Black people -- Jamaica; Jamaica; Slavery -- Jamaica
to make a return on oath to the Governor of the number residing in his
town, how many were able to bear arms, how many were fit for duty, the
number of women and children, their increase and decrease.
So the white people kept in touch with their former enemies.
And the principal job of those enemies was to bring in runaways. They
did that undoubtedly, and presently a law was passed allowing not only
the usual reward, but a little extra if the slave was brought in alive.
They might have dances among themselves, and provided the dance was in
the daytime with a small number of slaves. But the slaves were not to
gather in Maroon Town and they were not to hold slaves of their own.
And lest they should be a danger to the country no party in pursuit of
runaways was to consist of more than twelve men and was not to remain
out more than twenty days, and before they went out they had to be
provided with a written order from their superintendent. They were not
to be employed by any white person without a written agreement and they
were not to be whipped or otherwise ill-treated, and as they increased
fast they had the right to relinquish their rights as Maroons and to
live elsewhere in the island as free blacks.
Some of these laws had very little attention paid them. They kept slaves
and bought them, they wandered about the island apparently wherever they
chose, and many of them formed temporary connections with the women on
the plantations. And so slack were they in their search for runaways
that a large body of these emulated the Maroons themselves, and lived
for over twenty years in the heart of the mountains between the eastern
and the western Maroons.
The planters made no objections to their connections with their slaves,
for the children of such connections belonged to them and were likely
to have the strength and vigour of their fathers. But though the Maroons
left these children in bondage as carelessly as did the whites in like
case, still the connections thus formed must have broken away in a small
measure the bitterness that was supposed to exist between the Maroon and
the slave, and every child by his very vigour deepened the danger that
for ever threatened the planters.
However, it was peace between the planters and the black freebooters,
nominally at least for over fifty years. Doubtless there was much
friction and discontent, but things always quieted down, till in 1795
the smouldering fire broke into flames again.
The causes of the second Maroon war as given by Dallas and others point
to gross mismanagement on the part of someone, but we can hardly judge
now of the provocation on either side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account