Andrew Smith (Maroon)

Last updated

Andrew Smith (died c. early 1800s) was a Maroon officer from Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town). His brother, Charles Samuels, was also an officer from Trelawny Town, and both officers reported to Colonel Montague James.

Contents

Second Maroon War

1801 aquatint of a maroon raid on the Dromilly estate, Jamaica, during the Second Maroon War of 1795-6. The Maroons In Ambush On The Dromilly Estate In The Parish Of Trelawney, Jamaica in 1795.jpg
1801 aquatint of a maroon raid on the Dromilly estate, Jamaica, during the Second Maroon War of 1795–6.

As the population of the Jamaican Maroon village of Trelawny Town grew in the second half of the eighteenth century, Andrew Smith set up a satellite village of his own in the rural Westmoreland Parish. [1]

When the Second Maroon War broke out between Trelawny Town and the colonial authorities, the militias destroyed Smith's village. As a result, Smith joined the Trelawny Maroons as they fought against the forces of Governor Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres. When General George Walpole eventually persuaded the Trelawny Maroons to lay down their arms on a promise that they would not be deported, Smith was one of the first to surrender. However, Balcarres exploited a clause in the treaty to claim that most of the maroons did not surrender in time, and ordered their deportation. [2]

Smith was one of a handful of Maroons to have met the deadline, and he was offered the opportunity to remain in Jamaica. However, he was so outraged by the governor's duplicity that he chose to go with the rest of the Trelawny Maroons into exile. [3]

Nova Scotia

The authorities of the Colony of Jamaica decided to deport the Trelawny Maroons to Nova Scotia. While they were in detention, Smith curried favour with the colonial authorities by identifying a number of runaway slaves who had fought on the side of Trelawny Town. When they reached Nova Scotia, Smith was regarded by his fellow maroons as a traitor. [4] However, most maroon officers remained loyal to the runaways who fought on their side, and hundreds of them gained their freedom as a result of the conflict. [5]

In a letter to his half-brother Samuels from Nova Scotia in 1797, Smith complained that the Maroons hated him and that they wanted to kill him. Walpole reported that Smith did not get on with other Maroon officers such as Leonard Parkinson and James Palmer. [6] [7] However, most Maroon officers remained loyal to the runaways who fought on their side, and hundreds of them gained their freedom as a result of the conflict. [8]

Sierra Leone

On the journey to Sierra Leone, Smith joined James in complaining about corruption in the distribution of provisions by another Maroon officer, Major Jarrett. On investigating the proceedings, superintendent George Ross found that James and Smith were correct, and he dismissed John Jarrett from his post. [9]

When the ship carrying the Trelawny Maroons arrived in Freetown, the British authorities asked them for help in putting down a rebellion by the Black Nova Scotians. The Trelawny Maroons, including Smith, agreed, and after they put down the revolt, the Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone received the best land and houses. [10]

England

It appears that Smith was unhappy with his position in Sierra Leone, and he shortly afterwards migrated to England. In 1805, two Maroons from Sierra Leone, John Thorp or Thorpe and Andrew Smith, were recorded as living in Clapham in London, and they had their teenaged sons baptised there. [11] Thorpe became a lawyer, but there is no evidence what happened to Smith, who probably died in England shortly afterwards. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accompong</span> Place in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres</span> General in the British Army

Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and de jure 23rd Earl of Crawford was the son of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. He was a general in the British Army.

The First Maroon War was a conflict between the Jamaican Maroons and the colonial British authorities that started around 1728 and continued until the peace treaties of 1739 and 1740. It was led by self-liberated Africans who set up communities in the mountains. The name "Maroon" was given to these Africans, and for many years they fought the British colonial Government of Jamaica for their freedom. The maroons were very skilled particularly in guerrilla warfare. It was followed about half a century later by the Second Maroon War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Maroon War</span>

The Second Maroon War of 1795–1796 was an eight-month conflict between the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town, a Maroon settlement later re-named after Governor Edward Trelawny at the end of First Maroon War, located near Trelawny Parish, Jamaica in the St James Parish, and the British colonials who controlled the island. The Windward communities of Jamaican Maroons remained neutral during this rebellion and their treaty with the British still remains in force. Accompong Town, however, sided with the colonial militias, and fought against Trelawny Town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tacky's War</span> 1760s slave rebellion in the Colony of Jamaica

Tacky's War, Tacky's Revolt, or Tacky's Rebellion was a widespread fight for their freedom by enslaved people in the British Colony of Jamaica in the 1760s. Led by Akan people -- tribes including Ashanti, Fanti, Nzema and Akyem, -- it was loosely led by a Fanti royal and warlord called Tacky (Takyi) in eastern Jamaica, and Dahomean war chief or coastal headman Apongo in the western end of the island.

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.

Major John Jarrett was a Jamaican Maroon leader of the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town in Jamaica. He was most likely named after a neighbouring planter with a similar surname.

The Jamaican Maroons in Sierra Leone were a group of just under 600 Jamaican Maroons from Cudjoe's Town, the largest of the five Jamaican maroon towns who were deported by the British authorities in Jamaica following the Second Maroon War in 1796, first to Nova Scotia. Four years later in 1800, they were transported to Sierra Leone.

Maroon Town is a settlement in Jamaica. It has a population of 3122 as of 2009.

Moore Town is a Maroon settlement located in the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains of Portland, Jamaica, accessible by road from Port Antonio. The easternmost Maroon town, Moore Town is located in the eastern end of the parish. Formerly known as New Nanny Town, Moore Town was founded in 1740 when the Peace Treaty was signed between the British colonial authorities and the Windward Maroons. This treaty allotted the Moore Town Maroons 1000 acres, but Moore Town only received 500. In 1781 the initial 500 acres was augmented with another 500 acres, taking their communal land up to 1,000 acres.

Cudjoe, Codjoe or Captain Cudjoe, sometimes spelled Cudjo – corresponding to the Akan day name Kojo, Codjoe or Kwadwo – was a Maroon leader in Jamaica during the time of Nanny of the Maroons. In Twi, Cudjoe or Kojo is the name given to a boy born on a Monday. He has been described as "the greatest of the Maroon leaders."

Major-General The Honourable George Walpole, was a British soldier and politician. He gained distinction after suppressing the Maroon insurrection in Jamaica in 1795. After entering Parliament in 1797, he served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1806 to 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents headed by Lord Grenville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town)</span> Settlement of Jamaican Maroons in Westmoreland, Jamaica

Cudjoe's Town was located in the mountains in the southern extremities of the parish of St James, close to the border of Westmoreland, Jamaica.

Quao was one of the leaders of the Windward Maroons, who fought the British colonial forces of Jamaica to a standstill during the First Maroon War of the 1730s. The name Quao is probably a variation of Yaw, which is the Twi Akan name given to a boy born on a Thursday.

Samuel Grant (1741-1808), Maroon officer from Charles Town, Jamaica. Sam Grant was an officer of the Jamaican Maroons who made a career out of hunting runaway slaves.

Montague James was a Maroon leader of Cudjoe's Town in the last decade of eighteenth-century Jamaica. It is possible that Maroon colonel Montague James took his name from the white superintendent of Trelawny Town, John Montague James.

Cuffee was an escaped slave in Jamaica who led other runaway slaves to form a community of Free black people in Jamaica in the island's forested interior, and they raided white plantation owners at the end of the eighteenth century. The name Cuffee is a variation of the Twi Akan name Kofi, which is the name given to a boy born on a Friday.

Charles Samuels was a maroon officer from Cudjoe's Town, and he was the brother of Captain Andrew Smith. Both officers reported to Colonel Montague James, the leader of Trelawny Town.

Charles Town is one of four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located on Buff Bay River in Portland Parish.

Free black people in Jamaica fell into two categories. Some secured their freedom officially, and lived within the slave communities of the Colony of Jamaica. Others ran away from slavery, and formed independent communities in the forested mountains of the interior. This latter group included the Jamaican Maroons, and subsequent fugitives from the sugar and coffee plantations of coastal Jamaica.

References

  1. Michael Siva, After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842, PhD Dissertation (Southampton: Southampton University, 2018), p. 46.
  2. Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 150-1. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/423482/1/LIBRARY_COPY_After_The_Treaties_Final.pdf
  3. Mavis Campbell, Back to Africa: George Ross and the Maroons (Trenton: Africa World Press, 1993), pp. 5-7.
  4. Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 179-180.
  5. Michael Sivapragasam (2019) "The Second Maroon War: Runaway Slaves fighting on the side of Trelawny Town", Slavery & Abolition, DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2019.1662683 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/PEX47HQYJUGEEZRJY6DE/full?target=10.1080/0144039X.2019.1662683 Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  6. John Grant, The Maroons in Nova Scotia (Halifax: Formac, 2002), p. 116.
  7. Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 179-180.
  8. Michael Sivapragasam (2019) "The Second Maroon War: Runaway Slaves fighting on the side of Trelawny Town", Slavery & Abolition, DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2019.1662683 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/PEX47HQYJUGEEZRJY6DE/full?target=10.1080/0144039X.2019.1662683 Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  9. Mavis Campbell, Back to Africa, pp. 5-7.
  10. Simon Schama, Rough Crossings (London: 2005), pp. 380-3.
  11. Baptisms in the Parish of Clapham 1805, P95/TRI 1/092 (London Metropolitan Archives).
  12. West, Richard, Back to Africa: A History of Sierra Leone and Liberia (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1970), p. 163.