Map of the Island of Jamaica (1717)

PIRATE & MAROON HISTORY OF JAMAICA

When the English captured Jamaica in 1655, most Spanish colonists fled, with the exception of Spanish Jews, who chose to remain. Spanish slave holders freed their slaves before leaving. Many slaves dispersed into the mountains, joining the already established maroon communities. During the centuries of slavery, Jamaican Maroons established free communities in the mountainous interior of Jamaica, where they maintained their freedom and independence for generations.

Meanwhile, the Spanish made several attempts to re-capture the island, prompting the British to support pirates attacking Spanish ships in the Caribbean; as a result piracy became rampant on Jamaica, with the city of Port Royal becoming notorious for its lawlessness.

Spain recognized English possession of the island in 1670.

By the early 1670s, as the English developed sugar cane plantations worked by large numbers of slaves, black Africans formed a majority of the population. The Irish in Jamaica also formed a large part of the island's early population, making up two-thirds of the white population on the island in the late 17th century, twice that of the English population. They were brought in as indentured labourers and soldiers after the conquest of 1655. The majority of Irish were transported by force as political prisoners of war from Ireland as a result of the ongoing Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Migration of large numbers of Irish to the island continued into the 18th century.

Port Royal circa 1690 prior to the 1692 Earthquake, by Peter Dunn (x)

PORT ROYAL

On the southeast coast of Jamaica, it was the main port of Jamaica. It was given a powerful fortress by the British, but the withdrawal of the Royal Navy after its conquest left it exposed to Spanish warships. From 1657, Governor Edward D’Oyley, encouraged buccaneers of several nationalities to make the harbour their base and concentrate their plundering on Spanish ships, issuing letters of marque as authority to do so. England’s war with Spain ended in 1660, but many of the buccaneers continued their attacks on legitimate shipping. Subsequent governors were wont to encourage piracy since the presence of many well-armed ships in the harbour significantly lessened the threat from Spain, the Netherlands, and France.

Port Royal became a pirate hotspot in the second half of the 17th century simply because it was so far from the authorities in London and those officials on the island were more pragmatic. Its advantages included a naturally protected harbour that could hold up to 500 ships and a strategic location right in the middle of the Caribbean-Americas shipping routes.

Buccaneers like Sir Henry Morgan, who repeatedly attacked Spanish ships and colonial ports, were based on Jamaica. Morgan was even appointed Lieutenant-governor in 1675. Port Royal became awash with goods and riches, so much so, one contemporary author described it as having more cash than London. By 1680, the haven’s prosperity is evidenced by the presence of over 100 taverns. There were, too, so many gaming houses and brothels that a visiting clergyman described Port Royal as “the Sodom of the New World” (Breverton, 260). This clergyman did not even bother to stay but returned to England on the very same ship on which he had arrived “since the majority of its population consists of pirates, cut-throats, whores and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world, I felt my permanence there was of no use”.

In 1681 the Jamaican authorities finally outlawed piracy, and the pirates moved to other havens such as New Providence. Port Royal was destroyed on 7 June 1692 by a combination of earthquake and tsunami. Several thousand people were killed in the disaster. Although half of Port Royal slipped forever into the ocean, the spot would eventually return to prominence as a place where several notorious pirates were hanged and operate as a British naval base.

Port Royal circa 1840 after rebuilding from the Earthquake, by Peter Dunn (x)

THE JAMAICAN MAROONS

Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior. Africans who were enslaved during Spanish rule over Jamaica (1493–1655) may have been the first to develop such refugee communities.

When the English captured Jamaica in 1655, the Spanish colonists fled, leaving a large number of African slaves. Former slaves organized under the leadership of Juan de Serras and Juan de Bolas, and they established themselves in modern-day Clarendon County, fighting on the side of the Spanish against the English. When de Bolas switched sides and joined the English, the Spanish abandoned hope of recapturing Jamaica, accepting that de Bolas and his men were better equipped for fighting in the forested mountains of the interior than the Spanish. Juan de Bolas and his Spanish Maroons then served as a "black militia" for the English. In 1664, de Bolas was killed in an ambush. Some historians believe that de Bolas was killed by Maroons from the group led by de Serras.

Following the death of de Bolas, his group of Black Militia Maroons faded from history, while de Serras and his community continued to trouble the English authorities for years to come. In the mid-1660s, they relocate to the Blue Mountains in eastern Jamaica, from which they soon resumed attacks on the English colonial authorities. Juan de Serras' group of Jamaican Maroons established a distinct independent community, and they survived by subsistence farming and periodic raids of plantations. Over time, the Maroons came to control large areas of the Jamaican interior. In the second half of the 17th century, de Serras fought regular campaigns against the English colonial forces, even attacking the capital of Spanish Town, and he was never defeated by the English.

In the early 18th century, Maroons frequently defeated the British in small-scale skirmishes In response, the British colonial authorities dispatched the colonial militia to attack them, but the Maroons successfully fought a guerrilla campaign against them in the mountainous interior.

THE FIRST MAROON WAR

Later Maroon groups were formed in the Blue Mountains in the eastern end of the island, and in the Cockpit Country in the west. They were known as the Windward Maroons and the Leeward Maroons respectively, and they conducted a decade-long war with the British colonial authorities throughout the 1730s, known as the First Maroon War.

Cudjoe and his lieutenant was Accompong led the Leeward Maroons in the Cockpit Country. Quao and Queen Nanny led the Windward Maroons in the Blue Mountains.

Disturbed by plantation raiding, the colonial authorities of Jamaica wanted to eradicate the Maroon communities in order to promote British settlement. Their strategy, beginning in the 1730s, was to break off lines of communication between the Windward and Leeward Maroons, then first pick off the less organized Windward Maroons. After much fighting, the British took and destroyed Nanny Town in 1734, but most of the Windward Maroons simply dispersed and formed new settlements. At this point, however, fighting shifted to Leeward, where the British troops had equally limited success against the well-trained and organized forces of Cudjoe.

Eventually, the Maroons signed treaties with the British colonial authorities in 1739 and 1740. These treaties granted the Maroons a certain amount of political autonomy and economic freedoms, in return for which they agree not to harbour new runaway slaves, but rather to help catch them. In all, about 600 Maroons came to terms with the British authorities through these two treaties.

Not all the Maroons accepted the treaties. Rebellions occurred in Maroon communities in the years that followed. After the treaties, white superintendents appointed by the governors eventually took control of the Maroon towns.

Illustration of Trelawney Town, formerly Cudjoe's Town (x)