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84-677: 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

168-516: A palenque near Jaruco was an Indian from the Yucatán . In the 1810s, Ventura Sanchez, also known as Coba, was in charge of a palenque of several hundred maroons in the mountains not far from Santiago de Cuba . Sanchez was tricked into going to Santiago de Cuba, where he committed suicide rather than be captured and returned to slavery. The leadership of the palenque then passed to Manuel Grinan, also known as Gallo. The palenque of Bumba

252-647: A prisoner exchange ; some remained in Europe while others returned to France. American marronage began in Spain's colony on the island of Hispaniola . Governor Nicolás de Ovando was already complaining of escaped slaves and their interactions with the Taíno Indians by 1503. The first slave rebellion occurred in Hispaniola on the sugar plantations owned by Admiral Diego Columbus , on 26 December 1522, and

336-1039: A few occasions, they also joined the Taíno settlements, who had escaped the Spanish in the 17th century. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, there were a large number of maroons living in the Bahoruco mountains . In 1702, a French expedition against them killed three maroons and captured 11, but over 30 evaded capture, and retreated further into the mountainous forests. Further expeditions were carried out against them with limited success, though they did succeed in capturing one of their leaders, Michel, in 1719. In subsequent expeditions, in 1728 and 1733, French forces captured 46 and 32 maroons respectively. No matter how many detachments were sent against these maroons, they continued to attract runaways. Expeditions in 1740, 1742, 1746, 1757 and 1761 had minor successes against these maroons, but failed to destroy their hideaways. In 1776–1777,

420-498: A joint French–Spanish expedition ventured into the border regions of the Bahoruco mountains, with the intention of destroying the maroon settlements there. However, the maroons had been alerted of their coming, and had abandoned their villages and caves, retreating further into the mountainous forests where they could not be found. The detachment eventually returned, unsuccessful and having lost many soldiers to illness and desertion. In

504-539: A living on their own. The first slave rebellion occurred in present day Dominican Republic on the sugar plantations owned by Admiral Diego Columbus , on 26 December 1522, and was brutally crushed by the Admiral. The first maroon communities of the Americas were established following this revolt, as many of the slaves were able to escape. This was also to give rise to a wave of Dominican maroons who went on to lead

588-672: A reported population of 1,106. The conquest of Jamaica by the English in 1655 led to an influx of Western and Central Africans into the country through the slave trade. Consequently, a number of the enslaved escaped to various parts of the mountains, joining another group that had been released by the Spanish during the Invasion of Jamaica . These Free black people in Jamaica , who inhabited Moore Town, claim descent from escaped Africans and Taino men and women. These people became known as

672-572: Is Saramaccan . At other times, the maroons would adopt variations of a local European language ( creolization ) as a common tongue, for members of the community frequently spoke a variety of mother tongues. The maroons created their own independent communities, which in some cases have survived for centuries, and until recently remained separate from mainstream society. In the 19th and 20th centuries, maroon communities began to disappear as forests were razed, although some countries, such as Guyana and Suriname, still have large maroon populations living in

756-615: Is a reference to the cricket pitch or oval located just outside the St. Catherine District Prison, where some inmates can get a limited view of the sport through their cell windows. Association football is also played at the Prison Oval ; Rivoli United F.C. is the major team. The town had one of the first Spanish cathedrals to be built in the New World, constructed around 1525. Many Christian denominations have churches or meeting halls in

840-499: Is considered Maroon Spirit Language , or MSL. The Kromanti Play is a ceremonial event that employs the use of Kromanti to communicate with ancestral spirits. It is one of the few linguistic features that uniquely separates the Moore Town Maroons from the other Windward bands. Due to its diminished fluency and the accompanying threat of cultural heritage being lost, Kromanti has been recognized in 2003 by UNESCO as one of

924-529: Is derived from Coromantyn, at the time a slaving sea port located on the Golden Coast of what is now known as Ghana. Prior to the 20th century Kromanti was spoken conversationally in Moore Town but since the 1930s its fluency has dwindled among the younger members of the community. It is now reserved for ceremonial and religious purposes. In conjunction with Kromanti, Jamaican Maroon Creole makes up what

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1008-410: Is given the title of Colonel, which alternatively is referred to as a chief. The system of election is unique in that no individual acting in the capacity of Colonel has pursued the position; instead, they are approached with the opportunity and elected through acclamation. The community is governed by a Colonel who is assisted by a Maroon Council that consists of 24 members. After the discontinuation of

1092-424: Is possible the town was renamed in his honour. By 1760 however, the successors of Nanny had lost control of Moore Town to the white superintendents, and in that year these superintendents commanded Maroon warriors in the fighting against Tacky's revolt . In the decade that followed, a Maroon officer named Clash attempted to challenge the authority of the superintendent, but he was unsuccessful because he did not have

1176-485: Is used to communicate with the spirits of their ancestors, as well as call ceremonies to order. Of the varying drums there is the Aprinting, a duo of long cylindrical drums. There is also a supporting drum known as the "Rolling Drum", and a lead drum known as the "Cutting Drum". The drums are not played by just any musician, and those who play them are given special titles that reflect their ability to do so. Accompanying

1260-499: The Colony of Jamaica , Edward Trelawny , signed treaties promising them 2,500 acres (1,012 ha) in two locations, at Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) in western Jamaica and Crawford's Town in eastern Jamaica, to bring an end to the warfare between the communities. In exchange, they were to agree to capture other escaped slaves. They were initially paid a bounty of two dollars for each African returned. The treaties effectively freed

1344-680: The Haitian Revolution . A statue called the Le Nègre Marron or the Nèg Mawon is an iconic bronze bust that was erected in the heart of Port-au-Prince to commemorate the role of maroons in Haitian independence. People who escaped from slavery during the Spanish occupation of the island of Jamaica fled to the interior and joined the Taíno living there, forming refugee communities. Later, many of them gained freedom during

1428-609: The Jamaican Maroons . This migration disrupted the slave plantation, resulting in periodic war between the Maroons and British. After approximately 80 years of warfare, the Maroons controlled a sizeable amount of the mountainous forests of the eastern parts of Jamaica. Eventually, the British recognized their autonomy by offering them peace treaties which brought an end to the First Maroon War . In 1739, Cudjoe ,

1512-626: The Marronage ( lit.   ' running away ' ) took place along the river borders and sometimes across the borders of French Guiana . By 1740, the maroons had formed clans and felt strong enough to challenge the Dutch colonists, forcing them to sign peace treaties. On October 10, 1760, the Ndyuka signed such a treaty, drafted by Adyáko Benti Basiton of Boston , a formerly enslaved African from Jamaica who had learned to read and write and knew about

1596-860: The Semana de la Cultura (Week of Culture) celebrate the town's founding in 1607. Similar maroon communities developed on islands across the Caribbean, such as those of the Garifuna people on Saint Vincent . Many of the Garifuna were deported to the American mainland, where some eventually settled along the Mosquito Coast or in Belize . From their original landing place in Roatan Island off

1680-630: The Viñales Valley related to runaway African slaves or maroons of the early 19th century; the material evidence of their presence is found in caves of the region, where groups settled for various lengths of time. Oral tradition tells that maroons took refuge on the slopes of the mogotes and in the caves; the Viñales Municipal Museum has archaeological exhibits that depict the life of runaway slaves, as deduced through archeological research. Cultural traditions reenacted during

1764-454: The parish of St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex , Jamaica . It was the Spanish and British capital of Jamaica from 1534 until 1872. The town is home to numerous memorials, the national archives , and one of the oldest Anglican churches outside England (the others are in Virginia , Maryland , and Bermuda ). The Spanish settlement of Villa de la Vega was founded by

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1848-569: The southern United States ; in deep canyons with sinkholes but little water or fertile soil in Jamaica; and in deep jungles of the Guianas . Maroon communities turned the severity of their environments to their advantage to hide and defend their communities. Disguised pathways, false trails, booby traps, underwater paths, quagmires and quicksand, and natural features were all used to conceal maroon villages. Maroons utilised exemplary guerrilla warfare skills to fight their European enemies. Nanny ,

1932-639: The 1790s, about 600 Jamaican Maroons were deported to British settlements in Nova Scotia , where American slaves who had escaped from the United States were also resettled. Being unhappy with conditions, in 1800, a majority emigrated to Freetown, West Africa where they identified as the Sierra Leone Creoles . In Cuba , escaped slaves joined refugee Taínos in the mountains to form maroon communities. In 1538, runaways helped

2016-547: The 18th century, Nanny Town and other Jamaican maroon villages began to fight for independent recognition. When runaway slaves and Amerindians banded together and subsisted independently they were called "maroons". On the Caribbean islands , they formed bands and on some islands, armed camps. Maroon communities faced great odds against their surviving the attacks by hostile colonists, obtaining food for subsistence living, as well as reproducing and increasing their numbers. As

2100-523: The Americas and Islands of the Indian Ocean who escaped from slavery , through flight or manumission , and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with Indigenous peoples , eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos . Maroon , which can have a more general sense of being abandoned without resources, entered English around the 1590s, from

2184-712: The British Colonial Governors, George Nugent and William Montagu, 5th Duke of Manchester . King Street runs past the King's House, the governor's residence, and Constitution Street, near to the Square, refers to the island's former administrative centre. Regency buildings in the town centre include the Rodney Memorial flanked by two guns from the French ship Ville de Paris (1764) , and the façade of

2268-500: The British recognition of Maroon settlements, British Superintendents were assigned as diplomats to settlements to maintain good relations between the Maroons and British. However, in the mid-18th century, these superintendents gradually usurped the authority of the Maroon officers. The most notable Superintendent for Moore Town was Lt. George Fuller, who held this position in the early 19th century. The British colonial authorities abolished

2352-609: The Capture of Maroons reported that between 1797 and 1846, there were thousands of runaways living in these palenques . However, the eastern mountains harboured the longer lasting palenques , in particular those of Moa and Maluala, where the maroons thrived until the First War of Independence in 1868, when large numbers of maroons joined the Cuban Liberation Army. There are 28 identified archaeological sites in

2436-554: The Church of England because that Protestant sect endorsed slave-ownership, and the Moore Town Maroons owned slaves. However, by the 1850s, the traditions of Revival and Pentecostalism grew out of the merging of West African religions with Christianity. The Maroons of Moore Town have maintained a dialectal variant of the Akan Languages Twi , Asante and Fante. The Moore town variant is known as Kromanti. The name Kromanti

2520-478: The Dutch settlers' Fort Frederick Hendryk ( Vieux Grand Port ) in an attempt to take over control of the island. They were all caught and decapitated. In February 1706 another revolt was organised by the remaining maroons as well as disgruntled slaves. When the Dutch abandoned Dutch Mauritius in 1710 the maroons stayed behind. When representatives of the French East India Company landed on

2604-440: The English from 1655 to 1872. After that the capital was relocated to Kingston. The Anglican Church took over the 16th century cathedral. The historic architecture and street names mark the colonial history, such as Red Church and White Church streets, symbolic of the Spanish chapels of the red and white cross, as well as Monk Street, in reference to the monastery that once stood nearby. Nugent and Manchester streets were named for

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2688-597: The French adjective marron , meaning 'feral' or 'fugitive'. Despite the same spelling, the meaning of 'reddish brown' for maroon did not appear until the late 1700s, perhaps influenced by the idea of maroon peoples. 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

2772-575: The French colony of Saint Lucia , maroons and fugitive French Revolutionary Army soldiers formed the so-called [Armée Française dans les bois] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |translation= ( help ) , which comprised about 6,000 men who fought the First Brigand War against the British who had recently occupied the island. Led by the French Commissioner, Gaspard Goyrand, they succeeded in taking back control of most of

2856-457: The French to sack the city of Havana . In 1731, slaves rose up in revolt at the Cobre mines, and set up an independent community at Sierra del Cobre, which existed untroubled until 1781, when the self-freed population had increased to over 1,000. In 1781, the Spanish colonial authorities agreed to recognise the freedom of the people of this community. In 1797, one of the captured leaders of

2940-596: The Jamaican treaty. Remnants of Maroon communities in the former Spanish Caribbean remain as of 2006, for example in Viñales , Cuba, and Adjuntas , Puerto Rico. To this day, the Jamaican Maroons are to a significant extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican society. The physical isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today led to their communities remaining among the most inaccessible on

3024-522: The Maroon Leaders, "sister" to Cudjoe, Nanny , and during the First Maroon War they lived in Nanny Town . Nanny refused to sign the Peace Treaty of 1740 between the British colonial government and the Windward Maroons, but acquiesced in the uneasy truce that followed. Nanny accepted a land patent which gave her people 500 acres of land, at a site which late became known as Moore Town. After

3108-675: The Maroons a century before the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 , which came into effect in 1838. In the plantation colony of Suriname , which England ceded to the Netherlands in the Treaty of Breda (1667) , escaped slaves revolted and started to build their villages from the end of the 17th century. As most of the plantations existed in the eastern part of the country, near the Commewijne River and Marowijne River ,

3192-648: The Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Maroon Music is an important aspect of the Maroon culture and each of the Maroon Towns have their own distinct music genres, styles and instruments used in performance. The Moore Town Maroons use several types of drums, along with drumming styles, to accompany their music making. Moore Town is the only community of Maroons who also utilizes drums in "speech mode" to perform Drum-Language. Drum-Language

3276-438: 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. While Maroons and the British initially referred to this settlement as New Nanny Town, from 1760 the colonial authorities called it Moore Town or Muretown, when it was reportedly named after acting governor Sir Henry Moore . As of 2009 Moore Town has

3360-529: The Moore Town Maroons to hand over Grant, who stood trial at Spanish Town . However, much to the surprise of local planters, Grant was acquitted of the murder of Townshend. In 1770, there were 136 Maroons at Moore Town, but by 1797 that number had grown to 245. Moore Town remained neutral during the Second Maroon War of 1795–6. In 1808, the population of Moore Town was 310, but it more than doubled to 665 in 1841. The Maroons of Moore Town, under

3444-491: The Ndyuka and the modern Surinamese government, as it defines the territorial rights of the Maroons in the gold -rich inlands of Suriname. Slaves escaped frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion . African traditions included such things as the use of certain medicinal herbs together with special drums and dances when

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3528-525: The Old King's House, which was the residence of the governor until 1872. Spanish Town is the site of an early cast-iron bridge, designed by Thomas Wilson and manufactured by Walker and Company of Rotherham , England. Spanning the Rio Cobre, the bridge was erected in 1801 at a cost of £4,000. Its four arched ribs are supported on massive masonry abutments . After the abutments deteriorated, endangering

3612-459: The Spaniards, and liberate the slaves. Roadways had become so open to attack, the Spaniards felt it was necessary to only navigate in groups. Dominican maroons would be present throughout the island until the mid 17th century. Sir Francis Drake enlisted several cimarrones during his raids on the Spanish. As early as 1655, escaped Africans had formed communities in inland Jamaica , and by

3696-491: The Spanish in 1534 as the capital of the colony. Later, it was also called Santiago de la Vega or St. Jago de la Vega . Indigenous Taino had been living in the area for approximately a millennium before this, but this was the first European habitation on the south of the island. When the English conquered Jamaica in 1655 , they renamed the settlement as Spanish Town in honour to the original Spanish root of this town. Since

3780-493: The aftermath of the 1692 earthquake. By 1755, serious rivalry from lobbyists caused increasing speculation about the continued suitability of Spanish Town as the capital. In 1836, Governor Lionel Smith observed that "the capital was in ruins, with no commercial, manufacturing and agricultural concern in operation." To worsen the situation, following the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 , Sir John Peter Grant ordered

3864-517: 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'. In the early 1570s, Sir Francis Drake 's raids on the Spanish in Panama were aided by " Symerons ," a likely misspelling of cimarrón . The linguist Leo Spitzer , writing in

3948-464: The coast of Honduras , the maroons moved to Trujillo . Gradually groups migrated south into the Miskito Kingdom and north into Belize. In Dominica , escaped slaves joined indigenous Kalinago in the island's densely forested interior to create maroon communities, which were constantly in conflict with the British colonial authorities throughout the period of formal chattel slavery. In

4032-413: The coastal plantations of Ponce . Maroon communities emerged in many places in the Caribbean ( St Vincent and Dominica , for example), but none were seen as such a great threat to the British as the Jamaican Maroons . Beginning in the late 17th century, Jamaican Maroons consistently fought British colonists, leading to the First Maroon War (1728–1740). In 1739 and 1740, the British governor of

4116-751: The colonial system traded goods and services with them. Maroons also traded with isolated white settlers and Native American communities. Maroon communities played interest groups off of one another. At the same time, maroon communities were also used as pawns when colonial powers clashed. Absolute secrecy and loyalty of members were crucial to the survival of maroon communities. To ensure this loyalty, maroon communities used severe methods to protect against desertion and spies. New members were brought to communities by way of detours so they could not find their way back and served probationary periods, often as slaves. Crimes such as desertion and adultery were punishable by death. Under governor Adriaan van der Stel in 1642,

4200-429: The community as desertion and therefore punishable by death. They also originally raided plantations. During these attacks, the maroons would burn crops, steal livestock and tools, kill slavemasters, and invite other slaves to join their communities. Individual groups of maroons often allied themselves with the local indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations. Maroons played an important role in

4284-416: The confusion surrounding the 1655 English Invasion of Jamaica . Some refugee slaves continued to join them through the decades until the abolition of slavery in 1838, but in the main, after the signing of the treaties of 1739 and 1740, the Maroons hunted runaway slaves in return for payment from the British colonial authorities. Spanish Town Spanish Town is the capital and the largest town in

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4368-751: The drums are other instruments, such as Iron, Abaso Tik, and Kwat. Across all the Maroon Communities, musicians use an instrument known as the Abeng, a wind instrument fashioned from the horn of a cow. The Abeng can produce two pitches, and is used to perform "Abeng-Language". Abeng-Language played a major role in communication during the first and second Maroon War, as its high pitch allowed it to convey complex messages across far distances. 18°04′30″N 76°25′30″W  /  18.075°N 76.425°W  / 18.075; -76.425 Maroon (people) Maroons are descendants of Africans in

4452-634: The early Dutch settlers of the Dutch East India Company brought 105 slaves from Madagascar and parts of Asia to work for them in Dutch Mauritius . However, 52 of these first slaves, including women, escaped in the wilderness of Dutch Mauritius . Only 18 of these escapees were caught. On 18 June 1695, a gang of maroons of Indonesian and Chinese origins, including Aaron d'Amboine, Antoni (Bamboes) and Paul de Batavia, as well as female escapees Anna du Bengale and Espérance, set fire to

4536-430: The end of 1785, terms were agreed, and the more than 100 maroons under Santiago's command stopped making incursions into French colonial territory. Other slave resistance efforts against the French plantation system were more direct. The maroon leader Mackandal led a movement to poison the drinking water of the plantation owners in the 1750s. Boukman declared war on the French plantation owners in 1791, setting off

4620-404: The famous Jamaican maroon, used guerrilla warfare tactics that are also used today by many militaries around the world. European troops used strict and established strategies while maroons attacked and retracted quickly, used ambush tactics, and fought when and where they wanted to. Even though colonial governments were in a perpetual state of conflict with the maroon communities, individuals in

4704-452: The first maroon activities of the Americas. Sebastián Lemba , born in Africa, successfully rebelled against the Spaniards in 1532, and banded together with other Africans in his 15-year struggle against the Spanish colonists. Lemba was eventually joined by other maroons such as Juan Vaquero, Diego del Guzmán, Fernando Montoro, Juan Criollo and Diego del Campo in the struggle against slavery. As

4788-636: The forests. Recently, many of them moved to cities and towns as the process of urbanization accelerates. A typical maroon community in the early stage usually consists of three types of people. Maroonage was a constant threat to New World slavocracies . Punishments for recaptured maroons were severe, like removing the Achilles tendon , amputating a leg, castration , and being roasted to death. Maroon communities had to be inaccessible and located in inhospitable environments to be sustainable. For example, maroon communities were established in remote swamps in

4872-476: The herbs are administered to a sick person. Other African healing traditions and rites have survived through the centuries. The jungles around the Caribbean Sea offered food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. Maroons sustained themselves by growing vegetables and hunting. Their survival depended upon their cultures, and their military abilities, using guerrilla tactics and heavily fortified dwellings involving traps and diversions. Some defined leaving

4956-415: The hills, and by the early 1530s to African slaves who did the same. He proposes that the American Spanish word derives ultimately from the Arawakan root word simarabo , construed as 'fugitive', in the Arawakan language spoken by the Taíno people native to the island. In the New World , as early as 1512, African slaves escaped from Spanish captors and either joined indigenous peoples or eked out

5040-529: The histories of Brazil , Suriname , Puerto Rico , Haiti , Dominican Republic , Cuba , and Jamaica . There is much variety among maroon cultural groups because of differences in history, geography, African nationality, and the culture of indigenous people throughout the Western Hemisphere . Maroon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. They sometimes developed Creole languages by mixing European tongues with their original African languages. One such maroon creole language , in Suriname,

5124-410: The island from the British, but on 26 May 1796, their forces defending the fort at Morne Fortune , about 2,000 men surrendered to a British division under the command of General John Moore. After the capitulation, over 2,500 French and Afro-Caribbean prisoners of war as well as ninety-nine women and children, were transported from St. Lucia to Portchester Castle . They were eventually sent to France in

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5208-428: The island in 1715 they also had to face attacks by the Mauritian maroons. Significant events were the 1724 assault on a military outpost in Savannah district, as well as the attack on a military barrack in 1732 at Poste de Flacq. Several deaths resulted from such attacks. Soon after his arrival in 1735, Mahé de La Bourdonnais assembled and equipped French militia groups made of both civilians and soldiers to fight against

5292-400: The island. In their largest town, Accompong , in the parish of St Elizabeth , the Leeward Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6 to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War. The Ndyuka treaty remains important to relations between

5376-450: The journal Language , says, "If there is a connection between Eng. maroon , Fr. marron , and Sp. cimarrón , Spain (or Spanish America) probably gave the word directly to England (or English America)." Alternatively, the Cuban philologist José Juan Arrom has traced the origins of the word maroon further than the Spanish cimarrón , used first in Hispaniola to refer to feral cattle, then to Indian slaves who escaped to

5460-401: The leader of the Leeward Maroons in western Jamaica, signed a peace treaty that recognized the independence of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) and Accompong . This treaty allowed them numerous benefits, including tax-free lands throughout the island. These lands are still home to succeeding generations of the original Maroons in western Jamaica. The community of Moore Town was founded by one of

5544-402: The leadership of Charles Town superintendent Alexander Fyfe (Fyffe), helped to put down the Christmas Rebellion of 1831–2, also known as the Baptist War , led by Samuel Sharpe . In 1865, poor free blacks, led by Paul Bogle , rose in revolt against the colonial authorities in the Morant Bay Rebellion . The governor called out the Moore Town Maroons one last time to put down the rebellion. Fyfe

5628-457: The maroons threatened Spanish commerce and trade, Spanish officials began to fear a maroon takeover of the island. By the 1540s, maroons had already controlled the interior portions of the island, although areas in the east, north, and western parts of the island were also to fall under maroon control. Maroon bands would venture out throughout the island, usually in large groups, attack villages they encountered, burn down plantations, kill and ransack

5712-399: The maroons. In 1739, maroon leader Sans Souci was captured near Flacq and was burnt alive by the French settlers. A few years later, a group of French settlers gave chase to Barbe Blanche, another maroon leader, but lost track of him at Le Morne . Other maroons included Diamamouve and Madame Françoise. The most important maroons on Réunion were Cimendef, Cotte, Dimitile and Maffate. In

5796-406: The planters began to fear a massive revolt of the black slaves. The early maroon communities were usually displaced. By 1700, maroons had disappeared from the smaller islands. Survival was always difficult, as the maroons had to fight off attackers as well as grow food. One of the most influential maroons was François Mackandal , a houngan or voodoo priest, who led a six-year rebellion against

5880-473: The planters took over more land for crops, the maroons began to lose ground on the small islands. Only on some of the larger islands were organised maroon communities able to thrive by growing crops and hunting. Here they grew in number as more slaves escaped from plantations and joined their bands. Seeking to separate themselves from colonisers, the maroons gained in power amid increasing hostilities. They raided and pillaged plantations and harassed planters until

5964-416: The public. More recently, violence in the area has prevented the bridge from achieving the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site . In 2009, the population of Spanish Town was estimated to be about 160,000. The population of Spanish Town, like the rest of the St. Catherine, has been growing rapidly. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as "Spain" or "Prison Oval" within Jamaica. The latter nickname

6048-488: The removal of the capital in 1872 to Kingston. As a larger port, it had come to be considered the natural capital of the island. After the seat of government was relocated, Spanish Town lost much of its economic and cultural vitality. Built on the west bank of the Rio Cobre , the town lies 13 miles from Kingston on the main road. Its history was shaped by two significant colonial periods: Spanish rule from 1534 to 1655 and

6132-574: The role of the superintendent in the 1850s. Since Jamaica's independence from the British in 1962, the Government of Jamaica has recognized the sovereignty of the Maroons. Their recognition aligns with the terms of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) of particular note the "right for self-government in matters relating to local affairs". Moore Town's head of state

6216-438: The signing of the treaty the people under Nanny's jurisdiction split into two groups, with one half migrating with her "brother" Quao to Crawford's Town and the other half relocating to New Nanny Town, which is now known as Moore Town. When the colonial authorities identified New Nanny Town in 1760, they referred to it as Moore Town. The governor of the Colony of Jamaica at the time was Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet , and it

6300-538: The structure, it was listed in the 1998 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund . A restoration project began in 2004, with funding provided by American Express through World Monuments Fund . Progress was slow until 2008, when a renewed restoration effort was made. A first phase of restoration was completed in April 2010, when the repair of the abutments allowed the bridge to be reopened for

6384-488: The superintendents, Maroon officers reasserted their authority over the Maroon towns. Ernest Downer served as Colonel from 1952 to 1964, and C.L.G. Harris from 1964 to 1995. In 1995, Wallace Sterling was elected as Colonel of Moore Town, and currently serves as Colonel. Moore Town converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century, eventually embracing the Anglican Church. It is believed that Moore Town embraced

6468-561: The support of his fellow Maroons. In 1774, a Maroon officer from Charles Town (Jamaica) named Samuel Grant allegedly killed a white sea captain named Townshend and his black slave while hunting runaways in Hellshire Beach , and then fled to Moore Town for refuge. Admiral George Rodney , who was in Kingston, Jamaica at the time, sent a fleet to Port Antonio in anticipation of a Maroon revolt. The white superintendent persuaded

6552-440: The town was badly damaged during the conquest, Port Royal took on many administrative roles and functioned as an unofficial capital during the beginning of English rule. By the time Port Royal was devastated by an earthquake in 1692 , Spanish Town had been rebuilt and was again functioning as the capital. Spanish Town remained the capital until 1872, when the seat of the colony was moved to Kingston . Kingston had been founded in

6636-422: The town, including a Roman Catholic church and Wesleyan, Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist chapels. There is also a mosque. Standing untouched in character is a historic alms-house, public hospital, and a penal institution built in the eighteenth century. The town contains a factory that manufactures dyes from logwood , a salt factory, and a rice processing plant. In the neighbourhood are five large sugar estates,

6720-493: The white plantation owners in Haiti that preceded the Haitian Revolution . In Cuba , there were maroon communities in the mountains, where African refugees had escaped the brutality of slavery and joined Taínos . Before roads were built into the mountains of Puerto Rico , heavy brush kept many escaped maroons hidden in the southwestern hills where many also intermarried with the natives. Escaped slaves sought refuge away from

6804-523: The years that followed, the maroons attacked a number of settlements, including Fond-Parisien, for food, weapons, gunpowder and women. It was on one of these excursions that one of the maroon leaders, Kebinda, who had been born in freedom in the mountains, was captured. He later died in captivity. In 1782, de Saint-Larry decided to offer peace terms to one of the maroon leaders, Santiago, granting them freedom in return for which they would hunt all further runaways and return them to their owners. Eventually, at

6888-967: Was brutally crushed by the Admiral. Maroons joined the natives in their wars against the Spanish and hid with the rebel chieftain Enriquillo in the Bahoruco Mountains . When Archdeacon Alonso de Castro toured Hispaniola in 1542, he estimated the maroon population at 2,000–3,000 persons. The French encountered many forms of slave resistance during the 17th and 18th centuries, in Saint Domingue , which later came to be called Haiti . Formerly enslaved Africans who fled to remote mountainous areas were called marron ( French ) or mawon ( Haitian Creole ), meaning 'escaped slave'. The maroons formed close-knit communities that practised small-scale agriculture and hunting. They were known to return to plantations to free family members and friends. On

6972-811: Was called up once more to lead a combination of Moore Town Maroons, including some who resided in Hayfield and Bath, and they committed a number of atrocities before they captured Bogle. However, their cruelty in suppressing the uprising attracted a lot of criticism from Methodist missionaries and residents of Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica . c. 1760s Captain Clash c. 1760s Captain Sambo 1790s - ? Colonel Charles Harris c. 1758 - c. 1782 Charles Swigle 1782 - 1804 Charles Douglas 1804- 1824 George Fuller (d. c. 1824) 1824 - 1827 John Anderson Orgill 1827 - 1830 George Minot (d. c. 1830) c. 1830s Thomas Wright Following

7056-447: Was so well organised that they even sent maroons in small boats to Jamaica and Santo Domingo to trade. In 1830, the Spanish colonial authorities carried out military expeditions against the palenques of Bumba and Maluala. Antonio de Leon eventually succeeded in destroying the palenque of Bumba. In the 1830s, palenques of maroon communities thrived in western Cuba, in particular the areas surrounding San Diego de Nunez. The Office of

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