Jamaican Maroons, Freed Black People in Interior Mountains, Wars with Colonial Powers

[appalachiablue]

🌴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.

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 US were also resettled. The deported Maroons were unhappy with conditions in Canada, and in 1800 a majority left, having obtained passage to Freetown 8 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...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Maroons
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(Discovering Bristol, UK). - The Maroons of Jamaica. - The Maroons were escaped slaves. They ran away from their Spanish-owned plantations when the British took the Caribbean island of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The word maroon comes from the Spanish word ‘cimarrones‘, which meant ‘mountaineers’. They fled to the mountainous areas of Jamaica, where it was difficult for their owners to follow and catch them, and formed independent communities as free men and women.

As more slaves were imported from Africa to work on the developing sugar plantations, and the population of enslaved Africans grew on Jamaica, there were more rebellions by the slaves. Some of the rebel slaves disappeared into the mountains and joined the Maroon communities. As the Maroon population grew, the Jamaican government decided to defeat the Maroons once and for all. They were seen as a constant threat by the government. The 1st Maroon War began in 1728. The campaign against them made the Maroons more determined than ever.

Under their leader called Cudjoe, the Maroons fought back. In 1739, the British and the Maroons made peace. The freedom of the Maroons was recognised and their land was given to them. The Maroons were to govern themselves. In return they would support the British government in Jamaica against foreign invasion and would help capture rebel slaves and runaways from the plantations and return them to their owners. Although this agreement might seem strange now, it was one way for the Maroons to live in peace with the island’s government.

The leaders of the Maroons did meet British officers to accept a peace agreement offered to them. There were many years of peace between the Maroons and the British in Jamaica. But, in 1795, the new Governor of Jamaica, Balcarres, decided to deal with some minor breaches of the peace treaty by a community of Maroons called the Trelawney Town Maroons. The plantation owners asked the governor not to take action. They felt that an agreement should be reached with the Maroons to maintain the peace of the town. The governor went ahead against this advice, arresting several of the leaders of Trelawney Town. This started the 2nd Maroon War. 300 Maroons in Trelawney Town held out against 1500 troops and 3000 local volunteer troops...
https://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/against-slavery/black-resistance-against-slavery/the-maroons-of-jamaica/

[Quakerfriend]

1. Thank you for the history lesson. I had

no idea. I’ve always been interested in the
history of the Dismal Swamp & the maroons who made a life there, in the US.

[appalachiablue]

2. YW, the 2nd article I just posted above notes that

the word maroon comes from the Spanish 'cimarrones' meaning mountaineers.
The source below emphasizes 'runaway' - to wherever slaves can be protected from the authorities- remote mountains, swamps, etc.
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- More about maroons/runaway slaves in the Americas, Wiki :

.. The American Spanish word cimarrón is also often given as the source of the English word maroon, used to describe the runaway slave communities in Florida, in the Great Dismal Swamp on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, on colonial islands of the Caribbean, and in other parts of the New World. Linguist Lyle Campbell says the Spanish word cimarrón means 'wild, unruly' or 'runaway slave'.[5] In the early 1570s, Sir Francis Drake's raids on the Spanish in Panama were aided by "Symerons," a likely misspelling of cimarrón...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroons
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Jamaica is a beautiful tropical island, with natural beauty and lots to do - the ocean, beaches, waterfalls, mountains, friendly people and terrific culture. We went horseback riding in the lower mountains.