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The Maroons were escaped enslaved ppl. They ran away from their Spanish-owned plantations when the British took the Caribbean island of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The word maroon comes from the Spanish word ‘cimarrones‘, which meant ‘mountaineers’. They fled to the mountainous areas of Jamaica, where it was difficult for their owners to follow and catch them, and formed independent communities as free men and women.
As more enslaved ppl were imported from Africa to work on the developing sugar plantations, and the population of enslaved Africans grew on Jamaica, there were more rebellions by the enslaves. Some of the rebel enslaves disappeared into the mountains and joined the Maroon communities. As the Maroon population grew, the Jamaican government decided to defeat the Maroons once and for all. They were seen as a constant threat by the government. The First Maroon War began in 1728. The campaign against them made the Maroons more determined than ever. Under their leader called Cudjoe, the Maroons fought back. In 1739, the British and the Maroons made peace. The freedom of the Maroons was recognised and their land was given to them. The Maroons were to govern themselves. In return they would support the British government in Jamaica against foreign invasion and would help capture rebel enslaves and runaways from the plantations and return them to their owners. Although this agreement might seem strange now, it was one way for the Maroons to live in peace with the island’s government.
There were many years of peace between the Maroons and the British in Jamaica. But, in 1795, the new Governor of Jamaica, Balcarres, decided to deal with some minor breaches of the peace treaty by a community of Maroons called the Trelawney Town Maroons. The plantation owners asked the governor not to take action. They felt that an agreement should be reached with the Maroons to maintain the peace of the town. The governor went ahead against this advice, arresting several of the leaders of Trelawney Town. This started the Second Maroon War. 300 Maroons in Trelawney Town held out against 1500 troops and 3000 local volunteer troops. After five months of fighting, the undefeated Maroons were offered an agreement for peace. When they surrendered their arms, the Governor cheated on the peace agreement offered. The Maroons were arrested and, against the agreement they had accepted, were transported off the island to Nova Scotia, on the east coast of north America, and later went to Sierra Leone, West Africa. Leonard Parkinson was one of the leaders of the Maroons, he was active in the Second Maroon War. The local authorities put a price on his head of £50, (about £2,500 today), wanted dead or alive. Parkinson, pictured here, was known as the Captain of the Maroons.
Trelawney Town was the largest of the Maroon settlements on the island of Jamaica. Trelawney Town had the British soldiers riding in to attack the town. The Maroons are surrounding them, ready to resist, and would beat them back. Maroons were known for their skilful tactics in combat, whereby they relied on their knowledge of the surrounding environment to outwit the attackers.
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There is so much to learn from the Maroons of Jamaica. First I must say that I’m just here in this space and time criticizing dem constructively. I think they should have never signed a treaty wid d savage beasts. But it’s easier said than done, they did what they did with what they had and the time that they had. No wonder some chose to die, cuz in death there was freedom no more fighting. It’s not easy to over stand the psychological, emotional & mental traumas our ppl must have been going through during those times and still going through today as we speak. They had to fight to survive and stay alive however, right or wrong and also make sure the young and old who couldnt fight were kept safe. All these traumas have followed us some way some how and if not dealt with properly can show up in other areas of our lives unannounced and greatly affect us and those around us. My analysis of d Maroons maybe off but I can kinda see y they made a treaty(of which i dont agree) but they probably were saying to each other let us work wid d enemy and help round up and catch runnaways cause we can get rewards for it and dont have to be fighting d enemy all d time, more over these runaways are only making things bad for us by creating rebellions, they r desturbing the peace we have here. If they thought like this or close, this kind of thinking should have never been, but again I’m only criticizing them in a constructive manner and I’m limited to the specifics of how it all really went down. But it just also goes to show that nothing has really changed since then, only modernized now. Often times the victim of abuse or who is being bullied, they normally themselves become an abuser or a bully if they haven’t gotten help. If they turn out not to be either, they sometimes may hurt themselves cuz they r afraid to react to d aggressor, so the self is a easier route to take. This maybe why ppl kill themselves when they cant deal with being bullied or abused or hurt by others anymore. I just thought this was quite interesting to read. We just have to encourage each other and deal with the mental and psychological aspect of oursleves cuz of our past and not just the physical and spiritual, but be balanced and try to be heal in all areas.
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