Maroons
The Maroons (also Marron , derived from the Spanish Cimarrón ) are slaves from sub-Saharan Africa who fled from plantations and their descendants in the West Indies , Central , South and North America .
Maroons in Jamaica
In Jamaica , the Maroons mixed with the indigenous peoples , the Arawaks and Miskitos . The Africans shipped by the slave traders for the sugar cane plantations came mainly from what is now Ghana and the Ivory Coast . These slaves mostly spoke Akan , like the Fante and Ashanti . Thanks to their common language, they were able to maintain lines of communication to prepare for their escape from the plantations and to form alliances.
- Early 18th century - various maroon groups united and negotiated with the British
- 1730 - 1739 - First Maroon War : This was the climax of the conflict with the English colonial power that had existed since 1655. It ended in 1739 with a peace treaty that granted the Maroons extensive rights of autonomy. The leaders of the Maroons included Granny Nanny and her brother Cudjoe . Thanks to their skillful guerrilla tactics and leadership skills, the Maroons were able to assert themselves against the British military and ultimately forced them to sign a peace treaty. The Jamaicans immortalized them in songs and legends. She is the only woman on the list of National Heroes of Jamaica. In addition, the maroon settlement of Nanny Town northeast of Kingston in the Blue Mountains is named after her and her image is immortalized on the 500 Jamaican dollar bill.
- 1760 - Coromantee uprising , known as Tacky's Rebellion : A group of Maroons under the leadership of Tacky, who had been a tribal chief before he was abducted from Africa, entered the port of Port Maria the night before Easter Monday and captured muskets, gunpowder and bullets. By the time the day came, hundreds had joined. They moved inland, destroyed several plantations and killed their owners. The English sent two entire companies after them, and in the end Tacky was shot from behind.
- 1795 - Second Maroon War : Two Maroons from Trelawny Town were punished for (alleged) theft and (allegedly) severely humiliated in Montego Bay . Then the call for revenge on the people of Montego Bay became loud. The new governor of Jamaica, the Earl of Balcarres, took the matter seriously, declared martial law and dispatched a special force to Trelawny Town to destroy the rebel supply base. By the time they arrived, however, the entire village was razed to the ground. On the way back, the Sonderkommando was ambushed and completely destroyed.
This was the prelude to the Second Maroon War. It was to last another five months, during which 300 Maroons from the mountains withstood an overwhelming force of about 1500 selected European soldiers and 3000 militiamen. The Earl of Balcarres finally realized that he could not get hold of the Maroons that easily and imported one hundred bloodhounds from Cuba. When the news got to the Maroons, panic almost broke out. Although they had proven that they could withstand a superior force in Cockpit Country, there was no chance against these fearsome animals, which they could also track down in the bush. Even before the animals arrived, the Maroons tried to bring about peace.
To this day, the Maroons in Jamaica are autonomous and have preserved their original culture. The place Accompong in the mountains of St. Elizabeth, in the southwest of the island, still knows a living community of about 600 people. Every year, on January 6th, a large festival is organized here to commemorate the day the peace treaty was signed with the British. There are also guided tours of the place for tourists. A total of about 7,000 Maroons still exist in Jamaica. They live mainly in the Cockpit Country , an inland karst landscape that is difficult to access .
Maroons in Colombia
In the village of Palenque de San Basilio near Cartagena , Maroons with a Bantu - Spanish Creole language , the Palenquero , still live today .
Maroons in Brazil
Maroons in Suriname
The Maroons of Suriname (spelling in the former Dutch colony: Marrons ) are descendants of escaped slaves. They originally come mainly from today's countries Ghana , Benin , Togo and Angola .
They lived and still live side by side with the country's indigenous people . In the interior they form different communities and are organized according to tribes . The two largest groups are:
- Ndyuka (also: Aukaner) and
- Saramaccaner (also: Saamaka)
The other four groups are:
- Aluku (also: Boni)
- Kwinti
- Matawai
- Paramaccaner
At the last census in 2012, 117,567 people (21.7% of the population) said they belonged to one of these groups.
Maroons in Sierra Leone
The first approximately 550 Maroons settled as freed slaves on the coast of Sierra Leone at the end of the 18th century . They found a home mainly in Maroon Town , now a part of the capital Freetown . The St. John's Maroon , a church named after them, is particularly well known .
Maroons in the United States
Virginia
In the Great Dismal Swamp marshland of Virginia and North Carolina , the Great Dismal Swamp Maroons settled under difficult circumstances.
Florida
Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose ( Fort Mose ), north of St. Augustine , Florida, was founded in 1738 by escaped slaves from Carolina in what was then Spanish territory. It became part of the Spanish fortifications in Florida. The culture of the residents was a mixture of Spanish and African elements.
The Seminoles were a tribe made up of escaped slaves and the remnants of the local Indian population.
See also
literature
- EK Agorsah: Archeology of Maroon heritage in Jamaica , Archeology of Jamaica 2, 1990, 14-19.
- Chris de Beet: De eerste Boni-oorlog, 1765-1778 , Utrecht, Centrum voor Caraïbische Studies, Instituut voor Culturele Antropologie, Rijksuniversiteit 1984.
- K. Deagan / D. MacMahon: Fort Mose: colonial America's black fortress of freedom , Gainesville, University Press 1995.
- Sylviane A. Diouf: Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons , New York, University Press 2016.
- J. Landers: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: a free black town in Spanish colonial Florida , American Historical Review 95, 1990, 9-30.
- CE Orser Jr .: The archeology of the African diaspora , Annual Review of Anthropology 27, 1998, 63-82.
- EJ Reitz: Zooarchaeological analysis of a free African community: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose , Historical Archeology 28/1, 1994, 23-40.
Web links
- Trans-Atlantic Maroon Connection Project (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ St John's Maroon Church, Freetown. SierraLeoneHeritage.org. Retrieved February 27, 2013