• Jamaica, the Seven Years’ War, and Transatlantic Slave Resistance
• Charles F. Walker (bio)

In 1760 and 1761, slaves rose up in Jamaica, killing dozens of people, burning estates, and raising questions about the durability of English domination and the institution of slavery on the island. Petrified slaveowners and their dependents feared for their lives and for the demise of the brutal system that enriched them. Vincent Brown has written an extraordinary history of what came to known as “Tacky’s Rebellion,” providing a fine-grained account of the conflict, with special attention to geography. But his contributions move far beyond an insightful analysis of the rebellion itself. Brown also establishes a new cartography of slave resistance, revealing the connections between this and other uprisings across the Americas and the Caribbean and their deep roots in Africa. Tacky’s Revolt is a tour-de-force that excels on all fronts and offers numerous new lines of inquiry for historians of slavery.

The uprising began when slaves, most of them West African or “Coramantees,” plundered sugar plantations in the eastern part of the island. They moved quickly, recruiting allies and seizing weapons and food. Many of the rebels, including the leader of the first stage of the rebellion, Tacky, had military experience in Africa. English colonial forces employed militias, maroons, and the Army and Navy to counter them. Within a week, a maroon marksman, Lieutenant Davy, had killed Tacky; authorities displayed his head in Spanish Town. Tensions smoldered, however, and in May the uprising resurrected in the west of the island. Slaves took advantage of the dense Hanover Mountains and other forests, descending to ransack estates and then to retreat and regroup, employing classic guerrilla tactics. The war lasted for over a year. At some point in late July or August 1761, militia forces executed rebel leader Wager, also called Apongo. They also killed thousands of rebels. Surrounded, many insurgents took their own lives. The rebellion, at least its first stage, was over.

The violence unnerved slaveowners, who understand the fragility of their system of domination in a Caribbean island where slaves constituted the [End Page 29] majority of the population. Immersed in the Seven Years’ War, the English took measures to prevent further unrest, tightening social control in plantations and urban centers and restricting all Blacks’ mobility. In addition, they asserted greater control of the management or governance of the island. Jamaica’s elite by and large accepted the new arrangement, considering it a necessary concession for the security it offered and going so far as to express their gratitude to King George. Similar measures would prompt quite different reactions in England’s North American possessions.

Historians have long understood Tacky’s Revolt as a major slave uprising. They recognize its intensity and ferocity, its impact across Jamaica and beyond. Many have seen it as one more battleground of the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), a curious side-note to the global struggle between England and France. Brown provides a vivid account, akin to war corresponce, of the guerrilla warfare: the ambushes, counterattacks, and incessant pursuit for supplies and allies.

Yet, this book is much more than microhistory. Brown also reveals how the uprising formed part of a transatlantic world of slave resistance that stretched across the Americas and the Caribbean. The author proposes that four confrontations overlapped and shaped the bloody struggles over slavery in the Atlantic World: wars in Africa where Europeans’ search for slaves collided with and redirected prior conflicts and alignments; the incessant conflict between slaves and slaveholders; disputes among Black populations; and the Seven Years’ War itself. In order to understand the convergence of these conflagrations and tensions in mid eighteenth-century Jamaica, Brown’s analysis encompasses Africa, the Atlantic slave world, Jamaica and the Caribbean, the 1760–61 rebellion itself, and its legacy. That kind of geographic and analytical scope is a tall order, but Brown achieves his objective of plotting out the transatlantic nature of slave revolts, while also presenting a masterful...

• 牙买加，七年战争和跨大西洋奴隶抵抗
• 查尔斯·沃克（生物）

在1760年和1761年，奴隶在牙买加崛起，杀死了数十人，烧毁了房屋，并引发了关于英国统治的持久性和岛上奴隶制度的质疑。石化的奴隶主及其家属担心自己的生命以及使他们丰富的残酷制度的消亡。文森特·布朗（Vincent Brown）写下了一段不寻常的历史，后来被称为“塔基的叛乱”，他对冲突进行了详尽的描述，并特别关注了地理因素。但是他的贡献远远超出了对叛乱本身的深刻分析。布朗还建立了奴隶抵抗的新制图，揭示了这场暴动与美洲和加勒比地区其他起义之间的联系，以及它们在非洲的深厚根源。塔基的反抗是一支在各个方面都出类拔萃的巡回部队，为奴隶制历史学家提供了许多新的询问途径。

起义始于奴隶，其中大多数是西非或“ Coramantees”，在该岛东部掠夺了糖园。他们迅速行动，招募盟友并缴获武器和食物。许多叛乱分子，包括叛乱第一阶段的领导人塔基，在非洲都有军事经验。英国殖民军使用民兵，栗色以及陆军和海军来对付它们。不到一周的时间，一个栗色的射手戴维中尉杀死了塔基。当局在西班牙小镇展示了他的头。然而，紧张局势更加阴霾笼罩，5月，该起义在该岛以西复活了。奴隶们利用密集的汉诺威山脉和其他森林，利用经典的游击战术，降落到草皮庄园，然后撤退并重新集结。战争持续了一年多。1761年7月下旬或8月某个时候，民兵处决了叛乱领袖瓦格（Wager），也称为阿蓬戈（Apongo）。他们还杀死了数千名叛乱分子。在周围，许多叛乱分子自杀了。叛乱至少在第一阶段就结束了。

暴力事件使奴隶主感到不安，他们知道他们在加勒比岛屿上的统治体系脆弱，而加勒比岛屿上的奴隶占人口的大多数[第29页]。沉浸在七年战争中的英国人采取了各种措施，以防止进一步的动乱，加强对种植园和城市中心的社会控制，并限制所有黑人的行动能力。此外，他们声称对岛屿的管理或治理有更大的控制权。牙买加的精英们普遍接受了这一新安排，认为这是对其提供的安全的必要让步，甚至对乔治国王表示感谢。类似的措施将对英格兰的北美财产引发截然不同的反应。

历史学家长期以来一直将塔基的起义理解为主要的奴隶起义。他们认识到它的强度和凶猛性，以及它对牙买加及其以外地区的影响。许多人将其视为七年战争（1756-63）的又一个战场，这是英格兰和法国之间全球斗争的一个有趣的旁注。布朗提供了类似于游击战的生动描述：游击战：伏击，反击以及对物资和盟友的不懈追求。

然而，这本书不仅仅是微观历史。布朗还揭示了起义如何构成横跨美洲和加勒比海的跨大西洋奴隶抵抗世界的一部分。作者提出，四个对抗重叠并形成了大西洋世界关于奴隶制的血腥斗争：非洲战争，欧洲人寻找奴隶的事件与先前的冲突和结盟相撞并重新定向；奴隶与奴隶主之间不断的冲突；黑人人口之间的纠纷；和七年战争本身。为了理解18世纪中期牙买加这些大火和紧张局势的融合，布朗的分析涵盖了非洲，大西洋奴隶世界，牙买加和加勒比海，1760-61年叛乱本身及其遗产。这种地理和分析范围是一个很高的要求，