Obeah in the Coromantee War, 1760

The Coromantee War, also known as Tacky's Revolt, unfolded in colonial Jamaica in 1760. It was a significant slave rebellion that originated among the Coromantee, a group of enslaved Africans largely from the Gold Coast region (present-day Ghana). Led by a Coromantee chief named Tacky, the rebellion aimed to gain freedom from the oppressive conditions of slavery. Tacky and his followers displayed remarkable military prowess, employing guerrilla tactics and seizing plantations in an attempt to secure their liberation. The uprising, however, was brutally suppressed by the British colonial forces. Tacky was killed in battle, and the revolt marked a tragic chapter in Jamaica's history, highlighting the enduring resistance of enslaved Africans against the harsh conditions of their bondage. During the uprising, Obeah was seen as a way to gain supernatural protection during battle, as this excerpt from Edward Long's history shows. Ultimately, the alleged involvement in the rebellion by an obeahman led to the 1760 Jamaican law against practicing or having the items necessary for obeah.

In St. Mary’s parish a check was fortunately given at one estate, by surprizing a famous obeiah man or priest, much respected among his countrymen. He was an old Coromantin, who, with other of his profession, had been a chief in counseling and instigating the credulous herd, to whom these priests administered a powder, which, being rubbed on their bodies, was to make them invulnerable: they persuaded them into a belief, that Tacky, their generalissimo in the woods, could not possibly be hurt by the white men, for that he caught all the bullets fired at him in his hand, and hurled them back with destruction to his foes. This old imposter was caught whilst he was tricked up with all his feathers, teeth, and other implements of magic, and in this attire suffered military execution by hanging: many of his disciples, when they found that he was so easily put to death, notwithstanding all the boasted feats of his powder and incantations, soon altered their opinion of him, and determined not to join their countrymen, in a cause which hitherto had been unattended with success. But the fame of general Tacky, and the notion of his invulnerability, still prevailed over the minds of others, as that hero had escaped hitherto in every conflict without a wound. The true condition of his party was artfully misrepresented to the Coromantins, in the distant parishes; they were told that every thing went on prosperously, that victory attended them, and that nothing now remained but for all their countrymen to be hearty in the cause, and the island must speedily be their own.

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War and contention are their [Coromantees] favourite amusements; inured very early to the use of fire arms, they are good marksmen; they go naked, and their bodies by this means acquire a surprizing degree of hardiness, and ability to undergo fatigue; but they have an invincible aversion to every kind of labour, and particularly agriculture, which they leave to their women. Their priests, or obeiah-men, are their chief oracles in all weighty affairs, whether of peace, war, or the pursuit of revenge. When assembled for the purposes of conspiracy, the obeiah-man, after various ceremonies, draws a little blood from every one present; this is mixed in a bowl with gunpowder and grave dirt; the fetishe or oath is administered, by which they solemnly pledge themselves to inviolable secrecy, fidelity to their chiefs, and to wage perpetual war against their enemies; as a ratification of sincerity, each person takes a sup of the mixture, and this finishes the solemn rite. Few or none of them have ever been known to violate this oath, or to desist from the full execution of it, even although several years may intervene.

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On many estates, they do not mix at all with the other slaves, but build their houses distinct from the rest; and, herding together, are left more at liberty to hold their dangerous cabals, without interruption. Their houses ought to be intermixed with the rest, and kept divided from one another, by interposing those of the other Negroes, who by this means would become continual spies upon their conduct. A particular attention should also be had to their plays, for these have always been their rendezvous for hatching plots, more especially whenever on such occasions any unusual resort is observed of their countrymen from other plantations; and very particular search should be made after their obeiah-men, who, whenever detected, should be transported without mercy. The employers of this detestable race owe these cautions at least to the public, who have suffered so much in times past from the total neglect of them.