection on the reader than on the book, but I walk away mostly just being glad I've finished it and that I don't have to write a report on it!
April 7, 2020
2020-03 – Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War. Vincent Brown (Author) 2020. 336 Pages.
I stumbled across this book thanks to C-Span. I thought it looked interesting and recorded the author’s presentation at The Museum of The American Revolution. Ten minutes into his captivating talk I logged on and put a hold on this book at my local library. I am glad I did. The book expanded my understanding of warfare in the 18th century. I also gave me a deeper understanding of the slaveholding societies that populated the Atlantic world. I would eventually extract five pages of notes and list several books from its text and bibliographic material to read at a later date. The author’s thesis is that slave revolts should be understood in a broader context than as an isolated revolt. We must consider the past history of the enslaved people in their entirety. That many of the enslaved brought with them from Africa experience in warfare, politics, and animosities from tribal warfare and biases. This background does not leave memory when they were transported and set to task in the sugar fields of the Caribbean. Elements and connections of this past can be seen in their actions and choices. Forms of conflict at the tactical, spiritual and operational fit existing African patterns. The author states that the purpose of this book is not to search people to award medals to or to hold up for their actions as examples because preferences of heroes and villains change through time, rather he goal was to further understanding. Understanding of motives, choices, and actions taken. To this end he does a marvelous and succinct job of explaining the role of slavery and white supremacy in the British imperial expansion and empire. For many readers this will be an eye opening read in that regards as the fact that slavery existed is understood but its rationale and machinations and deeper effects are little studied or understood. Aside from this deep exploration underpinning all of it is the fascinating military history of Jamaica itself. I was already familiar with the First and Second Maroon Wars but the depth of societal militarization and slavery roles in that as well as Jamaica’s numerous other internal conflicts and its outsized role in as the British outpost and fortress in the Americas was illuminating. Too often those of us in the USA see, because of chauvinism in our education system, the 13 colonies as the lynchpin and center of the British Empire when in reality they were not. The American Revolutionary War existed in an American Hemispheric, nay, a worldwide struggle. Losing its Caribbean colonies would have cost the British far more than losing 13 of its 24+ colonies. This book may be the most effective book I have read in making that point clear.
I stumbled across this book thanks to C-Span. I thought it looked interesting and recorded the author’s presentation at The Museum of The American Revolution. Ten minutes into his captivating talk I logged on and put a hold on this book at my local library. I am glad I did. The book expanded my understanding of warfare in the 18th century. I also gave me a deeper understanding of the slaveholding societies that populated the Atlantic world. I would eventually extract five pages of notes and list several books from its text and bibliographic material to read at a later date. The author’s thesis is that slave revolts should be understood in a broader context than as an isolated revolt. We must consider the past history of the enslaved people in their entirety. That many of the enslaved brought with them from Africa experience in warfare, politics, and animosities from tribal warfare and biases. This background does not leave memory when they were transported and set to task in the sugar fields of the Caribbean. Elements and connections of this past can be seen in their actions and choices. Forms of conflict at the tactical, spiritual and operational fit existing African patterns. The author states that the purpose of this book is not to search people to award medals to or to hold up for their actions as examples because preferences of heroes and villains change through time, rather he goal was to further understanding. Understanding of motives, choices, and actions taken. To this end he does a marvelous and succinct job of explaining the role of slavery and white supremacy in the British imperial expansion and empire. For many readers this will be an eye opening read in that regards as the fact that slavery existed is understood but its rationale and machinations and deeper effects are little studied or understood. Aside from this deep exploration underpinning all of it is the fascinating military history of Jamaica itself. I was already familiar with the First and Second Maroon Wars but the depth of societal militarization and slavery roles in that as well as Jamaica’s numerous other internal conflicts and its outsized role in as the British outpost and fortress in the Americas was illuminating. Too often those of us in the USA see, because of chauvinism in our education system, the 13 colonies as the lynchpin and center of the British Empire when in reality they were not. The American Revolutionary War existed in an American Hemispheric, nay, a worldwide struggle. Losing its Caribbean colonies would have cost the British far more than losing 13 of its 24+ colonies. This book may be the most effective book I have read in making that point clear.
August 21, 2022
Slavery is perpetual warfare, and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and ensuing chattel enslavement of Africans in the Americas must be characterized as a borderless race war, spanning multiple continents, nations / empires, and racial groups. Vincent Brown’s “Tacky’s Revolt” tells the 18th Century story of the various organized rebellions of enslaved Akan Africans from the Gold Coast region in West Africa, who fought for their freedom against their British colonial masters on the Island of Jamaica.
“Tacky’s revolt” was but one of the massive uprisings on the island of Jamaica during this time period. While brave and certainly threatening to the Jamaican colonial order, the revolt (like almost all others like it) was ultimately undermined by undisciplined leadership, divisions among the Africans, and a united British counter-insurgency that including semi-“sovereign” Maroons, free Blacks, conscripted slaves, mulattoes, and the white-led colonial militia. Nevertheless, the books does a great job detailing how “Tacky’s revolt” was a part of a larger plan for enslaved Africans to rise up and take the entire island of Jamaica. It was a part of the long-standing “Coramantee Wars” that plagued the colony of Jamaica throughout the 18th Century. These wars essentially continued and spread the violent conflicts in West Africa between the various competing African polities, and the British empire. This book excels at situating “Tacky’s revolt” within the context of this “Atlantic slave war.”
While it was disheartening to read about the many betrayals from enslaved Africans, as well as the Jamaican Maroon bands who (bound by treaty) fought with the British to squash the various Island-wide rebellions that comprised the Coramantee wars, this piece of information is vital to understanding how and why slavery and colonialism in Jamaica lasted as long as it did. The British took advantage of divisions among the enslaved, and the enslaved—despite their valiant and consistent resistance—were often forced to compromise the goal of total revolution in exchange for their survival. Nevertheless, the 18th Century Coramantee wars paved the way for future conflicts that eventually resulted in the overthrow of slavery in the region—including and especially, the Haitian Revolution.
“Tacky’s revolt” was but one of the massive uprisings on the island of Jamaica during this time period. While brave and certainly threatening to the Jamaican colonial order, the revolt (like almost all others like it) was ultimately undermined by undisciplined leadership, divisions among the Africans, and a united British counter-insurgency that including semi-“sovereign” Maroons, free Blacks, conscripted slaves, mulattoes, and the white-led colonial militia. Nevertheless, the books does a great job detailing how “Tacky’s revolt” was a part of a larger plan for enslaved Africans to rise up and take the entire island of Jamaica. It was a part of the long-standing “Coramantee Wars” that plagued the colony of Jamaica throughout the 18th Century. These wars essentially continued and spread the violent conflicts in West Africa between the various competing African polities, and the British empire. This book excels at situating “Tacky’s revolt” within the context of this “Atlantic slave war.”
While it was disheartening to read about the many betrayals from enslaved Africans, as well as the Jamaican Maroon bands who (bound by treaty) fought with the British to squash the various Island-wide rebellions that comprised the Coramantee wars, this piece of information is vital to understanding how and why slavery and colonialism in Jamaica lasted as long as it did. The British took advantage of divisions among the enslaved, and the enslaved—despite their valiant and consistent resistance—were often forced to compromise the goal of total revolution in exchange for their survival. Nevertheless, the 18th Century Coramantee wars paved the way for future conflicts that eventually resulted in the overthrow of slavery in the region—including and especially, the Haitian Revolution.
March 17, 2020
A very thorough and detailed history offering a new perspective on the history of enslaved people's rebellion in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean, and Americas. Offers very clear eyed analysis, and offers a range of motivations where the record is unclear. Illustrates very strongly how geographies of empire and rebellion interact physically, socially, and psychologically and speaks directly to the issues of surveillance, control, and domination present until this day.
He traces the movements of people involved in the 1760 uprising in Jamaica and makes a pretty compelling case that it should be viewed as a continuation of campaigns being pursued by the British, and different empires on the African continent like the Fante, and Asante.
He also makes a good case for how the uprising was much more than spontaneous but deliberately planned and due to the terrain and the martial experience of enslaved people leading the rebellions.
It's also interesting to read about the fissures among both the enslaved and the slavers. How they each mapped different geographies and obligations with a particularly timely observation on shared sacrifice.
Anywho, really good book definitely recommend.
He traces the movements of people involved in the 1760 uprising in Jamaica and makes a pretty compelling case that it should be viewed as a continuation of campaigns being pursued by the British, and different empires on the African continent like the Fante, and Asante.
He also makes a good case for how the uprising was much more than spontaneous but deliberately planned and due to the terrain and the martial experience of enslaved people leading the rebellions.
It's also interesting to read about the fissures among both the enslaved and the slavers. How they each mapped different geographies and obligations with a particularly timely observation on shared sacrifice.
Anywho, really good book definitely recommend.
August 26, 2021
Disclaimer: I’ve never studied history per se, except insofar as historical events have been germane to other subjects, such as Latin American history when I did Latin American politics, or US history vis-à-vis US foreign policy.
Nor am I well read in #JamaicanHistory.
So my recent reading of Island on Fire, and now Tacky’s Revolt, have been, for me, nothing short of revelatory.
I have written and re-written this post so many times because there is just so much. A proper review requires an essay.
It brings together the wars in West and Central Africa, the Atlantic wars, the slave trade, and the slave uprisings in Jamaica (and other colonies) in a way that is mind-blowing. I have such a richer understanding of, well, everything. #JoyofReading #LifelongLearner
A few thoughts:
📚This is not an academic history book. i.e. it not boring. At all. On the contrary.
📚 How @professorvbrown managed to weave together so many different strands, dynamics, forces, players, and histories was incredible. I am in awe. #WritingGoals #inspiration
📚The book isn’t all about the bravery and intelligence and cunning and resilience of enslaved people, though there is a lot of that, and I have to admit that I felt an unfamiliar pride reading it. They also committed some heinous acts, including against and to each other.
📚 There is a lot that is hard to read. How the rebels were tortured and executed after the St. Mary uprising, the atrocities committed by the counterinsurgency during the Westmoreland uprising… sigh... this country is steeped in barbarity. #LivingHistory
📚 I essentially read this book twice. A few of the chapters I listened to the audiobook, but then I went right back and re-read the entire chapter after.
📚 I want to go around the entire island and identify all the places that feature in the book. I have an idea that a #JamaicanHistory tour could be designed with this book as the basis.
Nor am I well read in #JamaicanHistory.
So my recent reading of Island on Fire, and now Tacky’s Revolt, have been, for me, nothing short of revelatory.
I have written and re-written this post so many times because there is just so much. A proper review requires an essay.
It brings together the wars in West and Central Africa, the Atlantic wars, the slave trade, and the slave uprisings in Jamaica (and other colonies) in a way that is mind-blowing. I have such a richer understanding of, well, everything. #JoyofReading #LifelongLearner
A few thoughts:
📚This is not an academic history book. i.e. it not boring. At all. On the contrary.
📚 How @professorvbrown managed to weave together so many different strands, dynamics, forces, players, and histories was incredible. I am in awe. #WritingGoals #inspiration
📚The book isn’t all about the bravery and intelligence and cunning and resilience of enslaved people, though there is a lot of that, and I have to admit that I felt an unfamiliar pride reading it. They also committed some heinous acts, including against and to each other.
📚 There is a lot that is hard to read. How the rebels were tortured and executed after the St. Mary uprising, the atrocities committed by the counterinsurgency during the Westmoreland uprising… sigh... this country is steeped in barbarity. #LivingHistory
📚 I essentially read this book twice. A few of the chapters I listened to the audiobook, but then I went right back and re-read the entire chapter after.
📚 I want to go around the entire island and identify all the places that feature in the book. I have an idea that a #JamaicanHistory tour could be designed with this book as the basis.
Read
April 23, 2020“Because slaveholders wrote the first draft of history,” Vincent Brown laments, “subsequent historiography has strained to escape from their point of view.” But “Tacky’s Revolt” is a fine start, rescuing even minor acts of resistance from the contemporaneous accounts of men like Long, and making a coherent whole out of the diffuse, chaotic attempt to wage war on enslavers. The book is a sobering read for contemporary audiences in countries engaged in forever wars, reminding us how easily and arbitrarily the edges of empire, and its evils, can fade from or focus our vision. It is also a useful reminder that the distinction between victory and defeat, when it comes to insurgencies, is often fleeting: Tacky may have lost his battle, but the enslaved did eventually win the war.
Full review at “The New Yorker”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
Full review at “The New Yorker”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
April 6, 2022
This is a pretty dense academic history, so not for everyone, but really interesting and useful for me. I keep bringing it up in my classes (my students are probably getting sick of hearing about it) because I am teaching about the 18th century Atlantic World right now and this illuminates so many different aspects of that world. I had heard of Tacky's Revolt, but Brown really helps you see it in the context of everything else that was happening. Like, for example, the enslaved people who were revolting would have understood their actions in the context of ongoing wars in Africa, and also ongoing conflict between Britain and France. This was really part of the Seven Years War. It's funny - I knew that it happened during the Seven Years War, but I never thought of it as related. But of course, that's partly because the British marginalized it, as just "Tacky's Revolt," right? Some guy named Tacky led a revolt. Big deal. Brown makes clear this was much more complex and widespread, with multiple leaders and flare ups, and competing strategies on both sides. It was a war. And part of the reason it happened when it did was because the enslaved people knew there was a war on - some of them had been previously enslaved on British naval vessels, so they had even fought in that war. They also appear to have debated what to do - do they try to carve out a free community in the mountains, like other free maroon communities? Or try to take a port and create an autonomous trading polity, like the coastal states many of them were from in West Africa? That would be hard, as the British always have the Navy...even if the former slaves started making progress in the war, the white British knew the navy would always be there to back them up.
Brown makes a really good case for a nuanced, contextualized understanding of the individual slave uprisings in the 18th century Atlantic World, rather than just, you know, a slide in the lecture called "slave rebellions." Which is what I used to have. Like I said, very useful book.
Brown makes a really good case for a nuanced, contextualized understanding of the individual slave uprisings in the 18th century Atlantic World, rather than just, you know, a slide in the lecture called "slave rebellions." Which is what I used to have. Like I said, very useful book.
June 23, 2020
A great academic history book; a thorough treatment of information that must be read from between the lines of Atlantic history. Full review: https://tylerwolanin.com/2020/6/10/wh...
March 22, 2020
Brilliant, Important, Beautiful
April 15, 2020
This is the real deal
June 20, 2022
Listen: I cannot believe I finished this. I say this not because of the content or quality of this book because obviously FIVE STARS. But because this book is farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr too smart for me. It is DENSE. But we're talking about the social, political, and philosophical implications of the Atlantic slave trade here and it is not a subject you exactly mince. But maybe this should be required reading for everyone? Because I think this is a good introduction to the Atlantic slave trade and its many ramifications, from the geopolitical and imperialistic movements in Africa that lead to millions of people being forced in horrific enslavement conditions, to the human diaspora that resulted from it, to the philosophical conversation that evolved from the subsequent revolts because of humans wanting basic human dignity and rights. What happens in Jamaica because of the slave revolts will reverberate around the globe, and will influence the colonial conversation for literally several hundred years. And guess what? We're STILL having that conversation. Any way, this ish is tough on my brain, but a good kind of tough and that's why it took me FIVE MONTHS to read it.
Also, this book has one of the sickest historical burns of all time: If I remember correctly, an abolitionist speaking on a British Jamaican slaveholder upon the slaveholder's death "He will find the climate and the company about the same in where he is going" BOOM. ROASTED (literally???)
Also, this book has one of the sickest historical burns of all time: If I remember correctly, an abolitionist speaking on a British Jamaican slaveholder upon the slaveholder's death "He will find the climate and the company about the same in where he is going" BOOM. ROASTED (literally???)
September 7, 2020
Tacky’s revolt plunges the reader in the events surrounding the consequential Coromentee wars (1760 - 1761) and its lasting effects in the Caribbean as well as in the Americas. Vincent Brown took an uncharted course of historiography, linking the tribal wars on the Gold Coast of Africa, the revolutionary revolts in Jamaica and other Caribbean colonies as well as the American revolution of 76. Far from being a limited reaction to coercive conditions of life-plantations, the slave wars were a conscious negotiations of the slaves with the new geographical, political and social settings they found themselves in, trying to carve themselves out a place for a life of dignity and autonomy. Drawing on their martial experiences in their natives land and a geography propitious for guerrilla warfare, the book follows their struggles, aspirations and conflicts the in the broader context of imperial wars, fighting for their desire to build a new life in a new land.
Putting on the forefront of the history of Jamaica figures such as Tacky, Apongo (Wager) and Simon, all rebel leaders, the book re-draw the picture of social and economic dynamics that shaped the the fate of European colonial possessions in the Caribbean, giving due credit to the revolts wars as decisive in shaping the future of the region. The book deserve accolades for its thorough research and fresh take on slave history as well as its contribution in countering stereotypes against African slaves in colonies who, among other things, have been robbed of their place in history.
A wonderful history read, with a great prose. It is totally worth the effort.
Putting on the forefront of the history of Jamaica figures such as Tacky, Apongo (Wager) and Simon, all rebel leaders, the book re-draw the picture of social and economic dynamics that shaped the the fate of European colonial possessions in the Caribbean, giving due credit to the revolts wars as decisive in shaping the future of the region. The book deserve accolades for its thorough research and fresh take on slave history as well as its contribution in countering stereotypes against African slaves in colonies who, among other things, have been robbed of their place in history.
A wonderful history read, with a great prose. It is totally worth the effort.
March 19, 2022
Some fascinating background occasionally undermined by moments of unimaginative phrasing and the scattered, name drop pacing of a school history book. The teasing out of the outlines of slave strategies, and giving shape to how slave political experiences in Africa impacted attempted rebellions, are the strongest parts of the book, as well as establishing the violent culture of the island leadership at the time. By the time the book reaches the rebellions the details becomes dense, then the conclusion drags on forever. Still worthwhile.
August 27, 2020
This is a book which could be a lot better than it is, and the faults of this book are entirely the result of an author is working too hard to impress the reader on how knowledgeable he is about Atlantic history and how woke he is for considering slavery as well as anti-slavery revolts to be warfare. The author's strident left-wing bias makes him a booster for the violent behavior of the various leaders of slave revolts, who thought they had a chance for victory when they in fact did not, a problem that similarly afflicted many indigenous peoples who fought local wars against opponents with massive demographic advantages they simply could not fathom. In reading this book I was struck by the way that the author managed to provide insights into counter-revolutionary techniques almost in spite of himself. In the author's mind, revolutionaries are to be praised even when unsuccessful, for me, it was pleasing to see the success of counter-revolutionary forces in dealing with acts of warfare, and I think it would be useful to see the petty aspects of crime and urban terrorism that go on nowadays as being acts of warfare that can and should be dealt with harshly. The author considers petty civil unrest to be war? Then let us have war.
This book is about 250 pages long and most of it is setup, the actual events themselves being rather short and the main subject of interest to the author the links between slave revolts in Jamaica and the world of the slave trade in Africa. The book begins with a list of illustration and a prologue that discusses the path to Rebel's Barricade, a structure built by slave rebels that found itself named on the map. The author then discusses the development of African realms and their relationship with slave traders, showing that the growth of the slave trade led certain peoples to become much more powerful and others to be overwhelmed as a result (1). After that the author discusses the Jamaica Garrison and the society that developed in Jamaica as a result of the use of slavery for the basis of its economy (2). The author then looks at the Coromantee territory as it developed in Africa as well as Jamaica (3), before finally starting a discussion of the titular subject more than halfway into the book with a look at Tacky's premature revolt (4). This is followed by a discussion of the broader Coromantee War (5) that developed right when Jamaica was supposed to be depleted of its military, as well as a discussion of the effects of the revolt on British imperialism, Jamaica's support of British imperial efforts, and the future of slave revolts in the Caribbean, as well as the loss of Coromantee as a useful description of the slaves that became acculturated to Jamaica over the decades and the blacks in freedom afterwards (6). The book ends with an epilogue about the age of slave war, notes, acknowledgements, and an index.
Despite the fact that the author and I are clearly of directly opposing political worldviews, it is not as if the author's analysis is worthless. For all of his flaws in supporting the violence of subaltern groups and hypocritically decrying the violence that is done to preserve a just law and order (or, when it comes to slavery, an unjust law and order), the author's analysis in connecting together what have appeared to others to be unrelated slave wars with a coordinated effort where the timing was missed, and with the larger Atlantic history of the people involved, is immensely worthwhile. The author also notes, interestingly enough, that the effort of Tacky's Revolt ended up playing a role in the successful slave revolt in Haiti that took place only three to four decades later, putting an obscure slave uprising that may be misnamed into a larger context that involves the divisions among blacks, the contrary desires of whites to preserve their labor force and social distinctions while also securing their own safety and that of their neighbors in a social system whose operation required a great deal of violence to effectively run into a context that is impressive even if its slant is misguided. If the author's overscrupulous concern for subaltern groups leads him astray, his desire to connect things together is interesting even for those readers who disagree with him.
This book is about 250 pages long and most of it is setup, the actual events themselves being rather short and the main subject of interest to the author the links between slave revolts in Jamaica and the world of the slave trade in Africa. The book begins with a list of illustration and a prologue that discusses the path to Rebel's Barricade, a structure built by slave rebels that found itself named on the map. The author then discusses the development of African realms and their relationship with slave traders, showing that the growth of the slave trade led certain peoples to become much more powerful and others to be overwhelmed as a result (1). After that the author discusses the Jamaica Garrison and the society that developed in Jamaica as a result of the use of slavery for the basis of its economy (2). The author then looks at the Coromantee territory as it developed in Africa as well as Jamaica (3), before finally starting a discussion of the titular subject more than halfway into the book with a look at Tacky's premature revolt (4). This is followed by a discussion of the broader Coromantee War (5) that developed right when Jamaica was supposed to be depleted of its military, as well as a discussion of the effects of the revolt on British imperialism, Jamaica's support of British imperial efforts, and the future of slave revolts in the Caribbean, as well as the loss of Coromantee as a useful description of the slaves that became acculturated to Jamaica over the decades and the blacks in freedom afterwards (6). The book ends with an epilogue about the age of slave war, notes, acknowledgements, and an index.
Despite the fact that the author and I are clearly of directly opposing political worldviews, it is not as if the author's analysis is worthless. For all of his flaws in supporting the violence of subaltern groups and hypocritically decrying the violence that is done to preserve a just law and order (or, when it comes to slavery, an unjust law and order), the author's analysis in connecting together what have appeared to others to be unrelated slave wars with a coordinated effort where the timing was missed, and with the larger Atlantic history of the people involved, is immensely worthwhile. The author also notes, interestingly enough, that the effort of Tacky's Revolt ended up playing a role in the successful slave revolt in Haiti that took place only three to four decades later, putting an obscure slave uprising that may be misnamed into a larger context that involves the divisions among blacks, the contrary desires of whites to preserve their labor force and social distinctions while also securing their own safety and that of their neighbors in a social system whose operation required a great deal of violence to effectively run into a context that is impressive even if its slant is misguided. If the author's overscrupulous concern for subaltern groups leads him astray, his desire to connect things together is interesting even for those readers who disagree with him.
February 11, 2022
In Vincent Brown’s Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War, Brown argues that slave revolts must be understood in a broader context rather than as an isolated revolt and the past history and social, political, and geographic context of the enslaved people must be understood in their entirety. Brown opens with centering the Atlantic revolt with African people in West Africa establishing that many of the enslaved people brought with them experience in warfare, politics, and animosities from tribal warfare and society, which they carry as they were stolen and forced to labor in the sugar fields of the Caribbean. The subsequent uprising is informed by the tactical, spiritual, and operational fit of existing African patterns and warring colonial powers fighting for control. Brown, specifically, focusses on one of the largest slave uprisings of the eighteenth century, when a thousand enslaved men and women in Jamaica, led by a man named Tacky, rebelled, causing tens of thousands of pounds of property damage, leaving sixty whites dead, and leading to the deaths of five hundred of those who had participated or were accused of having done so.
During the prologue, Brown establishes Apongo’s ‒ the eventual leader of the largest slave rebellion in the 18th-century British empire ‒ beginning as a military commander in West Africa. Brown writes “The transatlantic slave trade extracted people from a vast region of Atlantic Africa and spread them throughout the Americas. People who had been administrative or military leaders suddenly found themselves uprooted from sustaining landscapes, scattered by currents and trade winds, and replanted in strange territories where they labored” (3). Brown puts into play one of Toussaint's stages which are the moments when decisions are made, intentionally or otherwise, that affect what we come to perceive as history by retrieving and putting into a narrative the Atlantic Revolt much earlier. Brown begins the historical record far earlier than previous historians by connecting Jamaican slave revolts to complex West African warring states and weaves them into a compelling narrative.
In my current history class, “Africa Since 1800” taught by Professor Henry Muoki Mbunga, we are learning about the variation and organization between various ethnic groups (specifically the Fulani pastoralists and the Hausa farmers) within the Sokoto Caliphate in West Africa, which has provided me the beginnings of the context within West Africa during the Transatlantic Trade and further contextualizes the history of West Africa, Brown provides at the beginning of the book. Brown’s exploration of the deep ties between personal connections, sexual exploitation, racial hierarchies, and gendered dynamics leads me to consider historians’ roles in chronicling events given colonizers established racial divides.
How can Brown’s zooming out to broader interconnected areas on the Atlantic slave uprising be applied to other areas? How can we understand conflict within recognized, and localized racial groups? How does Brown establish deeper individual personhood but establish broader African social and political hierarchies?
During the prologue, Brown establishes Apongo’s ‒ the eventual leader of the largest slave rebellion in the 18th-century British empire ‒ beginning as a military commander in West Africa. Brown writes “The transatlantic slave trade extracted people from a vast region of Atlantic Africa and spread them throughout the Americas. People who had been administrative or military leaders suddenly found themselves uprooted from sustaining landscapes, scattered by currents and trade winds, and replanted in strange territories where they labored” (3). Brown puts into play one of Toussaint's stages which are the moments when decisions are made, intentionally or otherwise, that affect what we come to perceive as history by retrieving and putting into a narrative the Atlantic Revolt much earlier. Brown begins the historical record far earlier than previous historians by connecting Jamaican slave revolts to complex West African warring states and weaves them into a compelling narrative.
In my current history class, “Africa Since 1800” taught by Professor Henry Muoki Mbunga, we are learning about the variation and organization between various ethnic groups (specifically the Fulani pastoralists and the Hausa farmers) within the Sokoto Caliphate in West Africa, which has provided me the beginnings of the context within West Africa during the Transatlantic Trade and further contextualizes the history of West Africa, Brown provides at the beginning of the book. Brown’s exploration of the deep ties between personal connections, sexual exploitation, racial hierarchies, and gendered dynamics leads me to consider historians’ roles in chronicling events given colonizers established racial divides.
How can Brown’s zooming out to broader interconnected areas on the Atlantic slave uprising be applied to other areas? How can we understand conflict within recognized, and localized racial groups? How does Brown establish deeper individual personhood but establish broader African social and political hierarchies?
June 13, 2021
I just want to thank Vincent Brown for this absolutely needed historical record and exploration of a period in my island's history that needs to be spoken of more.
Such a wealth of information and dissection of the theatre of war and enslavement and the responses to and repercussions of the revolts that reverberated across the British 'empire'.
There is a certain satisfaction, a fulfilling openness when you read a well-researched, illuminating account that traces a significant part of your island's rich, dark, bloody, and too often colonially-drenched history.
Brown gives us just that with Tacky's Revolt: he delves into just more than the almost year long revolts that saw the destruction and paralysis of the empire's wealth. He details what must have been the slave's strategy, how they communicated, and how in executing, they were able to achieve success or failure.
He traces the emergence of the slave trade, the dominion of the trade routes, battles and skirmishes between the colonial nations, and the role played by powerful kingdoms and tribes of Africa along the Gold and Slave Coasts.
Brown also shows the duplicity of the white man, how their accounts both marveled and undersold the intellect and staunchness of our ancestors, how it took them a while to adapt to the battle stratagem of the slaves, how they had to move towards securing a treaty with the Maroons in order to have a chance at quelling rebellions and catching runaways.
It is important to note that Brown goes beyond just the revolts and uprisings on the island of Jamaica, he also traces the prowess of the enslaved, how they assembled, and the influence of their battle experience that they would have retained from the motherland.
Revolts and rebellions caused rippling effects that affected more than the productivity of plantations: they unsettled white "sensibilities", planted fear, mobilized the army and navy of the colonial settlers, led to emboldening enslaved on other nations, and disrupted shipping and commerce upon which the "empire" depended.
Such a wealth of information and dissection of the theatre of war and enslavement and the responses to and repercussions of the revolts that reverberated across the British 'empire'.
There is a certain satisfaction, a fulfilling openness when you read a well-researched, illuminating account that traces a significant part of your island's rich, dark, bloody, and too often colonially-drenched history.
Brown gives us just that with Tacky's Revolt: he delves into just more than the almost year long revolts that saw the destruction and paralysis of the empire's wealth. He details what must have been the slave's strategy, how they communicated, and how in executing, they were able to achieve success or failure.
He traces the emergence of the slave trade, the dominion of the trade routes, battles and skirmishes between the colonial nations, and the role played by powerful kingdoms and tribes of Africa along the Gold and Slave Coasts.
Brown also shows the duplicity of the white man, how their accounts both marveled and undersold the intellect and staunchness of our ancestors, how it took them a while to adapt to the battle stratagem of the slaves, how they had to move towards securing a treaty with the Maroons in order to have a chance at quelling rebellions and catching runaways.
It is important to note that Brown goes beyond just the revolts and uprisings on the island of Jamaica, he also traces the prowess of the enslaved, how they assembled, and the influence of their battle experience that they would have retained from the motherland.
Revolts and rebellions caused rippling effects that affected more than the productivity of plantations: they unsettled white "sensibilities", planted fear, mobilized the army and navy of the colonial settlers, led to emboldening enslaved on other nations, and disrupted shipping and commerce upon which the "empire" depended.
February 21, 2021
While I do appreciate Vincent Brown framing the Atlantic Slave revolts/wars into the wider Atlantic System, I find his writing style unnecessary complex, filed with buzzwords fit for impressing others in a university setting but that have the effect of interfering with an otherwise compelling message.
This is just one example of how the book reads- "Such struggles over belonging and affiliation marked territory and its shifting contours. Rather than allowing imperial or national boundaries to define their spatial imaginations, subject peoples indexed their own groupings in various ways, creating distinct, intersecting, and rival geographies" Really?? There is not a more simplistic way to make his point? This is how the book reads, and it is unfortunate as I like the broader global context that the author places Tacky's revolt, but it seems he is trying to impress with writing style that. Unfortunate, to create such a plodding work as the thesis and message are compelling.
I enjoyed the connection between European wars and hostility, England's grown hegemony of a waring state protecting economic sea lanes, the impact that has on intensifying war and waring states in West Africa that contribute to the enslavement of Africans sent to the Caribbean, and the nuanced and layered motivations and complexities of enslaved peoples in the Caribbean and Jamaica in particular.
This is just one example of how the book reads- "Such struggles over belonging and affiliation marked territory and its shifting contours. Rather than allowing imperial or national boundaries to define their spatial imaginations, subject peoples indexed their own groupings in various ways, creating distinct, intersecting, and rival geographies" Really?? There is not a more simplistic way to make his point? This is how the book reads, and it is unfortunate as I like the broader global context that the author places Tacky's revolt, but it seems he is trying to impress with writing style that. Unfortunate, to create such a plodding work as the thesis and message are compelling.
I enjoyed the connection between European wars and hostility, England's grown hegemony of a waring state protecting economic sea lanes, the impact that has on intensifying war and waring states in West Africa that contribute to the enslavement of Africans sent to the Caribbean, and the nuanced and layered motivations and complexities of enslaved peoples in the Caribbean and Jamaica in particular.
April 7, 2021
Fantastic. Completely changed the way I think about slave rebellions. Brown's argument is that uprisings in Jamaica and other parts of the Americas were not just a natural resistance to enslavement, but also a continuation of conflicts between West Africans and Europeans in West Africa, and of conflicts within and between West Africans (in Africa and in the Americans). In fact, the slave uprisings were closer to guerrilla warfare campaigns, coordinated by experienced military leaders. The British soothed themselves by framing revolts as isolated incidents in response to particular conditions on particular plantations, but the Jamaican uprisings in the mid-18th century were part of a broader pattern of transatlantic warfare.
August 21, 2023
A meticulously researched volume utilizing archival research done in Britain, Jamaica, and Germany, Brown has written a comprehensive account of the slave uprisings and rebellious events of 1760 collectively known as Tacky’s Revolt.
In many ways, this volume is for advanced students of Caribbean, Atlantic as well as African history. Brown copiously describes the African societies and states where the enslaved came from. He also describes the internecine conflicts and wars between the various African states and how that influenced the enslaved Africans who were brought to the Americas.
This volume is also important in that it highlights the connections between slavery in the richest British colony of Jamaica and its connections to British society. Some of the British colonists who came to Jamaica grew very wealthy from the slave trade and the sugar trade and in turn bought British country estates and seats in parliament. This shows the connection between the British Empire and its main Caribbean colony.
Finally, some of the merits of this volume are the primary source illustrations and maps depicting in detail the various slave rebellions of 1760. Brown concludes with the possible effects of the Jamaican slave rebellions on the Haitian Revolution, the first successful slave uprising or rebellion in the Americas and Western hemisphere.
In many ways, this volume is for advanced students of Caribbean, Atlantic as well as African history. Brown copiously describes the African societies and states where the enslaved came from. He also describes the internecine conflicts and wars between the various African states and how that influenced the enslaved Africans who were brought to the Americas.
This volume is also important in that it highlights the connections between slavery in the richest British colony of Jamaica and its connections to British society. Some of the British colonists who came to Jamaica grew very wealthy from the slave trade and the sugar trade and in turn bought British country estates and seats in parliament. This shows the connection between the British Empire and its main Caribbean colony.
Finally, some of the merits of this volume are the primary source illustrations and maps depicting in detail the various slave rebellions of 1760. Brown concludes with the possible effects of the Jamaican slave rebellions on the Haitian Revolution, the first successful slave uprising or rebellion in the Americas and Western hemisphere.
September 18, 2023
The overused and often overwrought cliché that "history is written by the victors" should perhaps be reconfigured to the more accurate (at least for this book) "history is erased by the victors".
Brown does as well of a job as can be expected trying to tell the story of several connected rebellions through the perspective (or at least with the perspective in mind) of the rebels. It bounces back and forth from success to failure throughout the book, mostly due to the dearth of primary material to draw from for this effort.
Source material is slim, but with the miracle of post-modern philosophy and the advent of sociology, an extra 100 or more pages are able to be created with presumptive social analysis and assumptions of participant thoughts, motivations, and social interactions/relationships.
Tacky, Apongo, etc don't really come to life since there is little to go on, but Brown makes a convincing case of these slave rebellions as ongoing wars interplaying and interconnected with each other simultaneous with wars between colonial powers where peace is the exception rather than the rule.
After going a little crazy spending money on book sales over the last four years, I've bunched up some categories and am going to chunk some of my reading in/adjacent to history. Up until now it's been rather haphazardly based on 10:30pm whims. This bunch should last until next July or so and I'm mapped out to 2031.
WTR-622
Brown does as well of a job as can be expected trying to tell the story of several connected rebellions through the perspective (or at least with the perspective in mind) of the rebels. It bounces back and forth from success to failure throughout the book, mostly due to the dearth of primary material to draw from for this effort.
Source material is slim, but with the miracle of post-modern philosophy and the advent of sociology, an extra 100 or more pages are able to be created with presumptive social analysis and assumptions of participant thoughts, motivations, and social interactions/relationships.
Tacky, Apongo, etc don't really come to life since there is little to go on, but Brown makes a convincing case of these slave rebellions as ongoing wars interplaying and interconnected with each other simultaneous with wars between colonial powers where peace is the exception rather than the rule.
After going a little crazy spending money on book sales over the last four years, I've bunched up some categories and am going to chunk some of my reading in/adjacent to history. Up until now it's been rather haphazardly based on 10:30pm whims. This bunch should last until next July or so and I'm mapped out to 2031.
WTR-622
April 1, 2022
The two-star rating is actually a rating of my knowledge of 17th century Anglo-Dutch warfare and the coastal geography of Jamaica. And to be honest, I really only deserve 1 star.
I had to read his metaphors twice so 2 stars for me there too.
"Mapping the movements of profiteers, warlords, workers, refugees, and ordinary fighters exposes the shape of a martial archipelago made up of peaks bearing witness to the great volcanic forces of world history operating below. "
But like I said, its not him, it's me. He is a Harvard Professor and seasoned author and I'm just someone who had to drop the one history class they took at Providence College because the Napoleonic Wars were like 55 battles too many.
I had to read his metaphors twice so 2 stars for me there too.
"Mapping the movements of profiteers, warlords, workers, refugees, and ordinary fighters exposes the shape of a martial archipelago made up of peaks bearing witness to the great volcanic forces of world history operating below. "
But like I said, its not him, it's me. He is a Harvard Professor and seasoned author and I'm just someone who had to drop the one history class they took at Providence College because the Napoleonic Wars were like 55 battles too many.
October 16, 2025
Very well written and researched. I’m impressed how well Brown is able to weave African history into his narrative, an aspect of slavery in the New World that was neglected until relatively recently in the historiography it seems.
It is as always interesting to see how race intersects class for people at certain places and times. I think it’s notable that some whites were spared while turncoat black people were often murdered.
And the role of the state in forcing planters to regulate slave life to prevent future uprisings is interesting as well. Obviously it takes effort to regulate people, money planters would likely prefer to spend elsewhere.
And the possible ties of Boukman to Jamaica further shows how every revolution of the modern era is tied to its predecessors.
It is as always interesting to see how race intersects class for people at certain places and times. I think it’s notable that some whites were spared while turncoat black people were often murdered.
And the role of the state in forcing planters to regulate slave life to prevent future uprisings is interesting as well. Obviously it takes effort to regulate people, money planters would likely prefer to spend elsewhere.
And the possible ties of Boukman to Jamaica further shows how every revolution of the modern era is tied to its predecessors.
March 8, 2022
read this for a seminar on race, revolutions, and counter-revolutions; I'm not much of a history buff but found this book to be quite accessibly written and appreciated the depth + complexity with which the author treated the subject matter. I definitely came away with a better understanding of how diverse the coalitions involved in uprisings of enslaved people were & the way these events had global & international significance. hard to keep track of names + dates + places 😵💫 and also, the book mentions about "geographies of community and belonging" several times but doesn't really delve into what that means, instead it reads more like a military history
December 21, 2022
Just so much bloodshed.
The author acknowledges we don't know about the motivations/organization/military actions of the slave/revolutionaries because they were all brutally tortured/killed/exported and no one really cared. There's plenty of shade thrown at earlier historians for their assumptions and perceptions about revolt and causes/extent of the slave-led revolutionary actions and pretty much justifying the slave owners barbarity with stories of barbarity on the revolutionaries' side. Nice little epilogue comparing these slave-led revolutions with the later creole or white-led revolutions in the Americas.
The author acknowledges we don't know about the motivations/organization/military actions of the slave/revolutionaries because they were all brutally tortured/killed/exported and no one really cared. There's plenty of shade thrown at earlier historians for their assumptions and perceptions about revolt and causes/extent of the slave-led revolutionary actions and pretty much justifying the slave owners barbarity with stories of barbarity on the revolutionaries' side. Nice little epilogue comparing these slave-led revolutions with the later creole or white-led revolutions in the Americas.
December 13, 2025
I’m giving this book 3 stars even though my experience of reading it was more like 1.5– but I want to give it the benefit of the doubt that the problem is me not the book. It was an incredibly dry and exhausting read, which it really didn’t have to be given the high drama of it’s subject matter.
At any rate, it’s probably more that I’ve grown allergic and impatient with “academic” writing as I’ve gotten older and further away from my own education. The tortured, convoluted sentence structure and organization so common to the writing of academics just makes me want to slam books down and scold the author that teaching is about communication!
At any rate, it’s probably more that I’ve grown allergic and impatient with “academic” writing as I’ve gotten older and further away from my own education. The tortured, convoluted sentence structure and organization so common to the writing of academics just makes me want to slam books down and scold the author that teaching is about communication!
December 4, 2020
Amazing book. Accessibly written, provides a healthy context and gets straight to the point: Tacky's Revolt was simply one of many battles against slavery in the West Indies, and this war on slavery demands our closer attention in the greater scheme of history of liberation struggles. Recommended reading for any abolitionist, anti-racist, as well as anyone interested in the history of slavery and the West Indies. With a slight focus on the military genius of the enslaved rebels, this also deserves a spot on the bookshelves of insurgency and guerilla warfare.
February 2, 2023
An exhaustively researched and well written account of some of the lesser known struggles in colonial history. The author makes a real effort to get into the minds of all the parties involved, even though some of them have left little in the way of reliable testimony, and others are really the sort you wouldn't want anywhere near your mental space. He tries a tiny bit too hard to be on the side of the angels on a few occasions, but the grim tale is told far more impartially than one has any right to expect. It is a major contribution in both presentation and content, and should be on the shelves and reading lists of every high school, though I understand there is some difficulty with that at present.....
October 10, 2022
This book took awhile to read because of how in-depth it went into the slave rebellions of the 1700s in Jamaica. It includes not only tacky but the entirety of the war between enslaved Africans and the state. It also spends a tremendous amount of time outlining the movements and actions of the army in Jamaica. If you want to learn about the rebellion at that time I would recommend the book. However if you want to learn about Tacky as a rebel leader, then this book misses the mark.
October 1, 2020
Powerful and fascinating it its detail and minutiae. I particularly enjoyed the author's attempts to personalize the events through the sparse, remaining, first-hand narratives. The tone is academic, though, which gets dry at times.
January 8, 2023
Very interesting, although sometimes a little academic-speakish. If, like me, what you know about Jamaica is Bob Marley, reggae, rasta, Belafonte, calypso, this book reveals the history and tragedy of Jamaica as the center of empire in the Americas. Makes you think.
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