268 
HISTORY OF THE [book iv. 
into captivity in a distant country. I mean only 
to state facts as I find them: Such I well know 
was the origin of the negro rebellion which hap¬ 
pened in Jamaica in 1760. It arose at the instiga¬ 
tion of a Koromantyn negro of the name of Tacky, 
who had been a chief in Guinea; and it broke out 
on the frontier plantation in St. Mary’s parish, be¬ 
longing to the late Ballard Beckford, and the ad- 
joining estate of Trinity, the property or my de¬ 
ceased relation and benefactor Zachary Bayly, to 
whose wisdom, activity and courage on this occa¬ 
sion, it was owing, that the revolt was not as ge¬ 
neral and destructive as that which now rages in 
St. Domingo (1791). On those plantations were 
upwards of one hundred Gold coast negroes new¬ 
ly imported, and I do not believe, that an indivi¬ 
dual amongst them had received the least shadow 
of ill treatment from the time of their arrival there. 
Concerning those on the Trinity estate, I can pro¬ 
nounce of my own knowledge, that they were un¬ 
der the government of an overseer of singular ten¬ 
derness and humanity. His name was Abraham 
Fletcher; and let it be remembered, in justice even 
to the rebels, and as a lesson to other overseers, 
that his life was spared from respect to his virtues. 
The insurgents had heard of his character from the 
other negroes, and suffered him to pass through 
them unmolested—this fact appeared in evidence.* 
* Mr. Bayly had himself left the Trinity estate the preceding even-, 
ing, after having personally inspected into the situation of his newly 
purchased Africans, and delivered them with his own hands their 
