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The Coromantee Wars of 1760 in Jamaica

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The Coromantee Wars of 1760 in Jamaica The Coromantee Wars of 1760 in Jamaica Contents • The short story • Wealth and the triangular trade • Africa • Jamaica in 1760 • The Coromantees • 1760 wars • Aftermath Introduction These notes were created as input to a presentation for Stand Up To Racism Dorset following the campaign around the racist plaque in St Peter’s Church, Dorchester. They are also intended as input to further work locally around the 1760 uprisings in Jamaica. My main source is Tacky’s Revolt by Vincent Brown, Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Harvard University Press, 2020. Also his presentation to the Museum of the American Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G74WDexeevU His interactive map is a comprehensive story of the history and geography of the wars: Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760-1761 A Cartographic Narrative http://revolt.axismaps.com/ Brown uses contemporary books by Edward Long and (near contemporary) Bryan Edwards. The short story The plaque is in St Peter’s church, Dorchester. It’s quite prominent on the north wall, straight opposite you when going in the usual entrance. Concern about the plaque is years old, but it was The Coromantee Wars of 1760 David Rhodes 1 brought into focus by the Black Lives Matter movement in May 2020. A campaign of letters and features in the media led to the Parochial Church Council deciding that the plaque would be covered, pending its removal. It will be offered to a museum. The Council agreed to this action without opposition – we were really pushing against an open door, but a door that may not have been pushed open without us. The plaque – before and after – is above. Here’s the short story: In 1760 Jamaica was the wealthiest colony in the British Empire, on the basis of slave based sugar plantations. In revolt against slavery, many enslaved people rose up. The revolt, led by a man called Tacky, was put down and the leaders were punished with great brutality. This shows the desperation of enslaved people, their fight for freedom, and the evil of slavery. That’s a kind of morality tale, and is true, of course. It was the story used in the campaign to remove the plaque. But there is a lot more to say if we want to understand the events, including some of the ambiguities. Wealth and the Triangular Trade Just a reminder, as I think most people are aware of the basics of the Atlantic Triangular Trade, that most European countries bordering the Atlantic were involved in. By the 18th Century, Britain had become the major force. Over three centuries, 12 million Africans were transported to the Americas. In 1627 Barbados was occupied by the English, followed by the development of large scale sugar plantations. In 1672 the Royal African Company was founded to maintain the supply of slaves. Imperial rivalry for slave trade led to skirmishes, piracy and war. Britain (and other nations) maintained forts on coast of West Africa – originally for gold but by the 18th century slaves were by far the primary commodity. Sugar The main export from Jamaica was sugar – and it made it the wealthiest colony in the Empire – though not as wealthy as the French colony of St Domingue. A plant from Asia, sugar cane started to be cultivated in Barbados in the 1640s using indentured labour from British Isles (convicts and prisoners) – but then moved to slave labour. The Coromantee Wars of 1760 David Rhodes 2 The whole process of sugar, molasses and rum production was done on the plantation. Plantations were industrial enterprises as well as farms. This is because the cane has to be processed very soon after harvesting, otherwise the sugar can’t be extracted. These pictures show the good side, trying to show people back in Britain that things weren’t too bad. Jobs: Cane-holing in autumn. Mark out squares 1.5 metres square, and dig out to a depth 25 cm. Canes were planted in the holes surrounded by loads of animal manure. Continual weeding and rat- catching. Harvest in spring. Cut down and cut off the leaves. Plants grow up to 2 metres, and are cut by billhooks. Transport to mill and boiling house – running 24 hours a day. Crush canes through wind-powered rollers (dangerous work). Boil and skim (skilled job). Molasses are used for making rum in the spirit house, or left to form semi-refined sugar. It’s hard and dangerous work, one big planter (Edward Littleton) expected all slaves to die in 19 years. Some research puts life expectancy of slaves in the fields at 7 years. So the planters needed a continuous supply. From 1748 to 1788 (40 years around 1760), 1,200 ships brought 335,000 enslaved Africans to Jamaica. Africa The story starts in Africa, but includes Empire and the conditions in the Americas. As war on the Gold Coast fed the slave trade, it shaped territories and alliances that informed the patterns of slave revolt in the Americas. Both for the subjects and foot soldiers of African states and for the many people living in the interstices of empire, West African warfare was a consequential historical experience. The seeds of insurrection surely germinated in Africa, but they sprouted in the fertile soil of American slavery’s brutal violence. And they flowered in the light of imperial warfare, as Britain vied with France and Spain for supremacy in the North Atlantic and Jamaica’s imperial managers struggled to maintain the security of a society dependent on the importation of wretched and hostile workers by the thousands. Brown, p85 The Coromantee Wars of 1760 David Rhodes 3 The summary by Brown, above, is worth reading a couple of times. Interstices = gaps, cracks (I had to look that up!). In order to understand the 1760 wars (further than the morality tale mentioned above), we must at least look at the African roots, the context of empire (especially the 7 year wars between Britain and France and Spain for global imperial domination), and the nature of society in Jamaica. Not room to do all that here though. Where to start the story? This image was extensively used in the abolition movement, showing a supplicant black man in bondage appealing to our humanity and reliant on our help. This, in modern language, is the white saviour view of things. Brown is insistent about starting the story in Africa, and we should be too. This is more or less the opening of the book: Beginning the story of American slave revolt with West Africa’s entanglement with European empire allows a shift in perspective, taking in the wider geography that shaped the course of the insurgency and the political imagination of its participants. Starting with the image of slaves in Jamaica, or elsewhere in the Americas, encourages us to fixate on their suffering black bodies and see only their reactions to bondage. By contrast, recalling their roots in West Africa reminds us to consider their goals, initiatives, and manoeuvres. Slaveholders cited black militancy as a justification for their brutality. In response, eighteenth century abolitionists would rally around the image of a kneeling supplicant begging to be recognised as a man and a brother, as if the condemnation of evil required the meek innocence of its victims. That icon of abjection has shaped the prevailing understanding of bondage and race to this day. But the caricature bore no resemblance to the black fighters who stood toe-to- toe with whites in encounters all across the war-torn world of Atlantic slavery, from West Africa to the Americas. Brown, pp17-18 The map shows the area of West Africa that was the home of most of the 1760 fighters. The Gold Coast runs from Abidjan to River Volta. Part of Ivory Coast, and Ghana. The Slave Coast is the Bight of Benin –Togo, Benin and part of Nigeria. Together 400 miles of coast. The Coromantee Wars of 1760 David Rhodes 4 The whole of West Africa was affected by the slave trade, but the Gold Coast and Slave Coast were prime places for the British in 18th century. Forts, and towns around them, were built all along the coast to facilitate trade. Centralised states (with aristocratic elites) such as Oyo, Dahomey, and Asante became involved heavily in trade in slaves, and valued firearms as way of increasing their power over other states, overwhelming less militarised areas and reaching further inland. The area was becoming increasingly militarised and in continual condition of war in 18th century. Dahomey became prominent in the Slave Coast area. In the Gold Coast (Ivory Coast and Ghana) were a number of states of the Akan people, described by academics as a ‘meta-ethnicity’ – a group of ethnicities with significant commonality, who identify with each other. The Asante emerged as a regional superpower in the mid 18th century. The Akan wars contributed 375,000 slaves to the transatlantic trade. War captives were the biggest source of slaves. This meant that people of all social statuses could end up as slaves (unless a ransom could be paid by the richest). Asante society was itself a sort of slave society – it included a bottom class of unfree people with some traditional rights, but these could easily end up being traded to Europeans as slaves. Life was precarious, as shown by what is known of the life of Tacky, the leader of the first 1760 war. He was part of an elite, and traded in slaves with the British, until military defeat resulted in his being sold as a slave. So, the area is characterised by militarised hierarchical states, a culture of militarism, and a lot of people in armies.
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