jamacian maroons

8/2/2019 Jamacian Maroons

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The JamaicanMaroons

Escaped slaves who fought the British rulers inJamaica


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Jamaica is one of largest Caribbean

Islands


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When Christopher Columbus arrived at theisland in 1494, he claimed the land for

Spain.
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In 1655, the British captured Jamaica fromthe Spanish.

When the British captured Jamaica from theSpanish, the Spanish ran away from the islandafter freeing their slaves and turning their cattleloose.

The Spanish did not want the British to be ableto set up farming on the island easily.

Once they were freed, the slaves became afighting force and adopted the name Maroons.

They escaped into the mountains & jungles.
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The word Maroon

comes from the word

cimarrone whichmeans runaway

slave or savage inSpanish.


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The British also brought alot of slaves to Jamaica via

the Atlantic Slave Trade It became the most

important slaving colony ofthe British Caribbean andwas known as "the jewelsin the English crown.

Within 100 years, virtually

the whole island had beendivided up into largeplantations. (Mostly sugarplantations)


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Slaves began toescape from

their plantationsbecause theyrefused to accept

their colonialslave masters

They joined the

Maroons in thewilderness ofJamaica


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The Jamaican Maroons began a verysuccessful guerilla warfare by strikingquickly at night, then disappearing.

At the same time, they established anearly-warning system - using an abeng

(horn) to warn their villages of attack bythe red-coats (British).


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They were successful, in retaining theirindependence by constantly defending

their freedom. Their settlements were small (not more

than 2,000 strong) but they fought as if

they were in greater numbers.


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For the next 76 years the Maroons and theBritish fought with each other.

The Maroons knew the forests well and usedleaves to disguise themselves.

Their successful attacks gave rise to a saying`Land of Look Behind' - because the British hadto always look behind them for a suddenambush.

The British lost many people to the sharpshooting Maroons.


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Many of their hit-and-run attacks becameoften-told epics

The most famous tale was about Nanny, awarrior queen


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Nanny, who fought the British at the beginning ofthe 1700s, is often described as an almost

supernatural Ashante warrior Queen who couldcatch musket balls and fire them back

She wasthe spiritual, cultural and military leaderof the Windward Maroons who had a strongholdin the Blue Mountains, known as Nanny Town.

She was also known as the MountainQueen


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She was an excellent leader, who was

able to keep the British out of the Blue

Mountains by using guerilla warfare. It took the British 6 years to locate

Nanny Town

When they tried to attack the town, Nanny and

her followers dumped boiling water on thetroops.

Eventually, the British destroyed the town, killingNanny, by using canon fire.

She is still considered a national hero today!


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In 1729, the British began what was tobecome known as the `First Maroon War'.

Cudjo or Kojo, emerged as leader of theMaroons.

I 1739 i d i h h


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In 1739, a treaty was signed with theMaroons.

Under its terms, they were to remain in

their five main towns, living under theirown chief and a British supervisor.

In exchange, they were asked to agree not

to take in new runaway slaves, but ratherto help catch them.


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In 1795, Trelawney Town Maroons declared warfor a second time against the British.

They felt that they were being badly treatedunder the terms of the treaty.

They felt that the land allotted to them forfarming was rocky and inadequate

This time the British were more successful.

Using dogs, they flushed the Maroons from theirhiding places, forcing peace.


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In order to teach them a lesson, almost 600maroons were put on 3 prison ships and were

sent away from Jamaica in 1796.

The Mary The Ann The Dover

The British thought about sending them to UpperCanada, but eventually decided on Nova Scotia.


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They were held in Halifax Harbour untilthey were released to work in Citadel Fort

in Halifax.

One of the walls in the fort is named

Maroon Wall.


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Accommodations were first made in thecenter of Halifax, but were later located to

land in Preston, which was left vacant bythe Black Loyalists. Maroon Hall was builtfor them here.

Eventually, they were split into 2

communities: Preston and the other afarming community of Boydville located inthe area known as Maroon Hill (now

Middle Sackville)


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In 1798, the Maroons became dissatisfiedwith life in Nova Scotia.

They attempted to farm. However, like theprevious occupants of the poor, rocky landat Preston, they had little success.

They found farming in Nova Scotiadifficult, especially as the climateprevented the growing of familiar food

crops such as pineapples, bananas, yams,and cocoa.


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Lieutenant Governor Sir JohnWentworth attempted to change theMaroons culture by introducing them

to Christianity.

However, the Maroons were notinterested in changing their traditions

and customs regarding marriage,funerals and religious beliefs.

They also found it difficult to get jobs because

they refused to work for less wages than a whiteperson would receive. This caused financialdisputes with the government.

They also did not enjoy the climate and wereisolated.


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They requested permission to leave andthe Sierra Leone Company came in 1800

to take them to Sierra Leone.

jamacian maroons

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