Jamaican Maroons
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Jamaica
|
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Coromantee, Jamaicans of African descent, Maroon people |
The Jamaican Maroons are descendants of maroons, Africans who escaped from slavery on the island of Jamaica and established free communities in the mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. African slaves imported during the Spanish period likely were the first to develop such refugee communities.
The English expanded the importation of slaves to support their extensive development of sugar cane plantations. Africans in Jamaica continually fought and revolted, with many who escaped becoming Maroon. The revolts had the effect of disrupting the sugar economy in Jamaica and making it less profitable. The revolts simmered down only after the British government promised to free the slaves if they stopped revolting; it abolished slavery in 1834.
The Windward Maroons and those from the Cockpit Country resisted conquest in the First Maroon War, which the government ended in 1738-1739 by making treaties to grant lands and to respect their autonomy, in exchange for peace and aiding the colonial militia if needed against external enemies. Tensions between British colonial Governor and the residents of Trelawny town resulted in the Second Maroon War from 1795-1796. Although the governor promised leniency if men surrendered, the Assembly insisted on deportation of 600 Maroons to British settlements at Nova Scotia. After Freetown was established in West Africa as a British colony in 1792 (present-day Sierra Leone), the British deported additional Maroons fearing slave rebellion on Jamaica.
In all likelihood, the words "Maroon" and "Seminole" share the same origin in the Spanish word cimarrón, meaning "wild" or "untamed". This word usually referred to runaways or castaways and is ultimately derived from the word for "thicket" in Old Spanish.
When the British captured Jamaica in 1655, the Spanish colonists fled. Many of their slaves escaped and, together with free blacks and mulattoes, former slaves, and some native Taíno coalesced into several heterogenous groups in the Jamaican interior.
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