![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/317703918\/figure\/fig1\/AS:573813256409088@1513819149072\/Map-of-historic-and-present-Maroon-settlements-This-version-of-the-map-has-not-been.png\")
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Figure 1. Map of Jamaica's prominent colonial settlements. Kingston and Montego Bay were the prominent white settlements on the island, with all other marked locations being Maroon settlements.<\/em>[footnote]Helen McKee, \"From Violence to Alliance: Maroons and White Settlers in Jamaica, 1739\u20131795,\" Slavery & Abolition<\/i> 39, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 28, doi:10.1080\/0144039X.2017.1341016.[\/footnote]<\/span><\/p>\r\n Ever since the first enslaved Africans arrived in the Caribbean, many slaves would be able to escape to, and then survive within, remote areas that were inimical to European colonial projects for their rugged, mountainous terrain and dense foliage. The Spanish colonists would call them cimarrones<\/em>, or wild animals. As the English and later British Empire established its own slave-based plantation colonies in the Caribbean and swiftly experienced this phenomenon itself, English colonists would adapt this term into the English\u00a0maroon<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n While maroon communities exist across the Caribbean, the maroons of Jamaica are distinguished by their ability to achieve formal recognition of their autonomous status through force of arms through the 1739 Treaty of Peace and Friendship[footnote]Stephen Vasciannie, Maroon Claims to Sovereignty in Jamaican Territory<\/em>, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, 11.[\/footnote], a document that retains a deep meaning among the Jamaican Maroons today and forms the basis of modern claims of Maroon sovereignty in the Jamaican polity.[footnote]Vasciannie, Maroon Claims to Sovereignty<\/em>, 5.[\/footnote] In doing this, the Maroons secured for themselves a place in the British Empire and the racial hierarchy of the colony of Jamaica distinct from that of slaves, and the Maroons would frequently defend this place through eager collaboration against those on Jamaica who were still enslaved.<\/p>\r\n Jamaica's maroons were not a political or cultural monolith. On the island, individual maroon societies were divided by the island's geographical contours into \"two large polities\"[footnote]Barbara Kopytoff, \u201cColonial Treaty as Sacred Charter of the Jamaican Maroons,\u201d Ethnohistory<\/em> 26, no. 1 (Winter 1979): 51, https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/481467.[\/footnote] - eastern, Windward, and western, Leeward. According to Barbara Kopytoff, \u201cthis separation allowed the two societies to follow independent and somewhat different lines of development,\u201d[footnote]Barbara Kopytoff, \u201cThe Early Political Development of Jamaican Maroon Societies,\u201d The William and Mary Quarterly<\/em> 35, no. 2 (April 1978): 290, https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1921836.[\/footnote] with the Windward Maroons, \"descendants of the 'Spanish negroes' and subsequent gangs of runaways\"[footnote]Kathleen Wilson, \u201cThe Performance of Freedom: Maroons and the Colonial Order in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica and the Atlantic Sound,\" The William and Mary Quarterly<\/em> 66, no. 1 (January 2009): 51, https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/40212041.[\/footnote] settling into the structure of a looser confederation with no centralized leadership as their Leeward counterparts, \"composed largely of the Akan- and Twi-speaking 'Coromantee' from the Gold Coast, lived in an autocratic, kinship-based polity in Ashanti style\"[footnote]Ibid.[\/footnote] and would coalesce behind the leadership of a singular figure, most famously Cudjoe of the First Maroon War, who would become the conflict's, and the resulting treaty's, chief figure.<\/p>\r\n Notably, the treaty of 1739 \"acknowledged specified rights for Maroons, but did not grant sovereignty or independence to them.\u201d[footnote]Vasciannie, Maroon Claims to Sovereignty<\/em>, 18.[\/footnote] Jamaica's maroons were not recognized as their own distinct polity, but as an autonomous collective that was inextricably bound to the British Empire. While the maroons were allowed to have their own leadership and enforce their own laws, the British were able to unilaterally resolve any succession disputes over that leadership as well as appoint colonial agents to oversee Maroon communities[footnote]Kopytoff, \"Colonial Treaty as Sacred Charter,\" 48.[\/footnote], and most notably, the Maroons were treaty-bound to capture and return any escaped slaves to British rule. This provision would be followed ruthlessly. \"The Maroon expertise at catching and returning rebels and runaways made them soundly detested by their former allies. As R. C. Dallas put it in 1803, \u201cby the generality of the slaves they were hated,\u201d[footnote]Wilson, \"Performance of Freedom, 61.\"[\/footnote] and in turn, between the two Maroon Wars \u201cJamaican maroons had developed a self-identity separate from and antagonistic toward slaves\u201d [footnote]Tyson Reeder, \u201cLiberty with the Sword: Jamaican Maroons, Haitian Revolutionaries, and American Liberty,\u201d Journal of the Early Republic<\/em> 37, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 96, https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/90000622.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n The most infamous instance of this was Maroon involvement in the 1760 Tacky's Revolt. It would be Maroons who would ultimately capture Tacky, kill him, and according to some sources, ritualistically devoured spiritually significant parts of his body. Ultimately, the Maroons were able to exercise their own autonomy, both in their justice and their culture, and \"as the enslaved recognized, [displayed that] these British cannibals were clearly beyond the control of colonial authorities in ways that even ordinary white British subjects were not,\u201d[footnote]Wilson, \"Performance of Freedom, 71.\"[\/footnote] but they did this through the ultimate act of collaboration with the Empire that they once fought. When a subset of Maroons would come to blows with the British again in the Second Maroon War, it was over the humiliation of having two of their own endure corporal punishment from an enslaved man, but even this attempt would be put down with the help of other Maroon communities who aided the British to safeguard the place that their Treaty had guaranteed for them.[footnote]Reeder, \"Liberty with the Sword,\" 71.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n While the anecdote of ritualistic cannibalism comes from reports outside of Maroon society and is dubious at best, it does speak to a very real trend of deep mysticism present in Maroon society at this time, broadly categorized under the term\u00a0obeah.<\/em> Obeah <\/em>also encompassed a much broader function within Maroon and broader Afro-Caribbean society, serving \"as an alternative system of medicine, spiritual sustenance, and justice among Afro-Caribbeans.\"[footnote]Wilson, \"Performance of Freedom,\" 70.[\/footnote] According to Kopytoff, \u201camong both Windward and Leeward maroons we find obeah men or women, magical practitioners in contact with special supernatural powers, serving as public oracles and counselors,\u201d[footnote]Kopytoff, \"Early Political Development,\" 298.[\/footnote] and these obeah men or women often took prominent roles of leadership within Maroon communities, with Nanny, another prominent leader during the First Maroon War, becoming the namesake of her own town[footnote]Kopytoff, \"Early Political Development,\" 300.[\/footnote] As mentioned, obeah was not limited to Maroon communities - indeed, Tacky himself was considered to be an obeah practitioner[footnote]Wilson, \"Performance of Freedom,\" 68[\/footnote], but \u201cMaroons were acknowledged leaders in these [obeah] arts, and their magic was held to be more powerful than that of any other claimant.\u201d[footnote]Wilson, \"Performance of Freedom,\" 69[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n Ultimately, the Maroons were able to establish their unique identity as subjects of the British crown - however, in order to do this, Maroons would come to embrace the very racial hierarchies on Jamaica that their ancestors had escaped from and distance themselves from those who were still enslaved in Jamaica. This divide continues to the present day, where Maroons insist on their sovereignty from the wider Jamaican body politic on the basis of their colonial treaties with the British Empire.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n WORKS CITED<\/p>\r\n Edwards, Bryan. \u201cObservations on the Disposition, Character, Manners, and Habits of Life, of the Maroon Negroes of the Island of Jamaica; and a Detail of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the late War between those People and the White Inhabitants.\u201d In Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas<\/em>, edited by Richard Price, 230-246. Anchor Books: Garden\u00a0City, 1973.<\/p>\r\n Kopytoff, Barbara. \u201cColonial Treaty as Sacred Charter of the Jamaican Maroons.\u201d Ethnohistory<\/em> 26, no. 1 (Winter 1979): 45-64. https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/481467.<\/p>\r\n Kopytoff, Barbara. \u201cThe Early Political Development of Jamaican Maroon Societies.\u201d The William and Mary Quarterly<\/em> 35, no. 2 (April 1978): 287-307. https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1921836.<\/p>\r\n McKee, Helen. \u201cFrom Violence to Alliance: Maroons and White Settlers in Jamaica, 1739\u20131795.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Slavery & Abolition<\/i>\u00a039, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 27\u201352. doi:10.1080\/0144039X.2017.1341016.<\/span><\/p>\r\n Reeder, Tyson. \u201cLiberty with the Sword: Jamaican Maroons, Haitian Revolutionaries, and American Liberty.\u201d Journal of the Early Republic<\/em> 37, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 81-115. https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/90000622.<\/p>\r\nVasciannie, Stephen. Maroon Claims to Sovereignty in Jamaican Territory<\/em>. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.\r\n Wilson, Kathleen. \u201cThe Performance of Freedom: Maroons and the Colonial Order in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica and the Atlantic Sound.\u201d The William and Mary Quarterly<\/em> 66, no. 1 (January 2009): 45-86. https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/40212041.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n TIMELINE CITATIONS<\/p>\r\nTimeline Image:\u00a0<\/strong>E. Smith,\u00a0Old Cudjoe Making Peace<\/em>, from\u00a0History of the Maroons\u00a0<\/em>(1803) by Robert Charles Dallas, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Old_Cudjoe_making_peace,_illustration_from_The_History_of_the_Maroons_(1803.jpg.\r\n\r\n1729 - The Maroon War Begins:<\/strong>[footnote]Wilson, \"The Performance of Freedom,\" 46.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n1732 - String of Slave Escapes:<\/strong>[footnote]Kopytoff, \"Early Political Development,\" 293.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n1734 - Nannytown Destroyed:<\/strong>[footnote]Bryan Edwards, \u201cObservations on the Disposition, Character, Manners, and Habits of Life, of the Maroon Negroes of the Island of Jamaica; and a Detail of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the late War between those People and the White Inhabitants.\u201d In Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas<\/em>, edited by Richard Price (Anchor Books: Garden City, 1973), 232.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n1739 - The Treaty of Peace and Friendship:<\/strong>[footnote]Kopytoff, \"Colonial Treaty as Sacred Charter,\" 48.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n1741 - New History of Jamaica:<\/strong>[footnote]Reeder, \"Liberty with the Sword,\" 87.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n1760 - Tacky's Revolt:<\/strong>[footnote]Wilson, \"The Performance of Freedom,\" 71.[\/footnote] Francois-Anne David, Soul\u00e8vement des esclaves \u00e0 la Jama\u00efque en 1759<\/em>, from Histoire d'Angleterre repr\u00e9sent\u00e9e par figures\u00a0<\/em>(1800) by Nicolas Lejeune, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Soul%C3%A8vement_des_esclaves_%C3%A0_la_Jama%C3%AFque_en_1759_(cropped).jpg.\r\n\r\n1774 - History of Jamaica:<\/strong>[footnote]Reeder, \"Liberty with the Sword,\" 91.[\/footnote] Edward Long,\u00a0History of Jamaica<\/em> (1774), book cover, https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/8\/84\/Edward_Long_History_of_Jamaica_book.jpg.\r\n\r\n1792 - Jefferson's Letter to Lafayette:<\/strong>[footnote]Reeder, \"Liberty with the Sword,\" 95.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n1795 - The Second Maroon War Begins:<\/strong>[footnote]Reeder, \"Liberty with the Sword,\" 71.[\/footnote] Unknown artist, \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span>'Trelawney Town, the Chief Residence of the Maroons,' from The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies<\/em> (1801), https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/2\/2c\/%27Trelawney_Town%2C_the_Chief_Residence_of_the_Maroons%27_RMG_E9983.tiff\/lossy-page1-2560px-%27Trelawney_Town%2C_the_Chief_Residence_of_the_Maroons%27_RMG_E9983.tiff.jpg.<\/span>\r\n\r\n1796 - The Second Maroon War<\/strong> Ends:<\/strong>[footnote]Ibid.[\/footnote] F. J. Burgoin,\u00a0The Maroons In Ambush On The Dromilly Estate In The Parish Of Trelawney, Jamaica<\/span><\/em>, 1795, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Maroons_In_Ambush_On_The_Dromilly_Estate_In_The_Parish_Of_Trelawney,_Jamaica_in_1795.jpg.\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"
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