Maroon Town, Jamaica

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Maroon Town
Location of Maroon Town in Jamaica

Maroon Town is a settlement in Jamaica. It has a population of 3122 as of 2009. [1]

Contents

Geography and economy

Maroon Town is located in the conical Cockpit Country that spans parts of the parishes of St. James, St. Elizabeth and Trelawny. Located in Saint James Parish, Jamaica the community sits approximately 29 kilometers, southwest of Montego Bay, the parish capital.

This former settlement of the Jamaican Maroons has a variety of Jamaican flora and fauna. Farmers in this area invest in ground provisions (including yam) and other staples, but especially bananas. Bananas have over the years been commercially successful as a profit-making venture in this community and are also a regular staple of locals.

The Maroon Pride Banana Chips brand originated in this community.

Cudjoe's Town and Trelawny Town

It is a former home of runaway slaves who became Jamaican Maroons and fought two guerrilla wars against the colonial authorities, the First Maroon War of the 1730s and the Second Maroon War of 1795–6. When it was a home to these escaped slaves, it was called Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town). Once the governor, Edward Trelawny, authorised the signing of a treaty with Cudjoe in 1739, Cudjoe's Town became known as Trelawny Town. [2]

After the Second Maroon War, the colonial authorities deported the Maroons of Trelawny Town to Nova Scotia and then Sierra Leone. They then renamed the settlement Maroon Town, and since then it has been a place of archaeological research.

Military barracks

Maroon Town was used as a military barracks for half a century after the Trelawny Maroons were deported, but the colonial government found it difficult to maintain an outpost there. In 1812, a hurricane destroyed most of the buildings in the barracks. [3]

Since then, over the years, many officers complained about the poor state of the barracks and the hospital, as well as the frequent rainfall and dampness. The barracks became difficult to maintain, and the colonial authorities eventually abandoned the barracks in the 1850s. [4]

Returned Maroons of Flagstaff

When scores of Trelawny Maroons returned to Jamaica following the abolition of slavery in the 1830s, many of them settled in the nearby village of Flagstaff. [5]

In 1905, visitors to Maroon Town observed some Returned Maroons from nearby Flagstaff hunting wild hogs. [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

Maroons African refugees who escaped from slavery in the Americas, and their descendants

Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who formed settlements away from slavery. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos.

Accompong Place in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica

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 against British forces, after the colony changed hands.

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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 slaves who escaped from their plantations to become mountain dwelling fugitives. The name “Maroon” was given to these fugitives, and for many years they harassed the British colonial Government of Jamaica. Having tasted freedom, these Maroons were determined, at any cost, to preserve it. Their major tactic may be described as the forerunner of modern guerilla warfare. It was followed about half a century later by the Second 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 Geographical Region in Trelawny, Jamaica

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.

Jamaican Maroons descend from maroons, Africans who escaped from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established free communities in the mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Escaped Africans who were enslaved during Spanish rule over Jamaica (1493–1656) 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 maroon towns in Jamaica, who were deported by British forces following the Second Maroon War in 1796, first to Nova Scotia. Four years later in 1800, they were transported to Sierra Leone.

Moore Town, Jamaica

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."

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Edward Trelawny was one of the early 18th century British Governors of Jamaica from April 1738 to September 1752. He is especially known for a treaty that ended the long war that pitted white planters against the 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.

Montague James was a Maroon leader of Cudjoe's Town in the last decade of eighteenth-century Jamaica.

Cuffee was an escaped slave in Jamaica who led other runaway slaves to form a community 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 (officer). Both officers reported to Colonel Montague James, the leader of Trelawny Town.

Me-no-Sen-You-no-Come is a village in the Cockpit Country of western Jamaica. It is now a part of a district called Aberdeen, Jamaica, in the north-east section of Saint Elizabeth Parish, and is not extinct, as was originally believed.

References

  1. "Jamaica: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population". World Gazetteer. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
  2. Mavis Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica 1655-1796: a History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal (Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1988).
  3. Michael Sivapragasam, "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, 2020), p. 20.
  4. Michael Sivapragasam, "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, 2020), p. 20.
  5. Michael Sivapragasam, "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, 2020), p. 13-21.
  6. Michael Sivapragasam, "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, 2020), p. 22.
  7. Frank Cundall, Historic Jamaica (London: West India Committee, 1915)Curacao/Puerto Rico: University of Curacao, 2020), p. 335.

Coordinates: 18°19′48″N77°49′05″W / 18.330°N 77.818°W / 18.330; -77.818