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.
In 1655, the English defeated the Spanish colonists and took control of most of the Colony of Jamaica. After the Spanish fled, Africans that had previously been enslaved joined the Amerindian population, and some others who had previously escaped slavery, in the centre of Jamaica to form the Windward Maroon communities. The area is known as the Blue Mountains. The white population on the island of Jamaica boomed between 1655 and 1661, swelling to roughly 12,000 white inhabitants. In 1662, however, only a little over 3,000 remained.[1]
The white-to-enslaved population ratio shifted in the following decades, leaving a majority of enslaved people and very few white settlers. British forces were unable to establish control over the whole island, so a large portion remained in the hands of the Maroons, particularly in the rugged interior. For 76 years, there were periodic skirmishes between the British and the Maroons, alongside occasional revolts from enslaved people. In 1673, a revolt of 200 enslaved Africans in St. Ann Parish created a separate group, the Leeward Maroons. These Maroons united with a group of Malagasy people who had survived a shipwreck and formed their own maroon community in the parish of St. George in northeastern Jamaica.[citation needed] Several more rebellions strengthened the numbers of this Leeward group. Notably, in 1690 a revolt of 400 enslaved Africans at Sutton's plantation, in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, considerably strengthened the Leeward Maroons.[2]
The First Maroon War took place periodically between 1728 and 1740, and the Maroon leadership during this conflict featured Nanny of the Maroons, who was known for her expertise in guerrilla warfare, and Quao in the Windward Maroons, and Cudjoe and Accompong in the Leeward Maroons. A number of Maroon captains fought under their leadership, such as Welcome and Jeddo for Nanny Town.
History of the First Maroon War
In September 1728, the British sent more troops to Jamaica, changing the balance of power with the Windward Maroons. That year, the British sent a new governor, Major-General Robert Hunter, to Jamaica, and under his rule the conflict with the Maroons escalated. One of the Maroon captains, a man called Jeddo, who according to Maroon historian Bev Carey is celebrated as a brave warrior by the Maroons of Moore Town, led an attack on the north east town of Port Antonio a year later, and when the British soldiers under Lieutenant Soaper tried to pursue them, the Maroons caught them off guard. Jeddo would have been a lieutenant of Nanny.[3]
During the First Maroon War, the Maroons used guerrilla tactics to inflict greater losses on the colonial militias in terms of both manpower and expense. In 1730, Soaper led a large force against the Windward Maroons, but once again the Maroons, led by Nanny and Quao, defeated the militia. The next year, two additional regiments arrived in Jamaica to assist Hunter in fighting the Maroons.[3]
In 1732, Hunter sent three parties against the Windward Maroons, and they occupied Nanny Town when the Maroons, led by Nanny, withdrew further into the Blue Mountains. The occupation of Nanny Town was expensive, and Hunter eventually recalled the militia, allowing the Maroons to re-take their town without a fight. The next year, Hunter sent a party of British seamen against the Windward Maroons, but the Maroons defeated them.[4]
In 1734, the Windward Maroons fought the British in Portland Parish and St George. Enslaved Africans continued to free themselves and desert the Black Shot support forces in large numbers. Hunter died and was succeeded as governor by John Ayscough, but he also had limited success against the Maroons.[5] That year, the militia recaptured Nanny Town.[6]
In 1734, Nanny led the Maroons to victory against a party led by Captain Shettlewood. A group of the liberated Africans conquered an estate in St George, including a fort and the barracks there.[7] The Windward Maroons removed westwards to the John Crow Mountains at a place called Cattawoods or Cattawood Springs, and continued their resistance to colonization. Colonial Jamaica was counting the cost of the continuing conflict. By the end of 1734, the island's white population had fallen to about 2,000. Sugar exports had fallen, and the island went through periods of martial law.[8]
In 1735, over 100 Leeward Maroon warriors, led by Cudjoe, boldly conquered military barracks in western Jamaica. Ayscough died in office, and John Gregory became the new governor, and he immediately had to tackle the problem of Maroon attacks. In retaliation for the militia's occupation of Nanny Town, Windward Maroon warriors launched assaults on Titchfield Fort in Port Antonio.[8]
In 1736, Maroons on both sides of the island launched a number of incursions into planter territory.[9] In 1737, there were more Maroon attacks on estates in coastal areas.[10] Gregory began to consider offering peace terms to the Maroons, because the British forces were unable to defeat them, while he authorised the construction of barracks at Manchioneal, Jamaica in Portland, Norman's Valley in Saint James Parish, Jamaica, and at Bagnell's Thicket. However, the building of barracks was expensive, and some planters refused to take part in funding it, claiming the Maroons never troubled them.[8]
Eventually, the arrival of Edward Trelawny resulted in peace becoming a real possibility after a decade of fighting.
The Peace Treaties
In 1739–40, the British government in Jamaica recognized that it could not defeat the Maroons, so Trelawny offered them peace treaties instead.[11]
The maroon leader Cudjoe parleying with the planter John Guthrie
In 1739, the planter and colonial militia John Guthrie signed the first treaty with the Leeward Maroon leader, Cudjoe, who for years fought to maintain his people's independence.[12] He felt that the only hope for the future was an honorable peace with the enemy. A year later, the Windward Maroons of Nanny Town, led by Queen Nanny and Quao, also agreed to sign a treaty under pressure from both white Jamaicans and the Leeward Maroons. The peace treaties forced the Maroons to support the institution of slavery.[13]
Legacy
The success of the Maroons in fighting the British to a standstill was felt far and wide, and half a century later, the creator of independent Haiti, Toussaint L'Ouverture, remarked that, "in Jamaica there are in the mountains Blacks who have forced the English to make treaties with them. Well, I am black like them. I know how to make war."[14]
In exchange, they were asked to agree not to harbour newly self-liberated Africans ("runaways"), but rather to help catch them. This last clause in the treaty caused a split between the Maroons and the rest of the black population. Another provision of the agreement was that the Maroons would serve to protect the island from invaders.[16]
Discontent with the treaty and land encroachment from planters later led to the Second Maroon War.[17]
Related Research Articles
Old Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish, north-eastern Jamaica, used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons. They were led in the early 18th century by an Ashanti escaped slave known as Granny Nanny, or Queen Nanny. The town held out against repeated attacks from the colonial militia before being abandoned in 1734.
Accompong is a historical Maroon village located in the hills of St. Elizabeth Parish on the island of Jamaica. It is located in Cockpit Country, where Jamaican Maroons and indigenous Taíno established a fortified stronghold in the hilly terrain in the 17th century. They defended it and maintained independence from the Spanish and then later the British, after the colony changed hands.
Queen Nanny, Granny Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons ONH, was an 18th-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons. She led a community of formerly enslaved Africans called the Windward Maroons. In the early 18th century, under the leadership of Nanny, the Windward Maroons fought a guerrilla war over many years against British authorities in the Colony of Jamaica in what became known as the First Maroon War.
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.
Cockpit Country is an area in Trelawny and Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, Saint Ann, Manchester and the northern tip of Clarendon parishes in Jamaica. The land is marked by steep-sided hollows, as much as 120 metres (390 ft) deep in places, which are separated by conical hills and ridges. Maroons who had escaped from plantations used the difficult territory for its natural defences to develop communities outside the control of Spanish or British colonists.
Tacky's Revolt, Tacky's Rebellion, or Tacky's War 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 (TwiTakyi) in eastern Jamaica.
Cattawood Springs is a place in Portland Parish, Jamaica located at latitude 18 04' 00", longitude 76 26' 00".
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.
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."
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was primarily used for sugarcane production, and experienced many slave rebellions over the course of British rule. Jamaica was granted independence in 1962.
Edward Trelawny was a British colonial administrator and military officer who served as the governor of Jamaica from April 1738 to September 1752. He is best known for his role in signing a treaty with ended the First Maroon War between the British colonial government in Jamaica and the Jamaican Maroons.
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.
Crawford's Town was one of the two main towns belonging to the Windward Maroons, who fought a guerrilla war of resistance against the British colonial forces of Jamaica during the First Maroon War of the 1730s.
Charles Town is one of four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located on Buff Bay River in Portland Parish.
Scott's Hall is one of the four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica.
Thomas Sutton was the speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1691-92 and 1698.
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
↑ Patterson, Orlando (September 1970). "Slavery and Slave Revolts: A Sociohistorical Analysis of the First Maroon War, 1655–1740". Social and Economic Studies. 19 (3): 289–325. JSTOR27856434.
↑ 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. 38.
↑ Mavis Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796: a History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal (Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1988), p. 105.
↑ Mavis Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796: a History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal (Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1988), pp. 126–163.
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.
Patterson, Orlando (1973). "Slavery and Slave Revolts: A Sociohistorical Analysis of the First Maroon War, 1665–1740". In Price, Richard (ed.). Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas. Anchor Books. ISBN0-385-06508-6.
Campbell, Mavis C. (1990). The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655-1796. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press. ISBN0-86543-096-9.
Among the early historians to mention the Jamaican Maroons and the First Maroon War were the following:
Dallas, R. C. (1803). The History of the Maroons, From Their Origin to the Establishment of their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone. London: Longman.
Edwards, Bryan (1793). History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies.
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