Scott's Hall, Jamaica

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Scott's Hall is one of the four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. [1]

Contents

Scott's Hall is one of the towns belonging to the Windward Maroons, which are situated along the Blue Mountains (Jamaica). While Moore Town is in the easternmost part of the mountain range, Charles Town, Jamaica is more centrally located. However, while Moore Town and Charles Town are situated in Portland Parish, Scott's Hall is on the westernmost edge of the range in St Mary. The only Leeward Maroon town in Jamaica is Accompong Town, located in the western Cockpit Country. [2] However, the Returned Maroons of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) now live just outside Maroon Town, Jamaica. [3]

History

Originally, the largest Windward Maroon town was Crawford's Town, located high in the Blue Mountains. However, a leadership conflict between Quao and Edward Crawford in 1754 resulted in the destruction of Crawford's Town. Scott's Hall was established by supporters of Quao in 1749, and when a conflict five years later resulted in the destruction of Crawford's Town, more supporters of Quao were relocated to Scott's Hall. [4] [5]

However, upon the establishment of Scott's Hall, white superintendents assumed control of the Maroon town, and the Maroon officers reported to them. In 1760, while Cudjo and Davy the Maroon were the nominal Maroon leaders of Scott's Hall, they reported to the Moore Town superintendent, who marshalled the Maroon forces during Tacky's War. Davy, a legendary marksman, is credited with personally killing Tacky, and bringing an end to the main part of the revolt. [6] By the time Cudjo and Davy died, sometime before the mid-1790s, the superintendent did not see the need to appoint another Maroon officer, and instead ruled the smallest Maroon town directly. [7]

In 1770, there were 42 Maroons living in Scott's Hall, and by 1797 the village's population had only increased marginally to 45. In 1808, the Maroon population of Scott's Hall was just 51, but by 1841 it had more than doubled to 105. [8]

In 1781, the superintendent of Scott's Hall, Bernard Nalty, led a party of Windward Maroons that killed Three Fingered Jack (Jamaica), a notorious leader of a group of runaway slaves. [9] [10]

Because only a few Scott's Hall Maroons owned slaves, they did not follow the other two Windward Maroon towns in embracing the Anglican Church version of Christianity. Instead, the Maroons of Scott's Hall welcome Baptist missionaries into their village. Like Charles Town, a large number of residents in Scott's Hall were non-Maroons. [11]

Government

Maroon officers

c. 1760 - c. 1793 Captain Cudjo and Captain Davy the Maroon

c. 1790s Colonel George Gray

c. 1807 - c. 1809 Captain John Gordon (d. c. 1809)

c. 1809 Captain Peter Ellis [12]

2016 – Present Colonel Rudolph Pink

In 2016, Rudolph Pink was elected Maroon colonel of Scott's Hall. [13]

A dispute over the leadership of Scott's Hall resulted in the arrest of Pink for breaches of a coronavirus curfew, and allegations of an attempted coup by Lloyd Lattibeaudiere. [14] There is a rival claimant to the post of chief of Scott's Hall, named Rastalogy Francis. [15]

A maroon receivership internal government investigation (MRIGI) concluded by reinstating Pink as the Maroon chief of Scott's Hall.

On January 9, 2020, Pink asked the Jamaican government to ratify or sign a document, called the “free paper”, by maroons. [16] [17]

White superintendents

c. 1760s Edward Cresswell, Benjamin Brown and John George

c. 1773 William Trower

c. 1776 - c. 1782 Bernard Nalty

c. 1782 - c. 1785 Daniel Fisher

1785 - c. 1787 William Virgo Brodbelt

1787 - 1792/4 John Spence Brodbelt

1792/4 - c. 1796 Edmund Pusey March

c. 1796 - c. 1797 John March

1797 - 1831 Thomas March (d. 1831)

1831 - ? Philip Thomas Livingston [18]

21st century

Once a year, Scott's Hall promotes a traditional Maroon festival named Kyushu (water fest). This traditional festivity speaks to ceremonial ancestors and the signing of the treaty.

Scott's Hall has a population of over 3,000, and is a traditional farming community. Its natural resources include sustainable resources such as bamboo. Scott's Hall boasts a museum, and a head office for the new Maroon paramount chief is currently under consultation.

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 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 the British, after the colony changed hands.

Nanny of the Maroons Leader of Windward Maroons in Jamaica

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 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 skilled particularly in guerrilla warfare. It was followed about half a century later by the Second Maroon War.

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.

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 (1493–1656) may have been the first to develop such refugee communities.

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.

William Fitch (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-Colonel William Fitch was a British Army officer, who was killed fighting the Jamaican Maroons during the Second Maroon War.

Cudjoes Town (Trelawny Town) 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.

Captain Davy was an eighteenth-century Maroon officer at Scott's Hall who gained notoriety by killing the leader of Tacky's Revolt, the most dangerous slave rebellion in eighteenth-century Jamaica.

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.

Three-Fingered Jack a.k.a. Jack Mansong, was the leader of a band of runaway slaves in the Colony of Jamaica in the eighteenth century.

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.

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.

References

  1. ↑ "Scott's Hall Maroons Looking to Develop Area as Major Attraction – Jamaica Information Service". jis.gov.jm. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  2. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. p. 58.
  3. ↑ "Maroon Connection: A Brief History of the Trelawny Town Maroons". maroonconnection.blogspot.com. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  4. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. pp. 55-7.
  5. ↑ Bev Carey, The Maroon Story: The Authentic and Original History of the Maroons in the History of Jamaica 1490-1880 (Kingston, Jamaica: Agouti Press, 1997), pp. 416-8.
  6. ↑ Michael Craton, Testing the Chains (New York: Cornell University Press, 1982), p. 136.
  7. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. p. 73.
  8. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. pp. 108, 243.
  9. ↑ Benjamin Moseley, A Treatise on Sugar (London: G.G. and J. Robinson, 1799), pp. 175-6.
  10. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. pp. 113-5.
  11. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. pp. 227-8, 248-250.
  12. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. p. 273.
  13. ↑ "Scott's Hall Maroons Get New Colonel", Daily Gleaner 2 June 2016 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20160602/scotts-hall-maroons-get-new-colonel Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  14. ↑ "Maroon arrested for curfew breach, police assault", Daily Gleaner, 15 April 2020 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200415/maroon-arrested-curfew-breach-police-assault Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  15. ↑ "Maroon arrested for curfew breach, police assault", Jamaica Gleaner 15 April 2020 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20200415/maroon-arrested-curfew-breach-police-assault Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  16. ↑ "Ratify our sovereignty, Maroon chief urges State", Jamaica Gleaner, 9 January 2020 http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20200109/ratify-our-sovereignty-maroon-leader-urges-state Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  17. ↑ "Lumi still on track, says Maroon chief", Jamaica Observer' 12 January 2020 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/lumi-still-on-track-says-maroon-chief-time-has-come-for-economic-freedom-argues-colonel-wallace-sterling_184347?profile=1373 Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  18. ↑ Siva, Michael (2018). After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842 (PDF) (PhD). Southampton: Southampton University. p. 278.
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