‘Takyi’s revolt was a complex, multi-faceted event’

Verne Shepherd (VS) in conversation with Maria Alessandra Bollettino (MB) giving insights on Takyi’s revolt

VS: Some years ago, as I was preparing to deliver the Chief Takyi Lecture I came across your PhD Thesis on the 1760 War in Jamaica led by this Fante from Ghana. Up to then, the work with which I was familiar came from Prof. Vincent Brown. How and why did you become interested in this aspect of Jamaican history – in fact in Jamaican history at all?

MB: In graduate school, I facilitated a discussion with undergraduates on a book that analysed the momentous impact of the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) on the indigenous and colonial inhabitants of mainland North America. I wondered what this global imperial conflict, which pitted Britain against France and Spain in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia, meant for African-descended people in Britain’s American colonies, and learned that little had been written on the subject.

The majority of Africans who the British trafficked in the 18th century disembarked in the West Indies, so the islands, including Jamaica, became the centre of my study. My reading of military and political records as well as published pamphlets and newspapers revealed that contemporaries understood Takyi’s Revolt to be battle of the Seven Years’ War and that in this battle, as they had in Britain’s conquests of Guadeloupe in 1760 and Havana in 1762, African-descended men had been combatants on each of the opposing sides.

VS: What is your main thesis in that work?

MB: Takyi’s revolt solidified Jamaica’s reliance upon soldiers of African descent for its defence, but contrary to the way military service worked to expand the civil and political rights of black veterans in later periods, the centrality of African-descended men to Jamaica’s security in the mid-18th century led to colonial efforts to limit the movement and religious practices of enslaved and the wealth and independence of free Black Jamaicans.

VS: Having read other work on that war, how does your work differ from the work of others?

MB: Most define Takyi’s revolt as a unified, ethnic rebellion, but my concern with how the larger context of global imperial war shaped the uprising leads me to question whether Jamaica experienced a single insurrection in 1760-61 or instead a series of rebellions as diverse groups of enslaved people took advantage of the dispersal of the island’s defensive forces and the panic of enslavers to rebel. While most scholars have focused solely on the enslaved insurgents, I am equally as interested in those enslaved and free people of African descent who took advantage of the unrest and the island’s need for soldiers to wield violence on behalf of the colonial order.

VS: Your main findings?

MB: While some individual enslaved and free people benefited from their alliance with the colonial order, on the whole they did not receive just compensation for their martial efforts. Colonial officials determined that arming enslaved people was too expensive and the Maroons were too independent to be fully trusted. In the wake of Takyi’s revolt, they passed laws restricting the rights of free Black Jamaicans in part so they might be compelled to serve as a tractable security force for the island.

VS: The most worrying aspect for me is the section on the ways in which some Africans fought on the side of Britain to suppress the war; and some benefited financially and by way of other privileges. How do you make sense of this reality of colonial wars?

MB: Many enslaved people had no choice but to aid in the suppression of the revolt; they were forcibly compelled to do all manner of labour in Jamaica, and this included military labour. Free people of African descent and those enslaved people who were in a position to exercise some modicum of agency may not have recognized an affinity or solidarity with the rebels. In the mid-eighteenth century, race had yet to solidify as a foundation of identity and community and those African-descended people who inhabited the island embraced a wide array of kinship, ethnic, religious, and political affiliations. Those in a position to choose to ally with the colonial order may have done so because they embraced different loyalties than those of the insurgents.

VS: What eventually happened to Takyi and those who fought with him?

MB: The insurgents at first confronted the colonial order in large-scale battles and then dispersed into smaller units that skirmished with counter-insurgents in the island’s hinterlands. Over the course of eighteen months, the rebels were hunted down. Some chose to commit suicide rather than return to bondage. Some negotiated a surrender and were re-enslaved. Some were captured and were subjected to torture and execution or banishment from the island. In the end, 500 insurgents were killed in battle, executed, or pushed to take their own lives and 500 were exiled from Jamaica.

VS: There is a movement to make Chief Takyi a national hero in Jamaica. Based on your work what evidence from the war should be used to press for this?

MB: Takyi’s revolt was a complex, multi-faceted event initiated by a range of courageous individuals, but in many instances, we acclaim a single figure to commemorate a movement. Takyi resisted his enslavement and inspired others to do the same and deserves to be lauded for his valour. His name appears in several extant records and Edward Long recognized him in his 1774 History of Jamaica as a chief instigator of what Long believed to be a pre-concerted, island-wide insurrection. Other records make clear that insurgent leaders such as Wager (Apongo) and Simon played vital roles after Takyi’s death (which occurred only a week after the outbreak of the eighteenth-month-long uprising). They, and enslaved people who asserted their autonomy, dignity, and humanity in quieter ways in the face of the unspeakable brutality and exploitation of slavery, merit our recognition as well.

VS: What role should this war play in the grand drama of decolonial history?

MB: Takyi’s revolt attests to the resistance, both small- and large-scale, that enslaved people waged against their enslavers. Published accounts of the brutal suppression of the insurgency led some Britons to question the legitimacy of slavery as an institution. Those enslaved and free African-descended people who aided the colonial order demanded acknowledgement, just compensation, and an amelioration of their status for their efforts. Though they were unsuccessful in the 1760s, they laid the groundwork for their brethren to do so more successfully in the Revolutionary Era.

VS: What else would you like to share with us about your work on Atlantic World History?

MB: Enslaved and free people of African descent were essential not only to the prosperity, but also the security of Britain’s 18th century Caribbean colonies. And yet, they did not during their lives, or indeed after their deaths, receive fair recompense for their martial efforts. Reparations may be demanded not only for past harms, but also for uncompensated labour – including military labour performed on behalf of the British Empire and its colonies. It is my hope that my work will bring this to the attention of the public.

Send feedback to reparation.research@uwimona.edu.jm.