Jamaican MaroonsIn Jamaican history and today !Jamaican Maroons date back to the English conquest of Jamaica in 1655. At that time, the retreating Spanish freed their African slaves. They armed them and encouraged them to fight a guerrilla war against the new British Colonies. The released and runaway slaves, aided by Jamaica's mountainous terrain; evaded capture, formed fighting bands and eventually split into two powerful communities. It is from these remote communities that the Jamaican Maroons raided British settlements and plantations for supplies and attracted more runaway slaves. The eastern community was known as the Windward Maroons and the one further west was called Leeward Maroons. The Windward Maroons settled in the John Crow & Blue mountains. Their headquarters, 2000 ft up in the mountains, was called Nanny Town. It was virtually inaccessible to the British soldiers, unfamiliar with the terrain. By 1720, they had become such a serious threat that the British decided to send soldiers in. The community remained undiscovered until 1728, when a black slave led the British in. They began regular forays into the area slaughtering Maroons in attempts to destroy the settlement. Eventually, in 1734, bombarded and destroyed most of Nanny Town -- scattering the Maroons and forcing them southward. They were never completely flushed out and five years later a peace treaty was signed. The remaining Maroons were given 500 acres of land where they established a new based -- Moore Town. It also was by that treaty that the Windward Maroons gained their semi-independent status -- that they retain today. Today, some of the elders remain fiercely proud of their heritage -- and a few still speak the original Coromantee language. Unfortunately, these are the exception -- most young Maroons, lacking opportunity in the remote villages, move to the cities to work and inter-marry with other Jamaicans. There are likely to be few pure-blood Maroons in the next generation.
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