When the Spaniards lost Jamaica to Britain in 1665 they freed a large number of their slaves, leaving them

so that they would make life for the British invaders as uncomfortable as possible. However some slaves took full advantage of the war between the Spaniards and the British and escaped from their plantations during this time. They took to the inaccessible areas of Portland and Cockpit Country in the North-western part of Jamaica and Mostly to the mountainous regions of the island such as: The Blue Mountains, John Crow Mountains. The name Maroon came from the Spanish word chimarron (wild) or marrano (wild boar). The British sought to recapture the slaves but they fought for their freedom using arms and often held raids on English occupied plantations to steal food and to free other slaves and expand their community. But they were not entirely safe and so they established warning systems such as the call of the abeng horn to warn villages if the red coats (British) were approaching. The sounding of the abeng put the whole community into battle readiness and the soldiers would prepare to ambush the enemy while the women and children retire to prearranged safe quarters. In time the British realized the significance and importance of the abeng and were terrified of its sound. The Maroons knew that the British found the sound of the abeng "hideous and terrible", and exploited it use to the fullest extent, by blowing on it continuously when the parties were close to their towns creating confusion and sometimes caused the British soldiers to retreat. The second strategy employed by the Maroons was concealment meaning that they remained hidden from their enemies. Their method of attack and ambush used elaborate camouflage imitating the woods and shrubs around them. This make it difficult for the enemy to determine their numbers and to makeup demographically computation of their whereabouts on the island. Thus, among the Maroons, secrecy was of paramount importance. Secrecy made it difficult for the British colonial authorities to locate their camps. So, "most member of each community was bound by the awesome Akan oath where secrecy was enjoined and all the ranking officials and soldier class were participants. Secrecy was a pivotal part of the Maroons strategy and all the men sworn an oath. Some historians believe that Maroon women were not bound by this oath since most insightful accounts of Maroon settlements come from captured Maroon women. Runaways who wished to join any of the Maroon groups also took the oath, loyalty and were held very sacred by those who took it. Any prisoner or runaway

who refused to take the oath was instantly put to death although this seemed very severe the security of Maroon communities depended heavily on this oath of secrecy. The Maroons learned from experience that the casual runaways were a security risk especially those who stayed in their town for a short time. As such runaways might divulge to the authorities the locations of the towns or actually lead raiding parties to them with fatal consequences to the maroons. A large number of the successes of government troops against the Maroons were due to the skill of the black soldiers or black guides who divulged the secret of Maroon communities to the British soldiers and ambushed Maroon fighters along their own routes. In 1729, the British began what was to become known as the First Maroon War . In the west of the Island, a Slave named Cudjoe tracing his ancestry to the Ashanti of West Africa, emerged as leader of the Maroons and for ten years with his friend and second in command Quao, in the East, he fought the British to a standstill. On January 6th 1738, Colonel Guthrie and Colonel Cudjoe exchanged hats as a sign of friendship and, after some discussion, the treaty was agreed to under a big cotton tree then called Cudjoe s tree . By its terms the Maroons were granted full freedom and liberty, given 1,500 acres of land and the right to hunt wild pig anywhere except within a 3 mile limit of a town or plantation. They were to remain in their five main towns Accompong, Trelawny Town, Mountain Top, Scots Hall, and Nanny Town, living under their own chief with a British supervisor. In exchange, they agreed not to harbour new runaway slaves, but rather to help catch them. A bounty was paid to the Maroons of two dollars for each escaped slave, at that time a dollar was a very substantial amount of money. This last clause in the treaty naturally caused tension between the Maroons and the enslaved black population, although from time to time runaways from the plantations still found their way into Maroon settlements. However that was not to be the end of war between the blacks and whites of Jamaica and tensions between planters and Maroons soon elevated to such a point that a Second Maroon War broke out in 1795. The main cause was said to be the flogging of two Trelawny Town Maroons for stealing pigs. Though the flogging itself was not objected to, it was the fact that a Negro work house driver had wielded the whip and that many of the other prisoners who had been allowed to look on and mock were runaway slaves who had been caught by the

Maroons and handed over to the authorities for punishment. The Maroons, numbering maybe 500, were able to hold out for five months against the might of the British Empire. The Maroons escalated the war by raiding outlying plantations, killing the planters and their families and releasing the slaves (Catadupa, Lapland and Mocha were among the estates which were burned). At this time General Walpole was placed in command and one of his actions was to build a chain of armed posts around the Cockpit Country so that the Maroons could be attacked without the long, tiring marches. The Government also decided to bring in 100 bloodhounds and 40 handlers from Cuba. This finally forced the Maroons into negotiations, it seems that the Maroons should have surrendered within three days of January 1 took until mid-March to come in. Accompong Maroons remained neutral and the British left them alone, by the end of the war, all the other Maroon settlements in Jamaica had been destroyed, and Accompong alone remained. This time about 600 Maroons were deported to Halifax, Nova Scotia, The British hoped that they would take to a life of farming in their new surroundings but the former slaves (Maroons) were not satisfied with this arrangement and were relocated to Sierra Leone in West Africa. The remaining Maroons in Jamaica remained there as a permanent force and were there to see Jamaica gain its independence in 1962.