Exactly 262 years ago today, Chief Takyi began his short-lived rebellion in St Mary that would be put down by the British, with the support of the Maroons, but not before inspiring the Haitian Revoltion and catapulting him into the history of those who fought to make Jamaica independent.

On Easter Monday, April 7, 1760, Chief Takyi and his followers launched a fierce but bloody uprising that claimed the lives of white masters and overseers on the Frontier plantation and culminated in the capture of Port Maria, the parish capital, from British colonial forces.

Tomorrow, by official proclamation, the governor general of Jamaica will declare April 8 henceforth as National Chief Takyi Day, a lasting tribute to the slave chief, and partial but significant success for a hardy band of Jamaicans who have stubbornly campaigned for Takyi to be made a national hero.

“This is a gigantic gift of this day,” said Prince Black X Robinson, the man most identified with the campaign which has since gone international and won the support of people like Professor Verene Shepherd and former Senator Barbara Blake-Hannah, the veteran journalist and pan-Africanist.

The declaration of Takyi Day will no doubt bring great satisfaction to Culture Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange who worked quietly but doggedly to make the proclamation a reality and will see her handywork on display in a ceremony in Port Maria tomorrow, under the patronage of Mayor Richard Creary.

In dramatic style, Prince X and a group of supporters will arrive at the commemorative ceremony, having timed a three-day walk from Bethel Town, Westmoreland, 70 miles away to end with the 10:00 am start of the event.

As the history goes, the rebel leader Chief Takyi led one of the most far-reaching rebellions — from 1760 to 1761 — in Jamaica’s colonial history, to deliver a decisive blow against slavery, his goal to take control of the island colony and create a black independent nation.

The rebels were inspired by the First Maroon War that also occurred in Jamaica, from 1728 to 1740, led by Queen Nanny of the Maroons. However, the success of the Maroon war and the signing of their peace treaty with the British, eventually helped bring about the downfall of the rebellion.

The Easter Monday uprising was soon joined by rebel slaves on the Esher estate. Now in the hundreds, they made their way to the storeroom at Fort Haldane, Port Maria, where they executed the storekeeper, held the town and defended it from the British colonial forces.

Chief Takyi and his troops commandeered nearly four barrels of gunpowder and 40 firearms and then overran the Heywood Hall plantation, as their numbers grew to 400 people. But as they were celebrating their success, one enslaved person slipped away and sounded the alarm.

In response, on April 9, 1760 Lt Governor Sir Henry Moore dispatched the 74th regiment, comprising 80 mounted militia from Spanish Town, St Catherine to St Mary. The militia were joined by Maroons from Moore Town, Charles Town, and Scott’s Hall, Jamaica who, fulfilling the terms of their treaty that roped them in as members of the militia, used their renowned fighting skills to overcome the efforts of Takyi’s army of enslaved warriors.

On April 12, 1760, British troops and their Maroon allies attacked the rebels, wounding Chief Takyi. Two days later additional Maroons under British commanders engaged Chief Takyi and his followers in the Battle of Rocky Valley. Most of the rebels were killed, while others fled into a cave near what is now called Takyi Falls, where they committed mass suicide. Chief Takyi and a few of his followers fled into the woods pursued by Maroons. One British marksman, attacking with the Maroons, shot and killed Chief Takyi and severed his head. It was then displayed on a pole in Spanish Town until some of Chief Takyi’s surviving followers took it down.

The remaining rebels were captured and executed, though resistance continued for nearly a year until 1761.

Despite the failure of Chief Takyi’s War, it was one of the most significant Caribbean slave rebellions in the 18th century and inspired the Haitian Revolution three decades later.

Chief Takyi’s War was a major factor in the battle for freedom that continued in Jamaica until slavery was officially ended in 1834.

The Tacky High School in Gayle, St Mary, was named after Chief Takyi in 1978 — 218 years after he staged what is described by some historians as the Caribbean’s first slave uprising.