What happened to the Trelawny Town Maroons?

THE 1738 treaty of peace and friendship between the Leeward Maroons of western Jamaica and the British, and the 1739 treaty between the Windward Maroons of eastern Jamaica, effectively gave the Maroons their freedom from British control under certain conditions.

This was significant, as they became the very first group of formerly enslaved Africans in the Western Hemisphere to officially get their freedom. This was before the Americans got independence from Britain in 1776 and the Haitians from the French in 1804.

The Maroons were very proud of this enviable achievement and so were their descendants, many of whom continued to live in the hills of St James but frequented Montego Bay, the centre of government and commerce in the parish.

For over five decades, the colonists, the Maroons and the enslaved coexisted in relative peace. But around 1795, two Maroons from Trelawny Town were accused of stealing pigs. They were convicted and sentenced to be whipped publicly.

Yet, somebody had a different idea of where the punishment was to be meted out – in the jail in the presence of enslaved people whom the Maroons regarded as being beneath them. The whipping was carried out by an enslaved person whom the Maroons had caught and returned. This was a big bruise to the Maroons’ big ego.

The pig stealers were mocked on the streets of Montego Bay and in the communities. This infuriated the younger Maroons, who decided that they were going to recoup their dignity. They were described as “spoilt sons of famous fathers”. And it was written that “ they had become arrogant, basking in the noble achievements of their ancestors”.

“The angry young men decided to strike out against the disgrace which the two worthless fellows had brought upon the whole community. John Tharpe, the custos of Trelawny, led a deputation to Trelawny Town in an effort to mollify the Maroons, but the majority were determined to fight, to somehow wipe out the stain on their honour,” Carey Robinson writes in his 2007 book, The Rise and Fall of Falmouth Jamaica.

“The war lasted for about seven months. Twenty actions were fought during the terrific struggle in the rugged Cockpit Country, as a force of nearly 5,000, comprising regular troops, militia, Accompong Maroons, mosquito Indians, and savage Cuban hunting dogs, strove mightily to overcome about 250 Trelawny Town Maroons, and some fugitive slaves. Among the many casualties were three senior British officers – Colonels Sandford, Gallimore and the Fitch.”

This, the Second Maroon War, ended in February 1796, when the Maroons agreed to lay down their arms without any repercussion in return. The British did not keep their end of the bargain. It is said the Maroons were invited to Montego Bay to celebrate by way of a party. When the celebration was in full swing, the structures that they were in, started to move. They were trapped on ships that took them to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada. Whether it is the true story or not, about 600 Maroons were taken without their consent. The colonisers were weary and wary of them. They landed in July 1796.

The 1796 exile of the nearly 600 Trelawny Town Maroons depleted the population of this St James settlement, and thus there were not enough people to fight the British after the exile. Yet in 1798, the Maroons and newly escaped enslaved people launched a reign of terror of the settlements of the colonists, pillaging, killing, and burning properties. Prominent men, their families and their enslaved people were killed without questions, and their provision grounds raided.

Captain Lauchlan McLain of the St James Blacks Shots is credited as the man who brought a final end to the war against the fierce, but outnumbered Trelawny Town Maroons and their associates, after the Maroon settlement of High Windward Town was destroyed.

While the war was raging in Jamaica, the exile Maroons were hard at work in Canada. Some succumbed to the harsh Canadian cold weather. Many were repatriated to Sierra Leone, Africa, in 1800.

In a Gleaner article headlined ‘Maroons to be recognised by Parks Canada on Emancipation Day’, published on Saturday, July 27, the lead paragraph says, “The federal government will recognise the Trelawny Town Maroons in a ceremony at the Citadel Fortress in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on August 1, Emancipation Day.”

“Although they stayed only four years, the Maroons left an enduring legacy in Nova Scotia. Maroon men worked on the defences of the third Citadel, for which it is believed a part of the fortifications was called ‘Maroon Bastion’ in their honour. They helped erect Government House, were part of a militia unit, cleared woods for roads, and were employed as general labourers,” Dr Afua Cooper, historian, poet and professor, is quoted as saying.

“I am gratified that the application was successful. The honour for the Maroons was long overdue. This collective was deported from their homeland in Jamaica because of racism, colonialism, and imperialism. They contributed to world history because of their stance of resistance and for black liberation.”

Some of their descendants are still living in Canada.