Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we
Speaker 1: are headed to Jamaica, which, yeah, not a place who
Speaker 1: talked that much about on the show even in the
Speaker 1: past archive not a whole lot about Jamaica. So we're
Speaker 1: headed to Jamaica to talk about a pair of wars
Speaker 1: between the Jamaican Maroons and the British colonial government. For
Speaker 1: listeners who are not familiar with that term, Maroons are
Speaker 1: Africans and people of African ancestry who escaped enslavement and
Speaker 1: established communities, usually in remote and hard to access parts
Speaker 1: of the Caribbean and some of the America's, sometimes also
Speaker 1: intermarrying with the local indigenous population. The term probably comes
Speaker 1: from the Spanish cimarron for wild or untamed, or maybe
Speaker 1: the French maha on which meant brown uh and although
Speaker 1: particularly summern was initially used to describe wild animals and
Speaker 1: escaped livestock, it's one that Maroon communities still in existence
Speaker 1: today used to describe themselves. In Jamaica, specifically, the word
Speaker 1: maroon came into use around sixteen seventy. Some of the
Speaker 1: Maroon communities during the days of the trans Atlantic slave
Speaker 1: trade didn't survive very long due to disease and starvation
Speaker 1: and the efforts of slave catchers and others to find
Speaker 1: and capture and destroy. But places that had a combination
Speaker 1: of an enslaved labor pool and remote inaccessible territory were
Speaker 1: likely to become home to a marine settlement, and that
Speaker 1: settlement was typically heavily influenced by the African and indigenous
Speaker 1: cultures of the people living there. There were, and in
Speaker 1: some cases still are Maroon communities all over the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: as well as parts of North, Central and South America,
Speaker 1: anywhere that the jane was difficult. So this included the
Speaker 1: Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina, the Bayous
Speaker 1: of the Deep South, uh Surinamas Jungles, and the mountains
Speaker 1: and ravines of Jamaica, which is where we are talking
Speaker 1: about today. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Jamaica was
Speaker 1: inhabited by the Chino people, who were also called the
Speaker 1: area Walkins. These indigenous people lived through a combination of
Speaker 1: agriculture and fishing, and also inhabited other parts of the
Speaker 1: Caribbean besides just Jamaica. We really don't have a thorough
Speaker 1: sense of their history or culture in Jamaica. Though Christopher
Speaker 1: Columbus arrived in Jamaica on May five, four during his
Speaker 1: second voyage to the West Indies, the first permanent Spanish
Speaker 1: settlement followed in Jamaica fifteen years later. The Spanish quickly
Speaker 1: enslaved the Chino people, who did not survive long thanks
Speaker 1: to smallpox and other introduced diseases, warfare, and essentially being
Speaker 1: worked to death. Even as the Chino population was driven
Speaker 1: to extinction, the Spanish population in Jamaica didn't grow particularly quickly.
Speaker 1: By sixteen fifty five, there were about fifteen hundred Spanish
Speaker 1: people living on Jamaica, and they had an enslaved workforce
Speaker 1: of between five hundred and fifteen hundred people. The estimates
Speaker 1: on that number vary, which is why it's so wide,
Speaker 1: and about one hundred of those enslaved were Chinos, who
Speaker 1: were by this point the last of their people, at
Speaker 1: least the last of their people in Jamaican. They basically
Speaker 1: were driven to extinction all over the Caribbean, but the
Speaker 1: timing varies from one island to another. In addition to
Speaker 1: the eradication of the indigenous population. Spain did not make
Speaker 1: particularly good use of Jamaica. They had hoped to find
Speaker 1: gold on the island, but didn't, and once they gave
Speaker 1: up on the gold mine idea, they basically approached Jamaica
Speaker 1: as something they were occupying so nobody else could have it,
Speaker 1: not as an actual valuable resource to exploit. Consequently, that
Speaker 1: same year, which was sixty five, when an English fleet
Speaker 1: arrived off the coast of Spanish Town, the island had
Speaker 1: very little in the way of defenses. The fleet, commanded
Speaker 1: by Admiral Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, had
Speaker 1: been directed by Oliver Cromwell to uproot Spain's presence in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean. Even though they had close to forty ships
Speaker 1: and eight thousand men, the fleet had just failed to
Speaker 1: drive the Spanish out of San Domingo. Jamaica, still kind
Speaker 1: of cobbled together and poorly defended after almost a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty years of Spanish occupation, really seemed like a
Speaker 1: much easier target, and it was. Spanish colonists. Many of
Speaker 1: them immediately fled north to Cuba, leaving their enslaved workforce behind.
Speaker 1: The Spanish colonists who stayed withdrew from Spanish Town and
Speaker 1: other settlements that were under immediate threat from the English,
Speaker 1: and they fled to more remote outposts, or in some
Speaker 1: cases hid and less hospitable parts of the island's interior.
Speaker 1: The enslaved people who had been left behind, Some of
Speaker 1: them explicitly set free, but others essentially abandoned, armed themselves
Speaker 1: and retreated deeper into Jamaica's interior, where they would form
Speaker 1: the first permanent Maroon communities on the island. They hunted
Speaker 1: and began at least some crop cultivation, but they also
Speaker 1: survived through harassing and raiding the English plantations and settlements.
Speaker 1: The Maroons organized themselves in these earliest years into three bands,
Speaker 1: one of them we really don't know much at all about,
Speaker 1: but the other two each had their own leaders who
Speaker 1: made their way into the historical record. There was Lubolo
Speaker 1: a k A. Wand Lubol or sometimes Wanda Bulus. He
Speaker 1: was the head of one faction, and then Wanda Sarah's
Speaker 1: was head of the other. Don Christopher A. Saucy, the
Speaker 1: last Spanish governor in Jamaica, attempted to mount a resistance
Speaker 1: to the English invasion, and he looked to the Maroons
Speaker 1: under Lobolo for aid. The Marions were at this point
Speaker 1: a much bigger threat to the English than the Spanish were.
Speaker 1: There were more of them, they were better armed, and
Speaker 1: they were increasingly far more familiar with the island's more
Speaker 1: mountainous territory, and they were becoming adept at guerrilla warfare.
Speaker 1: While Lubolo's men were not at all willing to go
Speaker 1: back to being enslaved, they did think that it would
Speaker 1: be better if the Spanish retook control of Jamaica rather
Speaker 1: than staying in the hands of the English, because, to
Speaker 1: use the basic figure of speech, the Spanish where the
Speaker 1: devil they knew. Over the next five years, Spain made
Speaker 1: several attacks on British plantations and settlements. In all the
Speaker 1: ones that have made their way into the historical record,
Speaker 1: Maroons were present as well, and in addition to aiding
Speaker 1: with the attacks on the British, the Maroons were also
Speaker 1: acting as guides and guards to the Spanish in the
Speaker 1: Jamaican back country, in some cases even supplying their food.
Speaker 1: By sixteen fifty eight, English Governor Edward Doyley was fed
Speaker 1: up with the perpetual skirmishes with the lingering Spanish presence
Speaker 1: in Jamaica, so he went to Lubolo himself, offering him
Speaker 1: and his people freedom and self governance if they switched sides.
Speaker 1: The below, recognizing that the fighting was starting to jeopardize
Speaker 1: the crops that had become the island's primary food source,
Speaker 1: and really finding it appealing that he would officially have
Speaker 1: self government, self governance, and liberty, agreed. Although the Spanish
Speaker 1: presence in Jamaica ended by sixteen sixty after the English
Speaker 1: and the Marines teamed up against them, the island would
Speaker 1: not be formally ceded to English. To the English for
Speaker 1: another decade, Lovolo and his people were given their promised
Speaker 1: freedom and thirty acres of land a peace, with Lobolo
Speaker 1: named magistrate and his fighting force becoming known as the
Speaker 1: Black Militia. He worked with the English for roughly three years,
Speaker 1: at which point someone possibly Wanda Sarah's, killed him, viewing
Speaker 1: his shift of allegiance from Spain to England as a betrayal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I found one source that said definitely that's who it was,
Speaker 1: and and I found another source that had all this
Speaker 1: information about warrant to Siris and did made no mention
Speaker 1: of it at all, which seems like a huge thing
Speaker 1: to leave out if it's that's if that's how it
Speaker 1: went down. The First Maroon War in Jamaica grew out
Speaker 1: of England's efforts to establish its governance once it had
Speaker 1: gotten rid of the Spanish, as well as shifts in
Speaker 1: the island's use of enslaved labor, and we will talk
Speaker 1: about that. After a quick sponsor break in sixteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: after Jamaica was free of the last of the Spanish
Speaker 1: stragglers and England was attempting to establish a colonial government,
Speaker 1: it was obvious that there needed to be some kind
Speaker 1: of consideration of the Maroon population. They were certainly not
Speaker 1: going to return to being enslaved, but their presence was
Speaker 1: also outside the bounds of English society. Eventually, instructions to
Speaker 1: this newly created English government read quote of encouragements as
Speaker 1: as securely you may to such Negroes, natives and others
Speaker 1: as shall submit to live peaceable under His Majesty's obedience
Speaker 1: and in due submission to the government of the island.
Speaker 1: The peace between the English and the Maroons didn't last, though.
Speaker 1: By sixteen seventy Wanda Sara's and his band had been
Speaker 1: outlawed and placed under a thirty pound bounty apiece. And
Speaker 1: at the same time, England took a completely different approach
Speaker 1: to the island than Spain had. It moved towards establishing
Speaker 1: huge sugar plantations and importing enslaved Africans as labor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there were lots and lots of enslaved people who were
Speaker 1: imported into Jamaica as a result of this decision, which, uh,
Speaker 1: basically England was like, man, we can grow so much
Speaker 1: sugar here and makes so much money, whereas Spain had
Speaker 1: sort of been like, if we have this, no one
Speaker 1: else can have it, and it would a lot at all.
Speaker 1: For the next few decades, as these plantations grew and
Speaker 1: their enslaved labor forces grew as well, Jamaica saw a
Speaker 1: huge series of uprisings by the people who were enslaved
Speaker 1: on the sugar plantations. In sixteen seventy three, two hundred
Speaker 1: enslaved people rose up against a planter, killed him and
Speaker 1: several other white people, plundered surrounding plantations, and then retreated
Speaker 1: into the mountains. More revolts followed in sixteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty five, sixteen eighty six, sixteen ninety and sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety six. It was basically an ongoing series of uprisings
Speaker 1: on the plantations Simultaneously. The Maroon population grew, both through
Speaker 1: the survivors of successful revolts and people who just managed
Speaker 1: to escape in the chaos, and it grew further in
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty nine or sixteen seventy when a slave ship
Speaker 1: wrecked off the coast of Jamaica, and the people whom
Speaker 1: were able to make it to the shore mostly wound
Speaker 1: up moving into the interior and taking refuge with the Maroons.
Speaker 1: Soon Jamaica was home to two broad groups of Maroons,
Speaker 1: the Windward Maroons, who lived on the eastern part of
Speaker 1: the island, and the Leeward Maroons, who lived in the
Speaker 1: northwest part of the island. In spite of malaria, tropical illness, heat,
Speaker 1: a devastating earthquake and tsunami in sixte two, and being
Speaker 1: constantly harassed by the French, the Maroons and pirates congregating
Speaker 1: in Port Royal. The English presence in Jamaica continued to grow. However,
Speaker 1: the white population was progressively more outnumbered by its enslaved workforce.
Speaker 1: By seventeen o three, there were about forty five thousand
Speaker 1: enslaved Africans on Jamaica. Only about ten percent of the
Speaker 1: people in Jamaica were white, and in some places the
Speaker 1: ratio was twenty five to one. By seventeen two, English
Speaker 1: sugar plantations had spread over most of the arable land
Speaker 1: in Jamaica. They had started to cut off the scattered
Speaker 1: Maroons settlements from one another, disrupting trade lines and lines
Speaker 1: of communication. And because the British planters and slave owners
Speaker 1: had become increasingly prosperous, most of them had started sending
Speaker 1: their children back to England to be educated, and then
Speaker 1: they followed themselves. So Jamaica basically became a nation of
Speaker 1: absentee landlords, with plantations that were run by agents and attorneys,
Speaker 1: under the rule of a governor who was really the
Speaker 1: Crowns representative on the island, and a system of laws
Speaker 1: that either ignored or disadvantaged the Maroon population. According to
Speaker 1: Maroon oral history, the uprising skirmishes and raids on plantations
Speaker 1: we've already talked about. We're all part of their first
Speaker 1: war against England, which they waged for eighty years. But
Speaker 1: from the British point of view, it was a lot narrower,
Speaker 1: starting only in the late seventeen twenties when they started
Speaker 1: making a more orchestrated effort to find Maroons settlements and
Speaker 1: conquer the people in them. This more orchestrated effort, the
Speaker 1: British had a lot working against them because they were
Speaker 1: so vastly outnumbered by their enslaved workforce, and they didn't
Speaker 1: have like an official military support provided by the Crown
Speaker 1: to help them in this effort. They had to train
Speaker 1: enslaved men as gunners and also used their enslaved workforce
Speaker 1: as porters when searching and fighting against the Maroons. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: a lot of these men abandoned their posts, taking their
Speaker 1: weapons and their to cargo with them to join the Maroons.
Speaker 1: So there was like a lot of desertion that also
Speaker 1: robbed the English of their supplies and weapons. In my head,
Speaker 1: this plays out as such like a Benny Hill sort
Speaker 1: of confused, you know, just cannot get anything organized and
Speaker 1: like to go according to planned situation. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: they're One of the reasons that I wanted to do
Speaker 1: this episode is that there's kind of a perception that
Speaker 1: that during slavery there was not a lot of resistance
Speaker 1: against slave owners. This is an example of how that
Speaker 1: was false, uh, and how the British were just continually
Speaker 1: like constantly being rated and constantly losing. Uh. You know
Speaker 1: that the people they had trained to be soldiers in
Speaker 1: this context and like just being harassed and uh and
Speaker 1: bothered continually by the Marion population. And another disadvantage that
Speaker 1: they had was that by this point, the Maroons were
Speaker 1: living in some of Jamaica's most inaccessible areas, and they
Speaker 1: were deeply familiar with the terrain. They combined this knowledge
Speaker 1: with guerrilla warfare techniques, including the use of camouflage, ambushes,
Speaker 1: catching people in crossfire, communication through horns and drums, and
Speaker 1: extensive espionage work, including among enslaved people on the plantations themselves.
Speaker 1: One of the maroons key strategists was a woman known
Speaker 1: as Nanny, also Queen Nanny or Granny Nanny. She was
Speaker 1: from the Windward Maroons. Uh. Nanny described herself as Coramanti,
Speaker 1: which was the English word for people from the Ashanti
Speaker 1: Empire and what's now Ghana. Although there's not a lot
Speaker 1: conclusively known about her biography, she's credited with having masterminded
Speaker 1: the strategy for the Windward Maroons resistance during the First
Speaker 1: Maroon War. In addition to her strategic work, Nanny was
Speaker 1: also an obi a woman. Obia is a belief system
Speaker 1: that involves the influence of spirits in daily life, as
Speaker 1: well as medicine and healing, ritual and magic. Today, she
Speaker 1: is the only female national hero of Jamaica and her
Speaker 1: image is on the Jamaican five hundred dollar note. In
Speaker 1: seventeen thirty two, the British took Nanny Town, which was named,
Speaker 1: of course for Nanny. The Windward Maroons recaptured it in
Speaker 1: seventeen thirty three, and the English can heard it once
Speaker 1: again in seventeen thirty four after a massive five day battle.
Speaker 1: Nanny herself was rumored to have been killed in seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty three, but she was at this point actually still living.
Speaker 1: She wasn't when it came to making negotiations with the
Speaker 1: Windward Maroons UH. Those generally happened with um male captains
Speaker 1: in the in the Maroon society, but Nanny was the
Speaker 1: person that had like the absolute respect UH and influence
Speaker 1: in terms of how they were doing the fighting. After
Speaker 1: the fall of Nanny Town, the survivor split up about
Speaker 1: three hundred of them, including children, made a one hundred
Speaker 1: mile march to try to meet up with the Leeward
Speaker 1: Maroons to a town under the leadership of a man
Speaker 1: named Cudjoe. But the British tried to attack and disperse
Speaker 1: the column before they reached that town, but they failed,
Speaker 1: and they became worried of what would happen once they
Speaker 1: had joined forces with the Leeward Maroons. However, the refugees
Speaker 1: from Nanny Town weren't welcome in the Leeward settlement, partly
Speaker 1: because there wasn't enough food to support that many newcomers. Additionally,
Speaker 1: though cud Joe, while he had a reputation for being fierce,
Speaker 1: also had a reputation of being somewhat ambivalent about the British.
Speaker 1: He was definitely willing to raid British plantations when it
Speaker 1: suited him and to fight back against the British incursions
Speaker 1: into his territory, but he was a little more pragmatic
Speaker 1: as far as thinking it was probably not going to
Speaker 1: be possible to completely drive the British off of Jamaica,
Speaker 1: which is what some of the Windward Maroons seemed to
Speaker 1: really want to do. He was more interested in securing
Speaker 1: freedom and autonomy for himself and his people, even if
Speaker 1: that meant that the British were still on the island,
Speaker 1: so he didn't entirely agree with the Windward Maroons more
Speaker 1: aggressive and continual attacks on the British. As the Windward Maroons,
Speaker 1: who hadn't fled to Cudjo's people regrouped and Cudjo's men
Speaker 1: took a cautious but aggressive stance, there was a brief
Speaker 1: lull in fighting in seventeen thirty six. In seventeen thirty seven,
Speaker 1: the Windward refugees went back towards Nanny Town, feeling both
Speaker 1: unwelcomed by the Leeward Maroons and anxious to return to
Speaker 1: the fight with the British. When the British tried to
Speaker 1: put a stop to this conflict in seventeen thirty nine, they,
Speaker 1: perhaps unsurprisingly given his previous behavior, started with Kujo and
Speaker 1: the Leeward Maroons, not with Nanny and her captains and
Speaker 1: the Windward Maroons. We'll talk about how the first war
Speaker 1: came to an end and then also wound up leading
Speaker 1: to the second one. After another quick sponsor break in
Speaker 1: late March of seventeen thirty nine, Governor Edward Trelawnee commissioned
Speaker 1: Colonel John Guthrie to negotiate a peace treaty to end
Speaker 1: the Maroon War. Guthrie started with Captain's Cudjoe and Acampong
Speaker 1: of the Leeward Maroons. Trelawney himself was eager enough to
Speaker 1: get this over with that instead of just staying in
Speaker 1: town to wait for a treaty to be brought to him,
Speaker 1: he hiked out to a vantage point near the negotiations
Speaker 1: so he could be on hand to sign the treaty
Speaker 1: as soon as it was finalized. Cudjoe signed the fifteen
Speaker 1: Point Treaty on March one of seventeen thirty nine. The
Speaker 1: treaty put an end to hostilities between the British and
Speaker 1: the Leeward Maroons, and it granted them freedom and liberty,
Speaker 1: along with fifteen hundred acres of land in northwest Jamaica,
Speaker 1: stretching out from Trelawney Town, the main lyward settlement, through
Speaker 1: what's known as Cockpit Country. The Leeward Maroons had the
Speaker 1: right to hunt on the island as long as it
Speaker 1: was not within three miles of a white settlement. They
Speaker 1: also had the right to plant crops and raise livestock
Speaker 1: and sell what they grew and raised at the market,
Speaker 1: as long as they had a license to do it.
Speaker 1: The treaty also offered the Leeward Maroons some legal protections
Speaker 1: and assigned them some obligations. The Maroons had the right
Speaker 1: to petition officers and magistrates for justice in the event
Speaker 1: that a white person did them harm. The Leeward Maroons
Speaker 1: could also handle justice for crimes that their own people committed,
Speaker 1: as long as those crimes were not severe enough to
Speaker 1: warrant the death penalty, in which case that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be handed over to the British court. They had
Speaker 1: to have an annual meeting with Jamaica's Commander in chief,
Speaker 1: who was British as and to white people, whose roles
Speaker 1: were not really defined in this treaty, were to live
Speaker 1: with the Maroons in Trelawney Town. I'm imagining that these
Speaker 1: were almost like ambassadors who were living but they did
Speaker 1: it didn't really specify what they were supposed to be
Speaker 1: doing in this treaty. It was also up to the
Speaker 1: Leeward Maroons to maintain roads between their settlements and the
Speaker 1: British towns. Some of the treaty's terms instantly earned the
Speaker 1: Leeward Maroons a lot of enemies. They had to quote take, kill, suppress,
Speaker 1: or destroy rebels on the island, which usually and other Maroons,
Speaker 1: but more controversially quote if any Negroes shall hereafter run
Speaker 1: away from their master or owners and fall into Captain
Speaker 1: Cudjo's hands, they shall immediately be sent back to the
Speaker 1: chief magistrate of the next parish where they are taken,
Speaker 1: and those that bring them are to be satisfied for
Speaker 1: their trouble, as legislatures shall appoint. In other words, following
Speaker 1: the signing of this treaty, if people escaped enslavement and
Speaker 1: made their way to Kujo and the Leeward Maroons, the
Speaker 1: Maroons would send them back. This made Jamaica's enslaved population
Speaker 1: incredibly angry, and this was the case for some of
Speaker 1: Kujo's own people to one faction attempt at a last
Speaker 1: minute coup to keep the treaty from going into effect,
Speaker 1: but when Kjo heard about it, he arrested four of
Speaker 1: the ringleaders and turned them over to the governor. Especially
Speaker 1: considering how much maroons survival until this point had evolved
Speaker 1: had involved rating, plantations and liberating people who were enslaved.
Speaker 1: There people saw this as a huge betrayal, quite understandably,
Speaker 1: and like that continues still today. The governor, recognizing that
Speaker 1: the deep anger stemming from these provisions had the potential
Speaker 1: to make the situation on the plantations worse instead of better,
Speaker 1: sent troops to one of the plantations where descent had
Speaker 1: been the loudest, severely punished the people enslave there and
Speaker 1: executed many of them. For the most part, the Windward
Speaker 1: Maroons did not even know that these negotiations had happened
Speaker 1: once those treaties were signed, But once they learned about it,
Speaker 1: they realized that between the British and the Leeward Maroons
Speaker 1: they were vastly outnumbered. So under drest they signed their
Speaker 1: own very similar treaty on December twenty three. The captain
Speaker 1: from the Windward Maroons who I signed this was a
Speaker 1: man named Kow. Things were relatively peaceful between the British
Speaker 1: and the Maroons for more than fifty years, but the
Speaker 1: British population on Jamaica as before, continued to grow, including
Speaker 1: taking over land that was supposed to be allotted to
Speaker 1: the Maroons. Uh skirmishes started to flare up again, and
Speaker 1: the Maroons stopped returning escape east from the plantations, and
Speaker 1: they started raiding those plantations again. Then two Maroons were
Speaker 1: convicted of stealing pigs and they were publicly flogged. This
Speaker 1: punishment was carried out by the foreman of the prison
Speaker 1: in Montego Bay, who was black, and it was done
Speaker 1: in front of some people who had escaped from enslavement,
Speaker 1: who the Maroons had returned, and watching from the prison.
Speaker 1: These returned escape ease taunted and jeered the two men
Speaker 1: as they were being punished. The Maroons anger over this
Speaker 1: incident was twofold. They felt number one under the terms
Speaker 1: of the previous treaty they should have been able to
Speaker 1: handle dolling out their own punishments, and the way the
Speaker 1: punishment had been carry it out was also particularly humiliating.
Speaker 1: This time, the conflict was much shorter. It lasted only
Speaker 1: about a year. Governor Alexander Lindsay ordered the Maroons to
Speaker 1: stand down by August twelfth se but nearly all of
Speaker 1: them refused. He extended the deadline to December twenty one,
Speaker 1: and then to January one of the following year. Finally,
Speaker 1: it took the recruitment of additional forces and a shipment
Speaker 1: of hunting dogs brought in from Cuba to finally get
Speaker 1: the Maroons to surrender. Yeah, that previous conflict had been
Speaker 1: a lot, lot, lot longer, but this one was a
Speaker 1: lot more vicious um and that surrender finally happened in
Speaker 1: March of seventeen ninety six, although many of the Maroons
Speaker 1: didn't actually lay down their arms until a little later.
Speaker 1: Even when the fighting was over, Governor Lindsay considered the
Speaker 1: situation way too precarious to allow the Maroons to return home.
Speaker 1: He was particularly worried about the ones from uh Trelawnee Town,
Speaker 1: which was the largest Maroons settlement in Jamaica, so he
Speaker 1: boarded five hundred Trelawney Town Maroons onto two transport vessels
Speaker 1: that were waiting in the harbor by Port Royal, with
Speaker 1: the plan of deporting them in this he had no
Speaker 1: destination in mind, no plan, and no authority from the
Speaker 1: British government or the Crown. Eventually he decided on Nova Scotia,
Speaker 1: where after the Revolutionary War enslaved Africans who had fought
Speaker 1: for the British had been sent. The governor got a
Speaker 1: deportation law passed by Jamaica's House of Assembly on May one,
Speaker 1: of sevente Even though this plan sounds very bizarre in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, he was completely certain that the
Speaker 1: government was going to be like, yeah, you do that,
Speaker 1: because this is a bad situation. Meanwhile, the Trelawnee Town
Speaker 1: Maroons from the transport petitioned to be released under the
Speaker 1: ground that they had laden down their arms under the
Speaker 1: condition that they would not be deported. At first, they
Speaker 1: suggested that they be given some other territory besides Trelawney
Speaker 1: Town that would be further removed from British settlements, such
Speaker 1: as deep into the Blue Mountains. When that failed, they
Speaker 1: instead requested deportation to another Caribbean island Instead. The transports
Speaker 1: set sail for Nova Scotia on May eighth. The Governor
Speaker 1: wrote to Sir John Wentworth, Governor of Nova Scotia, on
Speaker 1: June three, to inform him of the incoming five hundred deportees.
Speaker 1: The transports landed in Halifax on July twenty two and
Speaker 1: twenty three. H Lindsay's letter to Wentworth arrived in August.
Speaker 1: Of course, having had no notice that any of this
Speaker 1: was about to happen, there was not a lot that
Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth could do about it. Once these two surprise
Speaker 1: transports of Jamaican maroons arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and
Speaker 1: that first winter after their arrival and Halifax was particularly brutal.
Speaker 1: Even if it had not been particularly brutal, the the
Speaker 1: comparison of winter in Halifax, Nova Scotia to literally any
Speaker 1: season in Jamaica could almost not be more opposite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it would have been brutal to them, even if it
Speaker 1: had been Nova Scotia's mildest winter on record. So they
Speaker 1: wound up petitioning to be relocated to somewhere with a
Speaker 1: more familiar climate, and those petitions were ongoing for three
Speaker 1: and a half years. They were finally sent to Freetown,
Speaker 1: Sierra Leone, which was by then home to many of
Speaker 1: the enslaved Africans that the British had freed during the
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War, who had also previously been sent to Nova Scotia.
Speaker 1: This whole Nova Scotia plan is so bizarre to me. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's all I have, And Sierra Leone is a whole
Speaker 1: other story in and of itself, so we're not gonna
Speaker 1: dig into that. But no, yeah, that's a whole tale
Speaker 1: that could be its own episode or episodes. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is one those things where we have to stop the
Speaker 1: story somewhere. UH. Sierra Leone and its settlement by previously
Speaker 1: enslaved people did become the model for later attempts to
Speaker 1: settle Liberia UM. So there is some similar history elsewhere
Speaker 1: in our archive about that. And as we noted at
Speaker 1: the top of the show, there are still multiple marine
Speaker 1: settlements in Jamaica today and the people living there generally
Speaker 1: continue to observe a culture and traditions that have roots
Speaker 1: in Africa, particularly the Acon people in what used to
Speaker 1: be known as the Gold Coast and is now Ghana,
Speaker 1: And there are also influences from what's now Togo, Beneen, Nigeria,
Speaker 1: and Madagascar. So, as we UH sort of referenced earlier
Speaker 1: in the show, this is an example of how uh
Speaker 1: we don't hear about it as much in history classes.
Speaker 1: But there was ongoing resistance to the institution of slavery
Speaker 1: for a long time in places um that it was
Speaker 1: practiced in the America's and the Caribbean UM, especially before
Speaker 1: the signing of that treaty that so many people viewed
Speaker 1: as a betrayal. I watched an interview as I was
Speaker 1: preparing for this um with some of the Jamaican Maroons
Speaker 1: living today, and I don't remember which African nation their
Speaker 1: interviewer was from, but he asked very pointed questions about
Speaker 1: that part of the treaty, um about like whether they
Speaker 1: agreed that having peace with the English was worth than
Speaker 1: saying that they were going to return people who escaped
Speaker 1: from the plantations, and then also whether if that were
Speaker 1: happening today they would have made the same decisions. He
Speaker 1: was very direct in his his questions about that. Do
Speaker 1: you have a little bit of listener mailed to polish
Speaker 1: this one off? Sure do. It is from Jade, and
Speaker 1: it is about our recent episode on Ed Roberts and
Speaker 1: the Independent Living movement. Jade says, Dear Tracy and Holly,
Speaker 1: I recently listened to your podcast, Ed Roberts. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to let you guys know that you do amazing
Speaker 1: work and make a difference for people, including myself. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna skip a little bit of personal detail, but Jade
Speaker 1: writes about being diagnosed with a fairly rare disorder that
Speaker 1: causes a defect in collagen to continue. As a result
Speaker 1: of this defect, I'm extremely flexible and prone to numerous injuries.
Speaker 1: I suffer from chronic pain every day and can't do
Speaker 1: much of the things that a normal person would be
Speaker 1: able to do. What makes this disorder so hard isn't
Speaker 1: just the pain, because this is but because this is
Speaker 1: an invisible illness. There's not any symptoms you can see
Speaker 1: from the outside. People can't see how much pain I feel.
Speaker 1: Since I've been diagnosed, my condition has only gotten worse. First,
Speaker 1: I had to listen. First, I had to learn how
Speaker 1: to use a cane than a wheelchair, which I'm still
Speaker 1: getting used to. Coming to terms with my disability has
Speaker 1: been extremely hard. Having people stare at me to be
Speaker 1: rude or because I quote don't look like I'm just
Speaker 1: sabled is something I struggle with daily. I thought Mr
Speaker 1: roberts attitude about the staring was great and something I
Speaker 1: should learn to copy. It's all too easy to be
Speaker 1: anxious about it or get upset with someone. I wanted
Speaker 1: to tell you that this episode was incredibly moving to me.
Speaker 1: I never learned about Mr Roberts and any of my
Speaker 1: history classes. Sometimes living with a disability feels very lonely.
Speaker 1: I can feel like you're the only one who You're
Speaker 1: the only ones who have ever gone through what you have.
Speaker 1: That's why what you ladies do is so important. You
Speaker 1: give people like me someone to relate to. You make
Speaker 1: us feel like we're not alone. Thank you for all
Speaker 1: that you do. You guys are amazing and I am
Speaker 1: so thankful for people like you. You make the days
Speaker 1: that I can't get out of bed so much more bearable.
Speaker 1: Please keep making podcasts like you are now. We need
Speaker 1: all the role models we can get. With love, Jade,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jade. This letter number one incredibly kind,
Speaker 1: um and thoughtful and moved us both a whole lot
Speaker 1: when we got it, uh, and then number two like
Speaker 1: this is one of the reasons that I want to
Speaker 1: talk about disability history on the show so much. UM.
Speaker 1: I feel like we get a lot of requests for
Speaker 1: some of the worst parts of disability history. UH, but
Speaker 1: I think it's also really important to give more visibility
Speaker 1: to people whose lives were about living with a disability
Speaker 1: uh and representing that aspect of it um. Because while yes,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of parts of disability that are
Speaker 1: or of disability history that are horrifying today, we also
Speaker 1: have a lot of stories um of basically people in
Speaker 1: history who were disabled or became disabled. Um that like,
Speaker 1: that's a part of their story and a a normal
Speaker 1: part of the human experience. Um and not like a
Speaker 1: sideshow of horror. Yeah, it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: I I there's part of me that is the ninive
Speaker 1: part of me wants to go. Of course, there have
Speaker 1: always been disabled people. Why is this so weird? But
Speaker 1: I recognize that there has also been a lot of
Speaker 1: effort to not discuss any of those things. So I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that Jade got something out of that. That
Speaker 1: was Tracy's wonderful pick and her fabulous research so well
Speaker 1: in a wonderful, wonderful suggestion from a listener I think
Speaker 1: her name was Alyssa. She sent us a note to
Speaker 1: remind after I was like, I didn't write that there
Speaker 1: on and I should have. Yeah, you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about wanting to It's a tricky balance to strike
Speaker 1: on the show in terms of disability history, because we
Speaker 1: really want to avoid stories that come off as being
Speaker 1: inspiration for non disabled people. Right. Uh. And while it
Speaker 1: is important to talk about the how things have progressed
Speaker 1: and how things used to be, in a lot of times,
Speaker 1: the way things used to be, we're horrifying. UM. It's
Speaker 1: also really important to have representation that disabled people have
Speaker 1: always been here. If you would like to write to
Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcast or at history
Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're also on
Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com slash miss in History and
Speaker 1: on Twitter at miss in History. Are tumbler is missing
Speaker 1: history dot tumbler dot com. We're also on Pinterest at
Speaker 1: pinterest dot com, slash missed in History and our Instagram
Speaker 1: as a miss in History. You can come to our
Speaker 1: parent company's website, which is how stuff works dot com
Speaker 1: and find information on just about anything your heart desires.
Speaker 1: And you can come to our website, which is missed
Speaker 1: in History dot com and find show notes for all
Speaker 1: the episodes Holly and I have worked on in an
Speaker 1: archive of every episode ever. You can do all that
Speaker 1: and a whole lot more at how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com or missed in History dot com for more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it house to
Speaker 1: of works dot com m m hm