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."

In 1739, Charles Leslie wrote that, "No Country excels [Jamaica] in a barbarous Treatment of Slaves, or in the cruel Methods they put them to Death.

"[2][3] Tacky (leader of the rebellion) was originally from the Fante ethnic group in West Africa and had been a paramount chief in Eguaafo (in the Central region of present-day Ghana) before being taken captive by the Dutch.

[6] Also according to Jones, Tacky was discovered in a cave a year before the rebellion took place, planning with his comrades: Quaw Badu, Sang, Sobadou, Fula Jati and Quantee.

[7] Some time before daybreak on Easter Monday, 7 April 1760, Tacky and his followers who all had extensive military training began the revolt and easily took over the Frontier and Trinity plantations, killing some of the white overseers who worked there.

After killing the storekeeper, Tacky and his men commandeered nearly 4 barrels of gunpowder and 40 firearms with shot, before marching on to overrun the plantations at Heywood Hall and Esher.

[4] Obeahmen (Caribbean "witch doctors") quickly circulated around the camp dispensing a powder that they claimed would protect the men from injury in battle and loudly proclaimed that an Obeahman could not be killed.

[4][6][12] On 9 April, Lieutenant Governor Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet dispatched a detachment of the 74th regiment, comprising between 70 and 80 mounted militia from Spanish Town to Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica.

One of Apongo's lieutenants, Simon, fired the shot that killed Masemure's managing attorney, John Smith, and that signalled the start of the western movement.

After the assault on the "Rebel's Barricade", the attackers found over 70 hogsheads of gunpowder, and mahogany chests full of clothes, ruffled shirts, laced hats, shoes, stockings and cravats, among the basic necessities.

[28] However, despite this overwhelming victory, British forces had difficulty making headway against the guerrilla warfare now being employed by smaller groups of Apongo's soldiers.

Under Maroon captains Furry of Trelawny Town and Accompong's Quashee, they killed more than a dozen rebels, and captured another 60, whom they brought to the estate of Moreland on 6 June.

[30] On 10 June, on the outskirts of the estate of Mesopotamia, owned by Joseph Foster Barham I, a detachment of British regulars and militia defeated a band of rebels, killing about 40 and capturing another 50.

Thistlewood noted the stench of death emanating from nearby woods, where colonists also reported encountering hanging bodies of African men, women and children.

[34] The remaining rebels then fell under the leadership of a self-liberated slave named Simon, which took refuge in the Cockpit Country at a place called High Windward, from which they mounted a number of attacks on nearby plantations in Saint Elizabeth Parish.

[36] It was reported that Simon's rebels numbered about 50 armed men and women, and that their goal was to secure recognition for their freedom, similar to the status accorded to the Maroons of Trelawny Town.

However, some remaining self-liberated Africans scattered in small bands continued operating from the forested interior of the Cockpit Country, and they conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare for the rest of the decade, staging raids on plantations within their reach.

[7][40] In 1763, bands of self-liberated Africans thought to have been members of Simon's rebels attacked plantations in Westmoreland and Hanover, killing several white colonists.

This attack was brought to the attention of the new governor, William Henry Lyttelton, who aborted a tour to deal with the crisis, with the help of the Maroons of Trelawny Town.

A similar planned liberation movement ("revolt") in Lluidas Calley in Saint John was also betrayed, this time by three loyal enslaved Africans who were involved.

The conspiracy at Cocoa Walk Plantation at Saint Dorothy was revealed, and in July, four of the organizers involved were executed, while another six were re-sold into slavery in a neighbouring Spanish colony.

"[46] Whilst at sea, she bribed the captain of the ship to put her ashore in western Jamaica where she joined the leeward Coromantins and remained at large for months; on being recaptured, she was executed.

Over 60 white colonists had lost their lives, and a similar number of free people of colour, in addition to 400 or so African rebels, including two leaders who were burned alive, and two others who were hung in iron cages at the Kingston Parade until they starved to death.

[50] According to Thomas Thistlewood, an enslaver (known for his invention of his own form of torture, brutality & serial rape in western Jamaica who kept a diary, Apongo was a "prince in Guinea", who paid homage to the King of Dahomey.

Vincent Brown argues that Apongo may have been a war chief of Dahomey, or a coastal headman with a troubled relationship with British traders.

[51] The organized liberation movements ("rebellions") of Tacky and Apongo continued to inspire uprisings during the decade of the 1760s, with the authorities in Spanish Town discovering another conspiracy in 1764.

[4] Tacky's Rebellion was, like many other Atlantic-African organized liberation movements ("slave revolts"), put down quickly and mercilessly by colonial officials.

It is possible that they may have merged with other successful self-liberated communities in subsequent decades, and they may have served as an inspiration for other organized liberation movements ("slave revolts").

Contemporary historian Robert Charles Dallas wrote that in the 1770s, a community of self-liberated Africans formed the Congo Settlement in the Cockpit Country, and resisted efforts by the Accompong Maroons to break them up until the end of the century.

[56] In May 2023, a plaque commemorating plantation owner John Gordon that contained racist language and praised his involvement in suppressing the rebellion was removed from St Peter's Church in Dorchester.