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63-658: Maroons are descendants of Africans in 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

126-645: 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

189-536: A Maroon community was later named for him . Nanny and Quao made their way to Portland and the Blue Mountains. A more likely origin for the Leeward Maroons occurred in 1690, when there was a Coromantee rebellion on Sutton's estate in western Jamaica, and most of these slaves ran away to form the Leeward Maroons. Cudjoe is probably the son of one of the leaders of this revolt. While Cudjoe emerged as

252-662: A bounty of two dollars for each African returned. The treaties effectively freed 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

315-1037: 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,

378-498: 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

441-480: 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

504-506: A member of the Ashanti nation, part of the Akan people . Allegedly, she was enslaved , along with her five "brothers-in-arms", and brought to eastern Jamaica. She and her five "brothers", Cudjoe , Accompong , Johnny, Cuffy and Quao , quickly decided to flee the oppressive conditions of the sugar cane plantations to join the autonomous African communities of Maroons which had developed in

567-476: A stronghold, as it overlooked Stony River via a 900-foot ridge, making a surprise attack by the British very difficult. The Maroons organized look-outs for such attacks, and warriors could be summoned by the sound of a horn called an abeng . Granny Nanny allegedly freed more than 800 slaves over the span of 50 years. She also had a vast knowledge of herbs due to her role as a spiritual leader. However, during

630-715: 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 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

693-571: 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

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756-673: 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 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,

819-558: The First Maroon War (1728–1740). In 1739 and 1740, the British governor of 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

882-668: The Great Dismal Swamp on 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

945-679: 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

1008-476: 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 the Capture of Maroons reported that between 1797 and 1846, there were thousands of runaways living in these palenques . However, the eastern mountains harboured

1071-622: 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 ,

1134-569: The 1590s, from 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

1197-748: The Americas refers to the people born in the Americas with partial, predominant, or complete sub-Saharan African ancestry. Many are descendants of persons enslaved in Africa and transferred to the Americas by Europeans, then forced to work mostly in European-owned mines and plantations, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Significant groups have been established in the United States ( African Americans ), in Canada ( Black Canadians ), in

1260-588: The Americas was held. Black people still face discrimination in most parts of the continent. According to David D.E. Ferrari, vice president of the World Bank for the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean , black people have lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, more frequent and more widespread diseases, higher rates of illiteracy and lower income than Americans of different ethnic origin. Women, also

1323-513: The British into a surprise attack. This was done by having non-camouflaged Maroons run out into view of the British and then run in the direction of the fellow Maroons who were disguised, leading the British into ambushes time and time again. After another Windward Maroon leader, Quao , signed the treaty of 1740 with the British, the Windward Maroons split up. Quao's supporters moved to what later became known as Crawford's Town , while

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1386-554: The Caribbean ( Afro-Caribbean ), and in Latin America ( Afro-Latin Americans ). After the United States achieved independence, next came the independence of Haiti , a country populated almost entirely by people of African descent and the second American colony to win its independence from European colonial powers. After the process of independence, many countries have encouraged European immigration to America , thus reducing

1449-821: 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 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

1512-529: 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

1575-725: 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 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

1638-496: The First Maroon War, and especially between 1728 and 1734, the British attacked Nanny Town time and time again, but each time the colonial militias captured and occupied Nanny Town, the Windward Maroons regained it shortly afterwards. This was accomplished due to the skill of the Maroons skilled in fighting in an area of high rainfall as well as disguising themselves as bushes and trees. The Maroons also used decoys to trick

1701-403: The Maroons could live and raise animals and grow crops. In addition to what they raised and produced, the Maroons sent traders to the coastal towns to exchange food for weapons and cloth. During the First Maroon War, the Maroons of Nanny Town raided plantations for weapons and food, burnt plantations, and led liberated slaves to join them at Nanny Town. Nanny Town was an excellent location for

1764-488: 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

1827-678: 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 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

1890-623: 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 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

1953-404: The colonial government mounted the First Maroon War of the 1730s in an effort to defeat and capture the runaway slaves. One story is that Nanny and her "brothers" split up in order to continue the resistance to the plantation slave economy across Jamaica. Cudjoe went to Clarendon , where he was soon joined by about a hundred Maroons from Cottawood; while Accompong went to St. Elizabeth , where

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2016-747: 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,

2079-428: 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

2142-477: 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. African diaspora in the Americas The African diaspora in

2205-405: The early 18th century, the region was led by an Ashanti escapee slave known as Queen Nanny , or Granny Nanny, who gave the town its namesake. The town was steadfast, and held-out against repeated attacks from the colonial militia before being abandoned in 1734. One story is that Nanny of the Maroons (also known as Queen Nanny and Granny Nanny) was born in what is now Ghana , West Africa, as

2268-634: 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

2331-579: The eastern part of the country, near the Commewijne River and Marowijne River , 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

2394-427: 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

2457-403: 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

2520-399: 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

2583-634: 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

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2646-538: 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

2709-588: 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

2772-653: 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,

2835-541: 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

2898-451: 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 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

2961-559: 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

3024-460: The leader of the Leeward Maroons of the west, Nanny came to prominence as one of the main leaders of the Windward Maroons of the east. By 1720, Nanny and Quao had organized and were leading the settlement of Windward Maroons; it was known as Nanny Town. Nanny Town was organized similarly to a typical Ashanti tribe in Africa. After the First Maroon War , a deed from the colonial government granted Nanny more than 500 acres (2.4 km ) of land where

3087-604: 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 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

3150-402: The maroons gained in power amid increasing hostilities. They raided and pillaged plantations and harassed planters until 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

3213-457: 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

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3276-595: 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 the 1790s, about 600 Jamaican Maroons were deported to British settlements in Nova Scotia , where American slaves who had escaped from

3339-423: The most inaccessible on 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

3402-506: The most influential maroons was François Mackandal , a houngan or voodoo priest, who led a six-year rebellion against 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

3465-428: The mountains. These communities of Free black people in Jamaica originated from people formerly enslaved by the Spanish, who had refused to submit to British control. The Maroons of Nanny Town claim descent from escaped African slaves and Taino men and women. The Maroon communities grew as many more slaves escaped the plantations and joined them. Angered by continued raiding of plantations and armed confrontations,

3528-553: The proportion of black and mulatto population throughout the country: Brazil, the United States, and the Dominican Republic . Miscegenation and more flexible concepts of race have also reduced the overall population identifying as black in Latin America, whereas the one-drop rule in the United States has had the opposite effect. From 21 to 25 November 1995, the Continental Congress of Black Peoples of

3591-606: 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 the Semana de la Cultura (Week of Culture) celebrate the town's founding in 1607. Similar maroon communities developed on islands across

3654-488: 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 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

3717-508: The southwestern hills where many also intermarried with the natives. Escaped slaves sought refuge away from 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

3780-478: The subjects of gender discrimination, suffer worse living conditions. On 4 November 2008, the first black U.S. president, Barack Obama , won 52% of the vote. His father was from Kenya and his mother was from Kansas. Nanny Town Old Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish , northeastern Jamaica , used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons (escapee slaves). During

3843-521: 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

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3906-961: 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

3969-414: 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 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

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