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Jamaican Maroons

Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were enslaved during Spanish rule over Jamaica (1493–1655) may have been the first to develop such refugee communities.

Jamaican Maroons
Regions with significant populations
 Jamaica
 Sierra Leone
Languages
Jamaican Patois, Kromanti
Religion
Jamaican Maroon religion
Related ethnic groups
Coromantee, Jamaicans of African descent, Sierra Leone Creoles, Maroon people

The English, who invaded the island in 1655, continued the importation of enslaved Africans to work on the island's sugar-cane plantations. Africans in Jamaica continually resisted enslavement, with many who freed themselves becoming maroons. The revolts disrupted the sugar economy in Jamaica and made it less profitable. The uprisings decreased after the British colonial authorities signed treaties with the Leeward Maroons in 1739 and the Windward Maroons in 1740, which required them to support the institution of slavery. The importance of the Maroons to the colonial authorities declined after slavery was abolished in 1838.

The Windward Maroons and those from the Cockpit Country resisted conquest in the First Maroon War (c. 1728 to 1740), which the colonial government ended in 1739–1740 by making treaties to grant lands and to respect maroon autonomy, in exchange for peace and aiding the colonial militia if needed against external enemies. The tension between Governor Alexander Lindsay and the majority of the Leeward Maroons resulted in the Second Maroon War from 1795 to 1796. Although the governor promised leniency if the maroons surrendered, he later betrayed them and, supported by the Assembly, insisted on deporting just under 600 Maroons to British settlements in Nova Scotia, where enslaved African Americans who escaped from the United States were also resettled. The deported Maroons were unhappy with conditions in Canada, and in 1800 a majority left, having obtained passage to Freetown eight years after the Sierra Leone Company established it in West Africa (in present-day Sierra Leone) as a British colony, where they formed the Sierra Leone Creole ethnic identity.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

Origins Edit

The word "maroon" is derived via French from the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning "wild" or "untamed". This word usually referred to runaways, castaways, or the shipwrecked; those marooned probably would never return. The origin of the Spanish word cimarrón is unknown.[8]

When the English invaded Jamaica in 1655, most Spanish colonists fled. Many of their slaves escaped and, together with free blacks and mulattoes, former slaves, and some native Taíno,[9][10][11] coalesced into a number of ethnically diverse groups in the Jamaican interior.[12]

Spanish Maroons Edit

Some Spanish Maroons created palenques, or stockaded mountain farms, first at Lluidas Vale, in modern-day St Catharine Parish, under Juan de Bolas (also known as Lubolo). Toward the western end of Cockpit Country were the "Varmahaly or Karmahaly Negroes" under the leadership of Juan de Serras. There was possibly a third group that was active in the region of Porus, in modern Manchester Parish; and a fourth in the Blue Mountains.[12][13] During the first decade of English rule, these groups were active on behalf of the Spanish. But, as it became increasingly obvious that the British would hold their conquest, the group run by de Bolas changed its position.

Faced with discovery and defeat in 1659, de Bolas allied with the English and guided their troops on a raid which resulted in the final expulsion of the Spanish in 1660. In exchange, in 1663, Governor Sir Charles Lyttelton, 3rd Baronet signed the first maroon treaty, granting de Bolas and his people land on the same terms as English settlers.[12] The colonial authorities paid the men of de Bolas to hunt the supporters of de Serras and recent runaways.[14] However, de Bolas was eventually killed in an ambush, probably by Maroons belonging to de Serras. While the Maroons belonging to de Bolas disappeared from history, the English authorities failed to subdue the Karmahaly Maroons.[15]

The other Maroon groups remained independent in the mountainous interior of Jamaica, surviving by subsistence farming and periodic raids of plantations. These initial Maroon groups faded from colonial history records, possibly migrating to more mountainous or remote regions of the interior. Others may have coalesced to form the nucleus of what would later be called the Windward Maroons.[12] Over time, runaway slaves increased the Maroon population, which eventually came to control large areas of the Jamaican mountainous interior.[16]

In the 1670s and 1680s, in his capacity as an owner of a large slave plantation, former buccaneer and now lieutenant-governor of Jamaica Sir Henry Morgan led three campaigns against the Karmahaly Maroons of de Serras. Morgan achieved some success against the Maroons, who withdrew further into the Blue Mountains, where they were able to stay out of the reach of Morgan and his forces. It is possible the Maroons of de Serras merged with the Windward Maroons.[17]

Establishment of the Leeward and Windward Maroons Edit

Between 1673 and 1690 there were several major slave uprisings, mainly prompted by newly arrived, highly militarized Fante or Coromantee groups from Cape Coast and Ashanti Empire. On 31 July 1690, a rebellion involving 500 slaves from the Sutton estate in Clarendon Parish led to the formation of Jamaica's most stable and best organized Maroon group. Although some were killed, recaptured, or surrendered, more than 200, including women and children, remained free after the rebellion ended.[18]

They established an Ashanti-style polity based in the western parts of the Cockpit Country, notably Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town); the most famous ruler of the Western Maroons was Cudjoe. They incorporated outsiders only after newcomers had satisfied a strict probationary period.[19]

At this time, the leaders who emerged in the Eastern Maroons were Quao and Queen Nanny.[20] The Windward Maroons, in the wilder parts of eastern Jamaica, were always composed of separate highly mobile and culturally heterogeneous groups.[21] It is possible that the runaway slaves from de Serras' group of Karmahaly Maroons formed the initial nucleus of the Windward Maroons.[22] From early on, the Jamaican governors considered their settlements an impediment to English development of the interior. They ordered raids on the Maroon settlements in 1686 and 1702, to little effect.[23]

By about 1720, a stronger Windward community had developed around the culturally Africanised group of three villages known as Nanny Town, under the spiritual leadership of Queen Nanny, an Ashanti woman, sometimes in allegiance and sometimes in competition with other Windward groups.[24] She was known for her exceptional leadership skills, especially in guerrilla warfare during the First Maroon War. One tactic particular to the Jamaican Maroons involved the art of camouflage using plants. Her remains are reputedly buried at "Bump Grave" in Moore Town, the main town of the Windward Maroons, who are concentrated in and around the Rio Grande valley in the north-eastern parish of Portland. Queen Nanny, also known as Granny Nanny (died c. 1750s), is the only woman honoured as one of Jamaica's National Heroes. She has been immortalised in songs and legends.[25]

Maroons in the 18th century Edit

First Maroon War 1728–1739 Edit

Disturbed by plantation raiding, the colonial authorities of Jamaica wanted to eradicate the Maroon communities in order to promote British settlement. Their strategy, beginning in the 1730s, was to break off lines of communication between the Windward and Leeward Maroons, then first pick off the less organized Windward Maroons. In practice, the Maroon troops' command of the territory and skill in guerrilla warfare gave them a strong advantage over colonial forces.[26]

After much fighting, the British took and destroyed Nanny Town in 1734, but most of the Windward Maroons simply dispersed and formed new settlements.[27] At this point, however, fighting shifted to Leeward, where the British troops had equally limited success against the well-trained and organized forces of Cudjoe.[28]

By the mid-1730s, warfare was proving costly to Maroons and British alike and was turning into an ongoing stalemate. Cudjoe rejected suggestions of a treaty in 1734 and 1736, but by 1738 he agreed to parley with John Guthrie. This local planter and militia officer was known to and respected by the Maroons.[29] In 1739, the treaty signed under British governor Edward Trelawny granted Cudjoe's Maroons 1500 acres of land between their strongholds of Trelawny Town and Accompong in the Cockpit Country and a certain amount of political autonomy and economic freedoms, in return for which the Maroons were to provide military support in case of invasion or rebellion, and to return runaway slaves in exchange for a bounty of two dollars each. This last clause in the treaty caused tension between the Maroons and the enslaved black population, although from time to time runaways from the plantations still found their way into Maroon settlements.[30]

In addition, a British superintendent was to be assigned to live in each Maroon town.[30] In 1740, similar treaties were signed by Quao and Nanny, major leaders of the Windward Maroons.[31] The Windward Maroons were originally located at Crawford's Town and the new Nanny Town (now called Moore Town). In all, about 600 Maroons came to terms with the British authorities through these two treaties.[32]

Not all the Maroons accepted the treaties. Rebellions occurred in Maroon communities in the years that followed. After the treaties, the white superintendents appointed by the governors eventually took control of the Maroon towns.[33] In the 1740s, some Leeward Maroons who opposed the 1739 treaty rose in revolt, but Cudjoe crushed those rebellions.[34]

In 1754, Quao attempted to overthrow Edward Crawford, the new Maroon leader of the Windward Maroon town, and in the resulting conflict, Crawford's Town was destroyed. Governor Charles Knowles re-established control over the uprising with the help of other Maroons. He then ordered that the Maroons of Crawford's Town be resettled in the new, nearby Windward Maroon towns of Charles Town (Jamaica) and Scott's Hall (Jamaica).[35]

The Maroon population grew from 664 in 1739 to 1,288 in 1796, at a time when both the slave population and the white settler communities were ravaged by disease.[36]

Intervention in Tacky's War, 1760 Edit

In April 1760, the Jamaican government called upon the Maroons to honour their treaties and come to their assistance during the major slave uprising led by the Fante leader, Tacky, in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. The Windward Maroons were first to be mobilized. Their intervention at first appeared half-hearted: the Scott's Hall Maroons began by claiming outstanding arrears in bounty, while those Charles Town Maroons at Down's Cove allegedly took cover when attacked by the rebels. However, the Maroon warriors were employing guerrilla warfare tactics, which contradicted the British military tradition of marching into the oncoming fire.[37]

In the end, it was a Scott's Hall Maroon, Lieutenant Davy the Maroon, who killed Tacky during a skirmish. The loss of Tacky's leadership essentially ended the initial rebellion.[38]

In western Jamaica, Apongo led another slave rebellion, inspired by Tacky's Revolt, which lasted from April 1760 to October 1761. Cudjoe's well-trained forces were mobilized to help deal with them with some degree of success.[39]

The Maroons and runaway communities in the Blue Mountains Edit

In the years that followed Tacky's rebellion, many Maroon officers such as Samuel Grant, allegedly the son of Davy, made a career out of hunting runaway slaves for the colonial authorities. These runaway slaves formed informal maroon communities, modelled along the lines of the official Maroon communities before they came to terms.[40][41]

In the 18th century, Maroons also hunted and killed notorious escaped slaves and their deputies, such as Ancoma, Three Fingered Jack (Jamaica), and Dagger. However, while they were successful in capturing and killing some runaways and their leaders, most members of the runaway maroon communities continued to thrive under new leaders.[42]

White superintendents took command of the Maroon towns, and the Maroon officers were relegated to their subordinates. After Tacky's War, the governor appointed a separate superintendent for each of the five Maroon towns. These superintendents reported to the Superintendent-General, who in turn reported to the governor. The Superintendents-General of all Maroon towns were as follows:

  • 1770–c. 1772 William Ross
  • 1772–c. 1779 Robert Brereton
  • c. 1779 John Fergusson
  • 1779–1792/3 John James[43]

Second Maroon War 1795–1796 Edit

 
"Leonard Parkinson, A Captain of the Maroons; taken from the Life" 1796 by Abraham Raimbach

The Second Maroon War began in 1795 against the background of the British-Jamaican planters panicked by the excesses of the French Revolution, and by the corresponding start of a slave revolt in neighboring Saint-Domingue, which ended with the independence of Haiti in 1804. At the same time, an increasing hunger for land among expanding Maroon communities in Jamaica coincided with several more immediate and proximate causes of grievance among the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town).[44]

The treaties following the First Maroon War had called for the assignment of a white "superintendent" in each Maroon community. Trelawny Town had objected to the official recently assigned to them and eventually expelled him.[45] At this, the new, hardline Governor, Balcarres, sent William Fitch to march on Trelawny Town with a military force to demand their immediate submission. Balcarres ignored the advice of local planters, who suggested giving the Maroons some more land in order to avoid conflict. Instead, the governor demanded that the Maroons surrender unconditionally, provoking a conflict that could have been avoided.[46] The Trelawny Maroons, led by their colonel, Montague James, chose to fight and were initially successful, fighting a guerrilla war in small bands under several captains, of whom the most noted were Johnson, Parkinson, and Palmer.[47]

The casualties suffered by Fitch and his men were significantly higher than those felt by the Maroons of Trelawny Town.[48] When the Trelawny Town Maroons killed Fitch, several of his officers, some Accompong Maroon trackers, and many militia soldiers in an ambush, Balcarres appointed a new general, George Walpole.[48] This new general suffered more setbacks, until he eventually opted to besiege the Cockpit Country on a massive scale, surrounding it with watchposts, firing in shells from a long distance, and intending to destroy or cut off all Maroon provision grounds.[49] Meanwhile, Maroon attempts to recruit plantation slaves met with a mixed response, though large numbers of runaway slaves gained their freedom by fighting for Trelawny Town.[50][51] Other Maroon communities maintained neutrality, but Accompong Town, however, fought on the side of the colonial militias against Trelawny Town.[52]

Despite signs that the siege was working, Balcarres grew impatient and sent to Cuba for a hundred hunting dogs and handlers. The reputation of these was so fearsome that their arrival quickly prompted the surrender of the majority of Trelawny forces.[53] The Maroons, however, only put down their arms on condition that they would not be deported, and Walpole gave his word that would be the case.[48] To Walpole's dismay, Balcarres refused to treat with the defeated Maroons and had them deported from Jamaica, at first to Nova Scotia, then to the new British colony of Sierra Leone, and joined the African-American founders who established the Colony of Sierra Leone and the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone.[54][55][56]

From the 1830s on some Maroons (or their descendants) returned to Jamaica to work as free labourers, and many of them settled in the village of Flagstaff, near the old site of Trelawny Town (although some of these returnees resettled in Sierra Leone)[57] (see Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone). The descendants of the Returned Maroons live in Flagstaff today (see Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town)). Those who remained in Sierra Leone formed the new Creole ethnic group of Sierra Leone which established diaspora communities along the West African shores from Sierra Leone to the Gambia to Fernando Pó.[58]

Maroons in the 19th century Edit

Maroons in the last years of slavery Edit

Trelawny Town was the largest Maroon town, so the population of Maroons in Jamaica was significantly dented by their deportation. However, in the nineteenth century the total population of the four remaining Maroon towns grew from 853 in 1808 to 1,563 in 1841.[59] The Maroon towns grew in numbers at a time when the population of black slaves and white slave-holders alike declined from disease. One historian argues that this is due to the healthier environment of the Maroon towns.[60]

When the colonial authorities deported the Maroons of Trelawny Town, they left a void which was filled by communities of runaway slaves. The Maroons of the smaller town of Accompong were unable to cope with the growing numbers of runaways in western Jamaica, who found refuge in the Cockpit Country. The Accompong Maroons tried but failed in their attempts to disperse the runaway community of Cuffee (Jamaica), who established a community of runaway slaves in the Cockpit Country in 1798.[61] When Cuffee's maroon group faded from the colonial records, their place was taken by another group of runaways, who established themselves in the Cockpit Country in 1812. The maroon community of Me-no-Sen-You-no-Come also resisted attempts by the Accompong Maroons and the colonial militias to disperse them in the 1820s.[62]

A large maroon group of runaway slaves established themselves near Hellshire Beach in southern Jamaica, and it thrived there for years until it was finally dispersed by a party of Windward Maroons in 1819.[63]

The Maroons played a significant role in helping the colonial authorities to suppress the Samuel Sharpe revolt in 1831–32, under the leadership of white superintendents such as Alexander Fyfe (Fyffe).[64]

Sharpe's Baptist War persuaded the British government to end the system of slavery, which they did in the years following the rebellion. After that, the colonial authorities had no use for the Maroons, and they passed the Maroon Allotments Act in 1842, and abolished the post of superintendent in the 1850s. Their attempts to break up the Maroon communal land, while partially successful in Charles Town and Scott's Hall, met with Maroon resistance in Accompong Town and Moore Town.[65][66]

The Returned Maroons of Flagstaff Edit

After the Second Maroon War, the colonial authorities converted Trelawny Town into a military barracks, and renamed it Maroon Town, Jamaica. The Trelawny Maroons flourished in Sierra Leone at first, but their situation soon soured, and they submitted petitions to British government, asking for permission to return to Jamaica. These petitions were turned down.[67]

However, in 1831, another petition was presented by 224 Sierra Leone Maroons to the British government, and this time the Jamaican authorities relented. They responded by saying they would place no obstacle in the way of Maroons returning to Jamaica, but would not pay any passage or for the purchase of lands in the island.[68]

In 1839, the first Maroons made their way from Sierra Leone to Jamaica. Mary Brown and her family, which included her daughter Sarah McGale and a Spanish son-in-law, sold off their property in Sierra Leone, bought a schooner, and set sail for Jamaica. They were joined by two other Sierra Leone Maroons, Mary Ricketts and her daughter Jane Bryan. In 1841, this group found their way to Trelawny Town, now called Maroon Town, Jamaica but which they still insisted on calling Cudjoe's Town. Their descendants still live there today in a village named Flagstaff among a group known as the Returned Maroons.[69]

In 1841, the first ship to arrive in Sierra Leone looking for African workers was the Hector, and several Maroons were so desperate to leave Sierra Leone that they did not wait for the ship to dock, but rowed out to meet it in their canoes. In all, 64 Maroons left Sierra Leone for Jamaica on the Hector alone. Most Sierra Leone Maroons lived in Freetown, and between 1837 and 1844, Freetown's Maroon population shrank from 650 to 454, suggesting that about 200 made their way back to Jamaica.[70]

As many as one-third of the Maroons in Sierra Leone returned to Jamaica in the 1840s.[71]

Intervention in the Morant Bay Rebellion, 1865 Edit

 
Six Maroons, with rifles and in camouflage, with Colonel Fyfe, c.1865

In 1865, poor free blacks, led by Baptist deacon Paul Bogle, rose in revolt against the colonial authorities in the Morant Bay Rebellion. The governor called out the Moore Town Maroons one last time to put down the rebellion. Fyfe was called up once more to lead a combination of Moore Town Maroons, including some who resided in Hayfield and Bath, and they committed a number of atrocities before they captured Bogle. However, their cruelty in suppressing the uprising attracted a lot of criticism from Methodist missionaries and residents of Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica.[72]

Maroons in the 21st century Edit

 
Ferron Williams, former Colonel-in-Chief and elected leader of Accompong

To this day, the Maroons in Jamaica are, to a small extent, autonomous and separate from Jamaican culture. Those of Accompong have preserved their land since 1739. The isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today resulted in their communities being among the most inaccessible on the island.[citation needed]

Today, the four official Maroon towns still in existence in Jamaica are Accompong Town, Moore Town, Charles Town and Scott's Hall. They hold lands allotted to them in the 1739–1740 treaties with the British.[73] These Maroons still maintain their traditional celebrations and practices, some of which have West African origin. For example, the council of a Maroon settlement is called an Asofo,[74] from the Akan word asafo (assembly, church, society).[75][76]

Native Jamaicans and island tourists are allowed to attend many of these events. Others considered sacred are held in secret and shrouded in mystery. Singing, dancing, drum-playing, and preparation of traditional foods form a central part of most gatherings.[77] In their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, the Leeward Maroons have a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered to foreigners.[78] They hold a large festival annually on 6 January to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War.[79][80]

Moore Town, located between the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains in Portland Parish, was relisted on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 for its Maroon heritage, particularly music.[citation needed]

Jamaican Maroon treaty towns Edit

In Jamaica Edit

Leeward Maroons Edit

  • Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town), ruled by Cudjoe, and secured recognition from the British after the First Maroon War (1728–1740). Most of the Trelawny Maroons were deported after the Second Maroon War to Nova Scotia, and then to Sierra Leone. Eventually, after Emancipation, in the 1840s, a few hundred Trelawny Maroons eventually returned from Sierra Leone, and established a community of Returned Maroons near the site of Trelawny Town and called it Flagstaff. The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town still live in Flagstaff today.
  • Maroon Town, Jamaica, after the deportation of the Trelawny Maroons, the British colonial government took control of Trelawny Town, and established a military barracks there. It became known as Maroon Town, though no Maroons lived there any more.
  • Accompong, along with Cudjoe's Town, Accompong was the main settlement of the Leeward Maroons. Ruled by Accompong, after whom the town was named.

Windward Maroons Edit

  • Nanny Town, one of the two main towns of the Windward Maroons during the First Maroon War, led by the legendary Queen Nanny, located in the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica. This town exchanged hands several times during the First Maroon War, and was eventually abandoned for a new site named New Nanny Town, also located in the Blue Mountains.
  • Moore Town, the new site of the inhabitants of Nanny Town, and originally named New Nanny Town.
  • Crawford's Town, another of the two main towns of the Windward Maroons during the First Maroon War, led by Quao. After the First Maroon War, Quao was replaced as leader by Edward Crawford, after whom the town was later named. In the 1750s, a conflict between two factions led by these two opposing leaders eventually led to destruction of Crawford's Town.
  • Charles Town, Jamaica, was established in the 1750s, after the destruction of Crawford's Town. Most of its new inhabitants were the supporters of Ned Crawford, who made up the majority of the Maroons in Crawford's Town.
  • Scott's Hall, Jamaica, was a minor Maroon town that predated the destruction of Crawford's Town. In the 1750s, the supporters of Quao, who made up the minority of the Maroons in Crawford's Town, relocated to Scott's Hall.

In Sierra Leone Edit

  • Maroon Town, Sierra Leone, became a settlement of Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone, after the Trelawny Maroons were deported from Jamaica.

Notable people from Maroon communities Edit

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ Thayer, James Steel (1991). "A Dissenting View of Creole Culture in Sierra Leone". Cahiers d'Études africaines. 31 (121): 215–230. doi:10.3406/cea.1991.2116. from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  2. ^ Browne-Davies, Nigel (2014). "A Precis of Sources relating to genealogical research on the Sierra Leone Krio people". Journal of Sierra Leone Studies. 3 (1). from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ Walker, James W (1992). "Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone". The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 94–114. ISBN 978-0-8020-7402-7., originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).
  4. ^ Taylor, Bankole Kamara (February 2014). Sierra Leone: The Land, Its People and History. New Africa Press. p. 68. ISBN 9789987160389. from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  5. ^ Grant, John N. (2002). The Maroons in Nova Scotia (Softcover). Formac. p. 203. ISBN 978-0887805691.
  6. ^ Campbell, Mavis (1993), Back to Africa: George Ross and the Maroons (Trenton: Africa World Press), p. 48.
  7. ^ Sivapragasam, Michael (2020), "The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town", Navigating Crosscurrents: Trans-linguality, Trans-culturality and Trans-identification in the Dutch Caribbean and Beyond, ed. by Nicholas Faraclas, etc (Curacao/Puerto Rico: University of Curacao), p. 17.
  8. ^ "Seminole – Origin and meaning of Seminole by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  9. ^ Madrilejo, N.; Lombard, H.; Torres, JB (2015). "Origins of marronage: Mitochondrial lineages of Jamaica's Accompong Town Maroons". Am. J. Hum. Biol. 27 (3): 432–37. doi:10.1002/ajhb.22656. PMID 25392952. S2CID 30255510.
  10. ^ Sivapragasam, Michael (2018), After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842 20 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine, PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library (Southampton: Southampton University), pp. 23–24.
  11. ^ Agorsah, E. Kofi (1994), "Archaeology of Maroon Settlements in Jamaica", Maroon Heritage: Archaeological, Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives, ed. E. Kofi Agorsah (Kingston: University of the West Indies Canoe Press), pp. 180–81.
  12. ^ a b c d Craton, Michael (2009). Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies. Cornell University Press. pp. 70–74. ISBN 978-0-8014-7528-3. from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  13. ^ Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796: a History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal (Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey), pp. 25–26.
  14. ^ Carey, Bev (1997), The Maroon Story: The Authentic and Original History of the Maroons in the History of Jamaica 1490–1880 (Kingston, Jamaica: Agouti Press), p. 113.
  15. ^ Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 14–25.
  16. ^ Sainsbury, W. Noel. "America and West Indies". Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies. 1, 5 (1574–1660, 1661–1668).
  17. ^ Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796, pp. 23, 32–33.
  18. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 75–76.
  19. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 77–78.
  20. ^ Thicknesse, Philip (1790), Memoirs and Anecdotes of Philip Thicknesse (Dublin: Craisberry and Campbell), pp. 56–77.
  21. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 78–81.
  22. ^ Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 48–49.
  23. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 78–79.
  24. ^ Craton (1982), p. 81.
  25. ^ . Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 18 January 2008.
  26. ^ Craton, Testing the Chains (1982), pp. 82–84.
  27. ^ Craton (1982), p. 85.
  28. ^ Craton (1982), p. 87.
  29. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 87–88.
  30. ^ a b Craton (1982), pp. 88–90.
  31. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 91–92.
  32. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, p. 56.
  33. ^ Kopytoff, Barbara (1976), "Jamaican Maroon Political Organization: the Effects of the Treaties", Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 92–97.
  34. ^ Paterson, Orlando (1996), "Slavery and Slave Revolts: A Sociohistorical Analysis of the First Maroon War, 1665–1740", Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas, ed. Richard Price (London: Johns Hopkins University Press), p. 273.
  35. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 54–57.
  36. ^ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2019. p. 240.
  37. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 130–31.
  38. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 135–36.
  39. ^ Brown, Vincent (2020), Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press), pp. 1–2.
  40. ^ See Talk Page on the use of Maroons with a capital "M" to discuss the Maroons who came to terms, versus the runaway slaves who continued to form maroon communities, now described with a common "m".
  41. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 75, 114.
  42. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 109–17.
  43. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, p. 278.
  44. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 211–14.
  45. ^ Craton (1982), p. 214.
  46. ^ Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796, pp. 209–49.
  47. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 215, 217–19.
  48. ^ a b c Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 209–49.
  49. ^ Craton (1982), p. 219.
  50. ^ Sivapragasam, Michael (2019), "The Second Maroon War: Runaway Slaves fighting on the side of Trelawny Town", Slavery & Abolition, doi:10.1080/0144039X.2019.1662683. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  51. ^ Craton, Testing the Chains (1982), p. 218.
  52. ^ Campbell (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796, p. 220.
  53. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 220–21.
  54. ^ Craton (1982), pp. 222–23.
  55. ^ "USI Home Page". www.understandingslavery.com. from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  56. ^ Grant, John (1980), Black Nova Scotians. Halifax: The Nova Scotia Museum.
  57. ^ Fortin (2006), p. 23.
  58. ^ Baron, Robert, & Ana C. Cara, Creolization as Cultural Creativity, p. 152.
  59. ^ Siva (2018). After the Treaties (PDF) (PhD). (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2019. p. 243.
  60. ^ Siva (2018). After the Treaties (PDF) (PhD). (PDF) from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2019. pp. 238–46.
  61. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 182–90.
  62. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 191–93.
  63. ^ Sivapragasam, After the Treaties, p. 196.
  64. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 201–03, 277.
  65. ^ Sivapragasam (2018), After the Treaties, pp. 254–55.
  66. ^ Carey (1997), The Maroon Story, p. 560.
  67. ^ Sivapragasam, (2020), "The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town", pp. 17–18.
  68. ^ Sivapragasam (2020), "The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town", p. 18.
  69. ^ Sivapragasam (2020), "The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town", pp. 18–19.
  70. ^ Sivapragasam (2020), "The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town", p. 18.
  71. ^ Sivapragasam (2020), "The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town", pp. 13, 18.
  72. ^ Heuman, Gad (1994), The Killing Time: The Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press), pp. 131–36.
  73. ^ Carey (1997), The Maroon Story: The Authentic and Original History of the Maroons in the History of Jamaica 1490–1880 (Kingston, Jamaica: Agouti Press, 1997).
  74. ^ Sangster, Ian (1973), Jamaica: A Benn Holiday Guide.
  75. ^ Anyamesɛm Anaa Twerɛ Kronkron Akan Kasa Mu (The Bible in Twi: Asante), The Bible Society of Ghana, Accra, 1964.
  76. ^ Rottmann, W. J., compiler (1913), Kristo Asafo Abakọsẹm Tẇi Kasa Mu (Church History in Tshi), Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society.
  77. ^ "A History of the Maroons of Jamaica", The Farin Voice, 3 November 2013. 27 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  78. ^ "Government of Accompong". from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  79. ^ Campbell, Mavis Christine (1988), The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655–1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal, Granby, MA: Bergin & Garvey.
  80. ^ Edwards, Bryan (1796), "Observations on the disposition, character, manners, and habits of life, of the Maroon negroes of the island of Jamaica; and a detail of the origin, progress, and termination of the late war between those people and the white inhabitants", in Edwards, Bryan (1801), Historical Survey of the Island of Saint Domingo, London: J. Stockdale, pp. 303–60.

References Edit

  • Campbell, Mavis C. The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655–1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal. Granby, Mass: Bergin & Garvey, 1988. ISBN 0-89789-148-1
  • Carey, Bev. (1997). The Maroon story: The authentic and original history of the Maroons in the history of Jamaica, 1490–1880. A Maroon and Jamaica heritage series. Gordon Town, Jamaica: Agouti Press.
  • Craton, Michael. Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies. Cornell University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-8014-1252-8
  • Dallas, R. C. The History of the Maroons, from Their Origin to the Establishment of Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone. 2 vols. London: Longman, 1803.
  • Fortin, Jeffrey A. "'Blackened Beyond Our Native Hue': Removal, Identity and the Trelawney Maroons on the Margins of the Atlantic World, 1796–1800", Citizenship Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1, 5–34, February 2006.
  • Thompson, Alvin O. Flight to Freedom: African Runaways and Maroons in the Americas. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2006. ISBN 976-640-180-2
  • Sivapragasam, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University.

Further reading Edit

  • Bilby, Kenneth. "Jamaican Maroons at the Crossroads: Losing Touch With Tradition," Caribbean Review, Fall 1980.
  • Bilby, Kenneth M. (2005). True-born Maroons. New World diasporas. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  • Blake, Edith. "The Maroons of Jamaica", North American Review, 1898, online text at Archive.org, via JSTOR
  • Campbell, Mavis C. The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal. Granby, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1988.
  • Dunham, Katherine. Journey to Accompong. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1946.
  • Sivapragasam, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University.
  • (Smith, Horane. Marooned in Nova Scotia - A Story of the Jamaican Maroons in Canada America Star, 2010 https://wiredja.com/index.php/categories/newsberg/regions/diaspora/marooned-in-nova-scotia-a-story-of-the-jamaican-maroons-in-canada-by-horane-smith

External links Edit

  • , Maroon/Marocon culture
  • , Itz Caribbean
  • Video Accompong – Black freedom fighters in Jamaica (1992). Onlinearchiv Österreichische Mediathek (Maroons,...)

jamaican, maroons, descend, from, africans, freed, themselves, from, slavery, colony, jamaica, established, communities, free, black, people, island, mountainous, interior, primarily, eastern, parishes, africans, were, enslaved, during, spanish, rule, over, ja. Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island s mountainous interior primarily in the eastern parishes Africans who were enslaved during Spanish rule over Jamaica 1493 1655 may have been the first to develop such refugee communities Jamaican MaroonsRegions with significant populations Jamaica Sierra LeoneLanguagesJamaican Patois KromantiReligionJamaican Maroon religionRelated ethnic groupsCoromantee Jamaicans of African descent Sierra Leone Creoles Maroon peopleThe English who invaded the island in 1655 continued the importation of enslaved Africans to work on the island s sugar cane plantations Africans in Jamaica continually resisted enslavement with many who freed themselves becoming maroons The revolts disrupted the sugar economy in Jamaica and made it less profitable The uprisings decreased after the British colonial authorities signed treaties with the Leeward Maroons in 1739 and the Windward Maroons in 1740 which required them to support the institution of slavery The importance of the Maroons to the colonial authorities declined after slavery was abolished in 1838 The Windward Maroons and those from the Cockpit Country resisted conquest in the First Maroon War c 1728 to 1740 which the colonial government ended in 1739 1740 by making treaties to grant lands and to respect maroon autonomy in exchange for peace and aiding the colonial militia if needed against external enemies The tension between Governor Alexander Lindsay and the majority of the Leeward Maroons resulted in the Second Maroon War from 1795 to 1796 Although the governor promised leniency if the maroons surrendered he later betrayed them and supported by the Assembly insisted on deporting just under 600 Maroons to British settlements in Nova Scotia where enslaved African Americans who escaped from the United States were also resettled The deported Maroons were unhappy with conditions in Canada and in 1800 a majority left having obtained passage to Freetown eight years after the Sierra Leone Company established it in West Africa in present day Sierra Leone as a British colony where they formed the Sierra Leone Creole ethnic identity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Contents 1 Origins 2 Spanish Maroons 2 1 Establishment of the Leeward and Windward Maroons 3 Maroons in the 18th century 3 1 First Maroon War 1728 1739 3 2 Intervention in Tacky s War 1760 3 3 The Maroons and runaway communities in the Blue Mountains 3 4 Second Maroon War 1795 1796 4 Maroons in the 19th century 4 1 Maroons in the last years of slavery 4 2 The Returned Maroons of Flagstaff 4 3 Intervention in the Morant Bay Rebellion 1865 5 Maroons in the 21st century 6 Jamaican Maroon treaty towns 6 1 In Jamaica 6 2 Leeward Maroons 6 3 Windward Maroons 6 4 In Sierra Leone 7 Notable people from Maroon communities 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksOrigins EditFurther information Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies and Slavery in the British and French Caribbean The word maroon is derived via French from the Spanish word cimarron meaning wild or untamed This word usually referred to runaways castaways or the shipwrecked those marooned probably would never return The origin of the Spanish word cimarron is unknown 8 When the English invaded Jamaica in 1655 most Spanish colonists fled Many of their slaves escaped and together with free blacks and mulattoes former slaves and some native Taino 9 10 11 coalesced into a number of ethnically diverse groups in the Jamaican interior 12 Spanish Maroons EditSome Spanish Maroons created palenques or stockaded mountain farms first at Lluidas Vale in modern day St Catharine Parish under Juan de Bolas also known as Lubolo Toward the western end of Cockpit Country were the Varmahaly or Karmahaly Negroes under the leadership of Juan de Serras There was possibly a third group that was active in the region of Porus in modern Manchester Parish and a fourth in the Blue Mountains 12 13 During the first decade of English rule these groups were active on behalf of the Spanish But as it became increasingly obvious that the British would hold their conquest the group run by de Bolas changed its position Faced with discovery and defeat in 1659 de Bolas allied with the English and guided their troops on a raid which resulted in the final expulsion of the Spanish in 1660 In exchange in 1663 Governor Sir Charles Lyttelton 3rd Baronet signed the first maroon treaty granting de Bolas and his people land on the same terms as English settlers 12 The colonial authorities paid the men of de Bolas to hunt the supporters of de Serras and recent runaways 14 However de Bolas was eventually killed in an ambush probably by Maroons belonging to de Serras While the Maroons belonging to de Bolas disappeared from history the English authorities failed to subdue the Karmahaly Maroons 15 The other Maroon groups remained independent in the mountainous interior of Jamaica surviving by subsistence farming and periodic raids of plantations These initial Maroon groups faded from colonial history records possibly migrating to more mountainous or remote regions of the interior Others may have coalesced to form the nucleus of what would later be called the Windward Maroons 12 Over time runaway slaves increased the Maroon population which eventually came to control large areas of the Jamaican mountainous interior 16 In the 1670s and 1680s in his capacity as an owner of a large slave plantation former buccaneer and now lieutenant governor of Jamaica Sir Henry Morgan led three campaigns against the Karmahaly Maroons of de Serras Morgan achieved some success against the Maroons who withdrew further into the Blue Mountains where they were able to stay out of the reach of Morgan and his forces It is possible the Maroons of de Serras merged with the Windward Maroons 17 Establishment of the Leeward and Windward Maroons Edit Between 1673 and 1690 there were several major slave uprisings mainly prompted by newly arrived highly militarized Fante or Coromantee groups from Cape Coast and Ashanti Empire On 31 July 1690 a rebellion involving 500 slaves from the Sutton estate in Clarendon Parish led to the formation of Jamaica s most stable and best organized Maroon group Although some were killed recaptured or surrendered more than 200 including women and children remained free after the rebellion ended 18 They established an Ashanti style polity based in the western parts of the Cockpit Country notably Cudjoe s Town Trelawny Town the most famous ruler of the Western Maroons was Cudjoe They incorporated outsiders only after newcomers had satisfied a strict probationary period 19 At this time the leaders who emerged in the Eastern Maroons were Quao and Queen Nanny 20 The Windward Maroons in the wilder parts of eastern Jamaica were always composed of separate highly mobile and culturally heterogeneous groups 21 It is possible that the runaway slaves from de Serras group of Karmahaly Maroons formed the initial nucleus of the Windward Maroons 22 From early on the Jamaican governors considered their settlements an impediment to English development of the interior They ordered raids on the Maroon settlements in 1686 and 1702 to little effect 23 By about 1720 a stronger Windward community had developed around the culturally Africanised group of three villages known as Nanny Town under the spiritual leadership of Queen Nanny an Ashanti woman sometimes in allegiance and sometimes in competition with other Windward groups 24 She was known for her exceptional leadership skills especially in guerrilla warfare during the First Maroon War One tactic particular to the Jamaican Maroons involved the art of camouflage using plants Her remains are reputedly buried at Bump Grave in Moore Town the main town of the Windward Maroons who are concentrated in and around the Rio Grande valley in the north eastern parish of Portland Queen Nanny also known as Granny Nanny died c 1750s is the only woman honoured as one of Jamaica s National Heroes She has been immortalised in songs and legends 25 Maroons in the 18th century EditFirst Maroon War 1728 1739 Edit Main article First Maroon War Disturbed by plantation raiding the colonial authorities of Jamaica wanted to eradicate the Maroon communities in order to promote British settlement Their strategy beginning in the 1730s was to break off lines of communication between the Windward and Leeward Maroons then first pick off the less organized Windward Maroons In practice the Maroon troops command of the territory and skill in guerrilla warfare gave them a strong advantage over colonial forces 26 After much fighting the British took and destroyed Nanny Town in 1734 but most of the Windward Maroons simply dispersed and formed new settlements 27 At this point however fighting shifted to Leeward where the British troops had equally limited success against the well trained and organized forces of Cudjoe 28 By the mid 1730s warfare was proving costly to Maroons and British alike and was turning into an ongoing stalemate Cudjoe rejected suggestions of a treaty in 1734 and 1736 but by 1738 he agreed to parley with John Guthrie This local planter and militia officer was known to and respected by the Maroons 29 In 1739 the treaty signed under British governor Edward Trelawny granted Cudjoe s Maroons 1500 acres of land between their strongholds of Trelawny Town and Accompong in the Cockpit Country and a certain amount of political autonomy and economic freedoms in return for which the Maroons were to provide military support in case of invasion or rebellion and to return runaway slaves in exchange for a bounty of two dollars each This last clause in the treaty caused tension between the Maroons and the enslaved black population although from time to time runaways from the plantations still found their way into Maroon settlements 30 In addition a British superintendent was to be assigned to live in each Maroon town 30 In 1740 similar treaties were signed by Quao and Nanny major leaders of the Windward Maroons 31 The Windward Maroons were originally located at Crawford s Town and the new Nanny Town now called Moore Town In all about 600 Maroons came to terms with the British authorities through these two treaties 32 Not all the Maroons accepted the treaties Rebellions occurred in Maroon communities in the years that followed After the treaties the white superintendents appointed by the governors eventually took control of the Maroon towns 33 In the 1740s some Leeward Maroons who opposed the 1739 treaty rose in revolt but Cudjoe crushed those rebellions 34 In 1754 Quao attempted to overthrow Edward Crawford the new Maroon leader of the Windward Maroon town and in the resulting conflict Crawford s Town was destroyed Governor Charles Knowles re established control over the uprising with the help of other Maroons He then ordered that the Maroons of Crawford s Town be resettled in the new nearby Windward Maroon towns of Charles Town Jamaica and Scott s Hall Jamaica 35 The Maroon population grew from 664 in 1739 to 1 288 in 1796 at a time when both the slave population and the white settler communities were ravaged by disease 36 Intervention in Tacky s War 1760 Edit Main article Tacky s War In April 1760 the Jamaican government called upon the Maroons to honour their treaties and come to their assistance during the major slave uprising led by the Fante leader Tacky in Saint Mary Parish Jamaica The Windward Maroons were first to be mobilized Their intervention at first appeared half hearted the Scott s Hall Maroons began by claiming outstanding arrears in bounty while those Charles Town Maroons at Down s Cove allegedly took cover when attacked by the rebels However the Maroon warriors were employing guerrilla warfare tactics which contradicted the British military tradition of marching into the oncoming fire 37 In the end it was a Scott s Hall Maroon Lieutenant Davy the Maroon who killed Tacky during a skirmish The loss of Tacky s leadership essentially ended the initial rebellion 38 In western Jamaica Apongo led another slave rebellion inspired by Tacky s Revolt which lasted from April 1760 to October 1761 Cudjoe s well trained forces were mobilized to help deal with them with some degree of success 39 The Maroons and runaway communities in the Blue Mountains Edit In the years that followed Tacky s rebellion many Maroon officers such as Samuel Grant allegedly the son of Davy made a career out of hunting runaway slaves for the colonial authorities These runaway slaves formed informal maroon communities modelled along the lines of the official Maroon communities before they came to terms 40 41 In the 18th century Maroons also hunted and killed notorious escaped slaves and their deputies such as Ancoma Three Fingered Jack Jamaica and Dagger However while they were successful in capturing and killing some runaways and their leaders most members of the runaway maroon communities continued to thrive under new leaders 42 White superintendents took command of the Maroon towns and the Maroon officers were relegated to their subordinates After Tacky s War the governor appointed a separate superintendent for each of the five Maroon towns These superintendents reported to the Superintendent General who in turn reported to the governor The Superintendents General of all Maroon towns were as follows 1770 c 1772 William Ross 1772 c 1779 Robert Brereton c 1779 John Fergusson 1779 1792 3 John James 43 Second Maroon War 1795 1796 Edit Main article Second Maroon War nbsp Leonard Parkinson A Captain of the Maroons taken from the Life 1796 by Abraham RaimbachThe Second Maroon War began in 1795 against the background of the British Jamaican planters panicked by the excesses of the French Revolution and by the corresponding start of a slave revolt in neighboring Saint Domingue which ended with the independence of Haiti in 1804 At the same time an increasing hunger for land among expanding Maroon communities in Jamaica coincided with several more immediate and proximate causes of grievance among the Maroons of Cudjoe s Town Trelawny Town 44 The treaties following the First Maroon War had called for the assignment of a white superintendent in each Maroon community Trelawny Town had objected to the official recently assigned to them and eventually expelled him 45 At this the new hardline Governor Balcarres sent William Fitch to march on Trelawny Town with a military force to demand their immediate submission Balcarres ignored the advice of local planters who suggested giving the Maroons some more land in order to avoid conflict Instead the governor demanded that the Maroons surrender unconditionally provoking a conflict that could have been avoided 46 The Trelawny Maroons led by their colonel Montague James chose to fight and were initially successful fighting a guerrilla war in small bands under several captains of whom the most noted were Johnson Parkinson and Palmer 47 The casualties suffered by Fitch and his men were significantly higher than those felt by the Maroons of Trelawny Town 48 When the Trelawny Town Maroons killed Fitch several of his officers some Accompong Maroon trackers and many militia soldiers in an ambush Balcarres appointed a new general George Walpole 48 This new general suffered more setbacks until he eventually opted to besiege the Cockpit Country on a massive scale surrounding it with watchposts firing in shells from a long distance and intending to destroy or cut off all Maroon provision grounds 49 Meanwhile Maroon attempts to recruit plantation slaves met with a mixed response though large numbers of runaway slaves gained their freedom by fighting for Trelawny Town 50 51 Other Maroon communities maintained neutrality but Accompong Town however fought on the side of the colonial militias against Trelawny Town 52 Despite signs that the siege was working Balcarres grew impatient and sent to Cuba for a hundred hunting dogs and handlers The reputation of these was so fearsome that their arrival quickly prompted the surrender of the majority of Trelawny forces 53 The Maroons however only put down their arms on condition that they would not be deported and Walpole gave his word that would be the case 48 To Walpole s dismay Balcarres refused to treat with the defeated Maroons and had them deported from Jamaica at first to Nova Scotia then to the new British colony of Sierra Leone and joined the African American founders who established the Colony of Sierra Leone and the settlement of Freetown Sierra Leone 54 55 56 From the 1830s on some Maroons or their descendants returned to Jamaica to work as free labourers and many of them settled in the village of Flagstaff near the old site of Trelawny Town although some of these returnees resettled in Sierra Leone 57 see Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone The descendants of the Returned Maroons live in Flagstaff today see Cudjoe s Town Trelawny Town Those who remained in Sierra Leone formed the new Creole ethnic group of Sierra Leone which established diaspora communities along the West African shores from Sierra Leone to the Gambia to Fernando Po 58 Maroons in the 19th century EditMaroons in the last years of slavery Edit Trelawny Town was the largest Maroon town so the population of Maroons in Jamaica was significantly dented by their deportation However in the nineteenth century the total population of the four remaining Maroon towns grew from 853 in 1808 to 1 563 in 1841 59 The Maroon towns grew in numbers at a time when the population of black slaves and white slave holders alike declined from disease One historian argues that this is due to the healthier environment of the Maroon towns 60 When the colonial authorities deported the Maroons of Trelawny Town they left a void which was filled by communities of runaway slaves The Maroons of the smaller town of Accompong were unable to cope with the growing numbers of runaways in western Jamaica who found refuge in the Cockpit Country The Accompong Maroons tried but failed in their attempts to disperse the runaway community of Cuffee Jamaica who established a community of runaway slaves in the Cockpit Country in 1798 61 When Cuffee s maroon group faded from the colonial records their place was taken by another group of runaways who established themselves in the Cockpit Country in 1812 The maroon community of Me no Sen You no Come also resisted attempts by the Accompong Maroons and the colonial militias to disperse them in the 1820s 62 A large maroon group of runaway slaves established themselves near Hellshire Beach in southern Jamaica and it thrived there for years until it was finally dispersed by a party of Windward Maroons in 1819 63 The Maroons played a significant role in helping the colonial authorities to suppress the Samuel Sharpe revolt in 1831 32 under the leadership of white superintendents such as Alexander Fyfe Fyffe 64 Sharpe s Baptist War persuaded the British government to end the system of slavery which they did in the years following the rebellion After that the colonial authorities had no use for the Maroons and they passed the Maroon Allotments Act in 1842 and abolished the post of superintendent in the 1850s Their attempts to break up the Maroon communal land while partially successful in Charles Town and Scott s Hall met with Maroon resistance in Accompong Town and Moore Town 65 66 The Returned Maroons of Flagstaff Edit Main article Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone After the Second Maroon War the colonial authorities converted Trelawny Town into a military barracks and renamed it Maroon Town Jamaica The Trelawny Maroons flourished in Sierra Leone at first but their situation soon soured and they submitted petitions to British government asking for permission to return to Jamaica These petitions were turned down 67 However in 1831 another petition was presented by 224 Sierra Leone Maroons to the British government and this time the Jamaican authorities relented They responded by saying they would place no obstacle in the way of Maroons returning to Jamaica but would not pay any passage or for the purchase of lands in the island 68 In 1839 the first Maroons made their way from Sierra Leone to Jamaica Mary Brown and her family which included her daughter Sarah McGale and a Spanish son in law sold off their property in Sierra Leone bought a schooner and set sail for Jamaica They were joined by two other Sierra Leone Maroons Mary Ricketts and her daughter Jane Bryan In 1841 this group found their way to Trelawny Town now called Maroon Town Jamaica but which they still insisted on calling Cudjoe s Town Their descendants still live there today in a village named Flagstaff among a group known as the Returned Maroons 69 In 1841 the first ship to arrive in Sierra Leone looking for African workers was the Hector and several Maroons were so desperate to leave Sierra Leone that they did not wait for the ship to dock but rowed out to meet it in their canoes In all 64 Maroons left Sierra Leone for Jamaica on the Hector alone Most Sierra Leone Maroons lived in Freetown and between 1837 and 1844 Freetown s Maroon population shrank from 650 to 454 suggesting that about 200 made their way back to Jamaica 70 As many as one third of the Maroons in Sierra Leone returned to Jamaica in the 1840s 71 Intervention in the Morant Bay Rebellion 1865 Edit Main article Morant Bay rebellion nbsp Six Maroons with rifles and in camouflage with Colonel Fyfe c 1865In 1865 poor free blacks led by Baptist deacon Paul Bogle rose in revolt against the colonial authorities in the Morant Bay Rebellion The governor called out the Moore Town Maroons one last time to put down the rebellion Fyfe was called up once more to lead a combination of Moore Town Maroons including some who resided in Hayfield and Bath and they committed a number of atrocities before they captured Bogle However their cruelty in suppressing the uprising attracted a lot of criticism from Methodist missionaries and residents of Saint Thomas Parish Jamaica 72 Maroons in the 21st century Edit nbsp Ferron Williams former Colonel in Chief and elected leader of AccompongTo this day the Maroons in Jamaica are to a small extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican culture Those of Accompong have preserved their land since 1739 The isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today resulted in their communities being among the most inaccessible on the island citation needed Today the four official Maroon towns still in existence in Jamaica are Accompong Town Moore Town Charles Town and Scott s Hall They hold lands allotted to them in the 1739 1740 treaties with the British 73 These Maroons still maintain their traditional celebrations and practices some of which have West African origin For example the council of a Maroon settlement is called an Asofo 74 from the Akan word asafo assembly church society 75 76 Native Jamaicans and island tourists are allowed to attend many of these events Others considered sacred are held in secret and shrouded in mystery Singing dancing drum playing and preparation of traditional foods form a central part of most gatherings 77 In their largest town Accompong in the parish of St Elizabeth the Leeward Maroons have a vibrant community of about 600 Tours of the village are offered to foreigners 78 They hold a large festival annually on 6 January to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War 79 80 Moore Town located between the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains in Portland Parish was relisted on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 for its Maroon heritage particularly music citation needed Jamaican Maroon treaty towns EditIn Jamaica Edit Leeward Maroons Edit Cudjoe s Town Trelawny Town ruled by Cudjoe and secured recognition from the British after the First Maroon War 1728 1740 Most of the Trelawny Maroons were deported after the Second Maroon War to Nova Scotia and then to Sierra Leone Eventually after Emancipation in the 1840s a few hundred Trelawny Maroons eventually returned from Sierra Leone and established a community of Returned Maroons near the site of Trelawny Town and called it Flagstaff The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town still live in Flagstaff today Maroon Town Jamaica after the deportation of the Trelawny Maroons the British colonial government took control of Trelawny Town and established a military barracks there It became known as Maroon Town though no Maroons lived there any more Accompong along with Cudjoe s Town Accompong was the main settlement of the Leeward Maroons Ruled by Accompong after whom the town was named Windward Maroons Edit Nanny Town one of the two main towns of the Windward Maroons during the First Maroon War led by the legendary Queen Nanny located in the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica This town exchanged hands several times during the First Maroon War and was eventually abandoned for a new site named New Nanny Town also located in the Blue Mountains Moore Town the new site of the inhabitants of Nanny Town and originally named New Nanny Town Crawford s Town another of the two main towns of the Windward Maroons during the First Maroon War led by Quao After the First Maroon War Quao was replaced as leader by Edward Crawford after whom the town was later named In the 1750s a conflict between two factions led by these two opposing leaders eventually led to destruction of Crawford s Town Charles Town Jamaica was established in the 1750s after the destruction of Crawford s Town Most of its new inhabitants were the supporters of Ned Crawford who made up the majority of the Maroons in Crawford s Town Scott s Hall Jamaica was a minor Maroon town that predated the destruction of Crawford s Town In the 1750s the supporters of Quao who made up the minority of the Maroons in Crawford s Town relocated to Scott s Hall In Sierra Leone Edit Maroon Town Sierra Leone became a settlement of Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone after the Trelawny Maroons were deported from Jamaica Notable people from Maroon communities EditMain article List of Jamaican MaroonsSee also Edit nbsp Jamaica portalBlack Nova Scotians Black Seminoles Coromantee Dread amp Alive comic series centred on a maroon Jamaican Maroon Creole Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone Kromanti dance religious Maroon people Maroon Town Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Creole peopleNotes Edit Thayer James Steel 1991 A Dissenting View of Creole Culture in Sierra Leone Cahiers d Etudes africaines 31 121 215 230 doi 10 3406 cea 1991 2116 Archived from the original on 10 August 2021 Retrieved 23 August 2021 Browne Davies Nigel 2014 A Precis of Sources relating to genealogical research on the Sierra Leone Krio people Journal of Sierra Leone Studies 3 1 Archived from the original on 15 April 2022 Retrieved 23 August 2021 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint date and year link Walker James W 1992 Chapter Five Foundation of Sierra Leone The Black Loyalists The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783 1870 Toronto University of Toronto Press pp 94 114 ISBN 978 0 8020 7402 7 originally published by Longman amp Dalhousie University Press 1976 Taylor Bankole Kamara February 2014 Sierra Leone The Land Its People and History New Africa Press p 68 ISBN 9789987160389 Archived from the original on 30 August 2021 Retrieved 23 August 2021 Grant John N 2002 The Maroons in Nova Scotia Softcover Formac p 203 ISBN 978 0887805691 Campbell Mavis 1993 Back to Africa George Ross and the Maroons Trenton Africa World Press p 48 Sivapragasam Michael 2020 The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town Navigating Crosscurrents Trans linguality Trans culturality and Trans identification in the Dutch Caribbean and Beyond ed by Nicholas Faraclas etc Curacao Puerto Rico University of Curacao p 17 Seminole Origin and meaning of Seminole by Online Etymology Dictionary www etymonline com Archived from the original on 9 October 2016 Retrieved 7 October 2016 Madrilejo N Lombard H Torres JB 2015 Origins of marronage Mitochondrial lineages of Jamaica s Accompong Town Maroons Am J Hum Biol 27 3 432 37 doi 10 1002 ajhb 22656 PMID 25392952 S2CID 30255510 Sivapragasam Michael 2018 After the Treaties A Social Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica 1739 1842 Archived 20 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine PhD Dissertation African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library Southampton Southampton University pp 23 24 Agorsah E Kofi 1994 Archaeology of Maroon Settlements in Jamaica Maroon Heritage Archaeological Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives ed E Kofi Agorsah Kingston University of the West Indies Canoe Press pp 180 81 a b c d Craton Michael 2009 Testing the Chains Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies Cornell University Press pp 70 74 ISBN 978 0 8014 7528 3 Archived from the original on 14 April 2020 Retrieved 19 March 2020 Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 a History of Resistance Collaboration amp Betrayal Massachusetts Bergin amp Garvey pp 25 26 Carey Bev 1997 The Maroon Story The Authentic and Original History of the Maroons in the History of Jamaica 1490 1880 Kingston Jamaica Agouti Press p 113 Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica pp 14 25 Sainsbury W Noel America and West Indies Calendar of State Papers Colonial America and West Indies 1 5 1574 1660 1661 1668 Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 pp 23 32 33 Craton 1982 pp 75 76 Craton 1982 pp 77 78 Thicknesse Philip 1790 Memoirs and Anecdotes of Philip Thicknesse Dublin Craisberry and Campbell pp 56 77 Craton 1982 pp 78 81 Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica pp 48 49 Craton 1982 pp 78 79 Craton 1982 p 81 Jamaican Ministry of Education Youth amp Culture Jamaica s National Heroes Archived from the original on 28 September 2007 Retrieved 18 January 2008 Craton Testing the Chains 1982 pp 82 84 Craton 1982 p 85 Craton 1982 p 87 Craton 1982 pp 87 88 a b Craton 1982 pp 88 90 Craton 1982 pp 91 92 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties p 56 Kopytoff Barbara 1976 Jamaican Maroon Political Organization the Effects of the Treaties Social and Economic Studies Vol 25 No 2 pp 92 97 Paterson Orlando 1996 Slavery and Slave Revolts A Sociohistorical Analysis of the First Maroon War 1665 1740 Maroon Societies Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas ed Richard Price London Johns Hopkins University Press p 273 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 54 57 Siva Michael 2018 After the Treaties A Social Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica 1739 1842 PDF PhD Southampton Southampton University Archived PDF from the original on 28 July 2020 Retrieved 5 April 2019 p 240 Craton 1982 pp 130 31 Craton 1982 pp 135 36 Brown Vincent 2020 Tacky s Revolt The Story of an Atlantic Slave War Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press pp 1 2 See Talk Page on the use of Maroons with a capital M to discuss the Maroons who came to terms versus the runaway slaves who continued to form maroon communities now described with a common m Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 75 114 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 109 17 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties p 278 Craton 1982 pp 211 14 Craton 1982 p 214 Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 pp 209 49 Craton 1982 pp 215 217 19 a b c Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica pp 209 49 Craton 1982 p 219 Sivapragasam Michael 2019 The Second Maroon War Runaway Slaves fighting on the side of Trelawny Town Slavery amp Abolition doi 10 1080 0144039X 2019 1662683 Retrieved 10 September 2019 Craton Testing the Chains 1982 p 218 Campbell 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 p 220 Craton 1982 pp 220 21 Craton 1982 pp 222 23 USI Home Page www understandingslavery com Archived from the original on 8 April 2022 Retrieved 15 April 2022 Grant John 1980 Black Nova Scotians Halifax The Nova Scotia Museum Fortin 2006 p 23 Baron Robert amp Ana C Cara Creolization as Cultural Creativity p 152 Siva 2018 After the Treaties PDF PhD Archived PDF from the original on 28 July 2020 Retrieved 5 April 2019 p 243 Siva 2018 After the Treaties PDF PhD Archived PDF from the original on 28 July 2020 Retrieved 5 April 2019 pp 238 46 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 182 90 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 191 93 Sivapragasam After the Treaties p 196 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 201 03 277 Sivapragasam 2018 After the Treaties pp 254 55 Carey 1997 The Maroon Story p 560 Sivapragasam 2020 The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town pp 17 18 Sivapragasam 2020 The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town p 18 Sivapragasam 2020 The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town pp 18 19 Sivapragasam 2020 The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town p 18 Sivapragasam 2020 The Returned Maroons of Trelawny Town pp 13 18 Heuman Gad 1994 The Killing Time The Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica Knoxville The University of Tennessee Press pp 131 36 Carey 1997 The Maroon Story The Authentic and Original History of the Maroons in the History of Jamaica 1490 1880 Kingston Jamaica Agouti Press 1997 Sangster Ian 1973 Jamaica A Benn Holiday Guide Anyamesɛm Anaa Twerɛ Kronkron Akan Kasa Mu The Bible in Twi Asante The Bible Society of Ghana Accra 1964 Rottmann W J compiler 1913 Kristo Asafo Abakọsẹm Tẇi Kasa Mu Church History in Tshi Basel Basel Evangelical Missionary Society A History of the Maroons of Jamaica The Farin Voice 3 November 2013 Archived 27 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine Government of Accompong Archived from the original on 28 February 2021 Retrieved 15 April 2022 Campbell Mavis Christine 1988 The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 A History of Resistance Collaboration amp Betrayal Granby MA Bergin amp Garvey Edwards Bryan 1796 Observations on the disposition character manners and habits of life of the Maroon negroes of the island of Jamaica and a detail of the origin progress and termination of the late war between those people and the white inhabitants in Edwards Bryan 1801 Historical Survey of the Island of Saint Domingo London J Stockdale pp 303 60 References EditCampbell Mavis C The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 A History of Resistance Collaboration amp Betrayal Granby Mass Bergin amp Garvey 1988 ISBN 0 89789 148 1 Carey Bev 1997 The Maroon story The authentic and original history of the Maroons in the history of Jamaica 1490 1880 A Maroon and Jamaica heritage series Gordon Town Jamaica Agouti Press Craton Michael Testing the Chains Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies Cornell University Press 1982 ISBN 0 8014 1252 8 Dallas R C The History of the Maroons from Their Origin to the Establishment of Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone 2 vols London Longman 1803 Fortin Jeffrey A Blackened Beyond Our Native Hue Removal Identity and the Trelawney Maroons on the Margins of the Atlantic World 1796 1800 Citizenship Studies Vol 10 No 1 5 34 February 2006 Thompson Alvin O Flight to Freedom African Runaways and Maroons in the Americas Kingston University of the West Indies Press 2006 ISBN 976 640 180 2 Sivapragasam Michael 2018 After the Treaties A Social Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica 1739 1842 PDF PhD Southampton Southampton University Further reading EditBilby Kenneth Jamaican Maroons at the Crossroads Losing Touch With Tradition Caribbean Review Fall 1980 Bilby Kenneth M 2005 True born Maroons New World diasporas Gainesville University Press of Florida Blake Edith The Maroons of Jamaica North American Review 1898 online text at Archive org via JSTOR Campbell Mavis C The Maroons of Jamaica 1655 1796 A History of Resistance Collaboration amp Betrayal Granby MA Bergin amp Garvey 1988 Dunham Katherine Journey to Accompong New York Henry Holt and Company 1946 Sivapragasam Michael 2018 After the Treaties A Social Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica 1739 1842 PDF PhD Southampton Southampton University Smith Horane Marooned in Nova Scotia A Story of the Jamaican Maroons in Canada America Star 2010 https wiredja com index php categories newsberg regions diaspora marooned in nova scotia a story of the jamaican maroons in canada by horane smithExternal links EditCommon Medicinal Plants of Portland Jamaica Maroon Marocon culture Queen Nanny Windward Maroons Itz Caribbean Video Accompong Black freedom fighters in Jamaica 1992 Onlinearchiv Osterreichische Mediathek Maroons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Jamaican Maroons amp oldid 1180952909, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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