Free black people in Jamaica fell into two categories. Some secured their freedom officially, and lived within the slave communities of the Colony of Jamaica. Others ran away from slavery, and formed independent communities in the forested mountains of the interior. This latter group included the Jamaican Maroons, and subsequent fugitives from the sugar and coffee plantations of coastal Jamaica.
In 1838, all black people in Jamaica were emancipated, but in post-slavery Jamaica they continued to be excluded from the reins of power. A number of free black Jamaicans campaigned for political, social, educational and economic rights, until they succeeded in securing independence for the island in 1962.
The Spanish Maroons The earliest free black people were the Spanish Maroons, who fought the English colonial authorities intermittently in the latter half of the 17th century.Campbell, Mavis, The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796: a History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal (Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1988), pp. 25–26.
When the English captured Jamaica in 1655, the Spanish colonists fled, leaving a large number of African slaves. Former slaves organised under the leadership of Juan de Serras and Juan de Bolas, and they established themselves in modern-day Clarendon County, fighting on the side of the Spanish against the English. When de Bolas switched sides, and joined the English, the Spanish abandoned hope of recapturing Jamaica, accepting that de Bolas and his men were better equipped for fighting in the forested mountains of the interior than the Spanish.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 17–20.C. V. Black, History of Jamaica (London: Collins, 1975), p. 54.
Juan de Bolas and his Spanish Maroons then served as a "black militia" for the English. In 1664, de Bolas was killed in an ambush. Some historians believe that de Bolas was killed by Maroons from the group led by de Serras. Following the death of de Bolas, his group of Black Militia Maroons faded from history, while de Serras and his community continued to trouble the English authorities for years to come.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 25–26.
Juan de Serras' group of Jamaican Maroons established a distinct independent community, and they survived by subsistence farming and periodic raids of plantations. Over time, the Maroons came to control large areas of the Jamaican interior. In the second half of the 17th century, de Serras fought regular campaigns against the English colonial forces, even attacking the capital of Spanish Town, and he was never defeated by the English. In the early 18th century, Maroons frequently defeated the British in small-scale skirmishes. In response, the British colonial authorities dispatched the colonial militia to attack them, but the Maroons successfully fought a guerrilla campaign against them in the mountainous interior, and forced the colonial authorities to seek peace terms to end the expensive conflict.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 14–35.
In the mid-1660s, de Serras sent one of his Maroon warriors, Domingo, to discuss peace overtures. However, de Serras used the lull in the fighting to relocate to a more secure environment, probably the Blue Mountains in eastern Jamaica, from which they soon resumed attacks on the English colonial authorities.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 28–32.
In the 1670s, the former buccaneer Henry Morgan, who later became lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, and owner of a slave plantation in Guanaboa Vale, led a campaign against de Serras and the Karmahaly Maroons. Morgan was unable to rout the Maroons, but following that encounter the colonial authorities no longer filed reports about de Serras and the Karmahaly Maroons.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 32–35.
It is possible that de Serras and the Karmahaly Maroons withdrew further into the Blue Mountains, which were inaccessible to the English colonial authorities, where they lived off the land and avoided further contact with white planters. The runaway slaves from de Serras' group of Karmahaly Maroons may have formed the initial nucleus of the Windward Maroons.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 48–49. From early on, the Jamaican governors considered their settlements an impediment to English development of the interior. They ordered raids on the Maroon settlements in 1686 and 1702, to little effect.Craton, Michael, Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies (Cornell University Press, 1982), pp. 78–79.
Free people of colour
One of the leading free people of colour in early Jamaica was Francis Williams, who was a scholar and poet born in Kingston, Jamaica, and who travelled to Europe and became a citizen of Britain. In the 1720s, he returned to Jamaica, where he set up a free school for black children.
The Williams family's status as free, property-owning black people set them apart from other Jamaican inhabitants, who were at the time mostly British colonists and enslaved Africans. Eventually, the Williams family property expanded to include both land and slaves. Though it was rare for black people in the 18th century to receive an education, Francis Williams and his siblings were able to afford schooling due to their father's wealth. Francis travelled to Europe, where he was reported to be in 1721.
In the 1720s, Williams returned to Jamaica, where he set up a free school for black children.King, Ruby, "Education in the British Caribbean: The Legacy of the Nineteenth Century". In Errol Miller (ed.), Educational reform in the Commonwealth Caribbean, 1999, pp. 25–45. In his school, Williams taught reading, writing, Latin and mathematics.
However, Williams encountered discrimination on his return to Jamaica. In 1724, a white planter named William Brodrick insulted Williams, calling him a "black dog", whereupon Williams reacted by calling Brodrick a "white dog" several times. Brodrick punched Williams, as a result of which his "mouth was bloody", but Williams retaliated, after which Brodrick's "shirt and neckcloth had been tore (sic) by the said Williams". Williams insisted that since he was a free black man, he could not be tried for assault, as would have been the case with black slaves who hit a white man, because he was defending himself.Michael Sivapragasam, "Becoming 'Structurally White' in Eighteenth Century Jamaica", Caribbean Cosmopolitanisms and Caribbean Sciences, ed. by Nicholas Faraclas, etc (Curacao/Puerto Rico: University of Curacao, 2022), pp. 119-120.Journals of the Assembly of Jamaica, Vol. 2, 19 November 1724, pp. 509–512.
The Assembly, which comprised elected white planters, was alarmed at the success with which Williams argued his case, and secured the dismissal of Brodrick's attempts to prosecute him. Complaining that "Williams's behaviour is of great encouragement to the negroes of the island in general", the Assembly then decided to "bring in a bill to reduce the said Francis Williams to the state of other free negroes in this island". This legislation made it illegal for any black person in Jamaica to strike a white person, even in self-defence.Michael Sivapragasam, "Becoming 'Structurally White' in Eighteenth Century Jamaica", Caribbean Cosmopolitanisms and Caribbean Sciences, ed. by Nicholas Faraclas, etc (Curacao/Puerto Rico: University of Curacao, 2022), pp. 119-120.
First Maroon War
Later Maroon groups were formed in the Blue Mountains in the eastern end of the island, and in the Cockpit Country in the west. They were known as the Windward Maroons and the Leeward Maroons respectively, and they conducted a decade-long war with the British colonial authorities throughout the 1730s, known as the First Maroon War. Cudjoe led the Leeward Maroons in the Cockpit Country in the western half of the island, and his lieutenant was Accompong. Cudjoe was the overall Maroon commander of the Maroon towns of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) and Accompong Town.Craton 1982, pp. 75–78.
Quao and Queen Nanny were the leaders of the Windward Maroons in the Blue Mountains.Thicknesse, Philip, Memoirs and Anecdotes of Philip Thicknesse (Dublin: Craisberry and Campbell, 1790), pp. 56–77.
Disturbed by plantation raiding, the colonial authorities of Jamaica wanted to eradicate the Maroon communities in order to promote British settlement. Their strategy, beginning in the 1730s, was to break off lines of communication between the Windward and Leeward Maroons, then first pick off the less organized Windward Maroons. In practice, the Maroon troops' command of the territory and skill in guerrilla warfare gave them a strong advantage over colonial forces.Craton, Testing the Chains (1982), pp. 82–84.
After much fighting, the British took and destroyed Nanny Town in 1734, but most of the Windward Maroons simply dispersed and formed new settlements.Craton 1982, p. 85 At this point, however, fighting shifted to Leeward, where the British troops had equally limited success against the well-trained and organized forces of Cudjoe.Craton 1982, p. 87.
Eventually, tired of war, these Maroons signed treaties with the British colonial authorities in 1739 and 1740. Cudjoe agreed to parley with John Guthrie. This local planter and militia officer was known to and respected by the Maroons.Craton 1982, pp. 87–88
Maroon treaties In 1739, the treaty signed under British governor Edward Trelawny granted Cudjoe's Maroons 1500 acres of land between their strongholds of Trelawny Town and Accompong in the Cockpit Country and a certain amount of political autonomy and economic freedoms, in return for which the Maroons were to provide military support in case of invasion or rebellion, and to return runaway slaves in exchange for a bounty of two dollars each. This last clause in the treaty caused tension between the Maroons and the enslaved black population.Craton 1982, pp. 88–90.
In 1740, similar treaties were signed by Quao and Nanny, major leaders of the Windward Maroons.Craton 1982, pp. 91–92. The Windward Maroons were originally located at Crawford's Town and the new Nanny Town (now called Moore Town). In all, about 600 Maroons came to terms with the British authorities through these two treaties.Siva, Michael, After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842 , PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library (Southampton: Southampton University, 2018), p. 56.
In exchange, the colonial authorities asked the Maroons to agree not to harbour new runaway slaves, but rather to help catch them. This last clause in the treaty caused a split between the Maroons and the rest of the black population.Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 126–163.
In addition, a British superintendent was to be assigned to live in each Maroon town.Craton 1982, pp. 88–90.
Aftermath of the First Maroon War Not all the Maroons accepted the treaties. Rebellions occurred in Maroon communities in the years that followed. After the treaties, the white superintendents appointed by the governors eventually took control of the Maroon towns.Kopytoff, Barbara, "Jamaican Maroon Political Organization: the Effects of the Treaties", Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1976), pp. 92–97. In the 1740s, some Leeward Maroons who opposed the 1739 treaty rose in revolt, but Cudjoe crushed those rebellions.Orlando Patterson, "Slavery and Slave Revolts: A Sociohistorical Analysis of the First Maroon War, 1665–1740", in Richard Price (ed.), Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas (London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 273.