Nanny of the Maroons

Queen Nanny or Nanny (c. 1686 – c. 1755), Jamaican National Hero,[1] was a well-known, 18th-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons. Much of what is known about her comes from oral history, as little textual evidence exists. She was born into the Asante people in what is today Ghana, and escaped from slavery after being transported to Jamaica.

Historical documents refer to her as the "rebels' old 'obeah' woman." Following some armed confrontations, colonial officials reached a settlement for peace. They legally granted "Nanny and the people now residing with her and their heirs ... a certain parcel of Land containing five hundred acres in the parish of Portland ...".[2] Nanny Town was founded on this land but was destroyed during the First Maroon War in 1734. Another Maroon town was founded by survivors and later known as Moore Town.

Maroons

The Maroons are descendants of West Africans, mainly people from the Ashanti region of what is today Ghana. After being brought to Jamaica in the course of the Transatlantic slave trade, many slaves fled from the oppressive conditions of plantations and formed their own communities in the rugged, hilly interior of the island. A minority of slaves originated from other regions of Africa, including the Congo and Madagascar; they were known as Coromantie or Koromantee, and were considered ferocious fighters.[3] People who escaped from slavery joined the other Maroons.[3] Up to the 1650s under Spanish rule, slaves escaped and intermarried with the native islanders, the Arawak, in their communities on the west of the island.[4]

Later, after the British assumed control of the colony, more slaves escaped from to join the two main bands of Windward and Leeward Maroons. By the early 17th century, these were headed respectively by Nanny of the Maroons and Captain Cudjoe. Between 1655 until the 1830s, these Maroons led most of the slave rebellions in Jamaica, helping to free slaves from the plantations. They raided and then damaged lands and buildings held by plantation owners.[3]

The Maroons also contributed to the cooking technique of jerking, adapted from the Arawak. Chicken or pork pieces were cooked over a low fire using green pimento wood. The smoke was smothered in order to escape detection by British forces.[5]

Life and work

Nanny was born into the Ashanti tribe about 1686 in what is now Ghana, West Africa.[4] It is believed that some of her family members were involved in intertribal conflict and her village was captured. Nanny and several relatives were sold as slaves and transported to Jamaica. There she was likely sold to a plantation in Saint Thomas Parish, just outside the Port Royal area. The commodity crop was sugarcane, and the slaves toiled under extremely harsh conditions to cultivate, harvest and process it. Another version of her life tells that she was of royal African blood and came to Jamaica as a free woman. She may have been married to a man named Adou, but had no known children who survived.[3]

As a child, Nanny was influenced by other slave leaders and maroons. She and her "brothers", Accompong, Cudjoe and Quao, ran away from their plantation and hid in the Blue Mountains area of northern Saint Thomas Parish.[4] While in hiding, they split up to organize more Maroon communities across Jamaica: Cudjoe went to Saint James Parish and organized a village, which was later named Cudjoe Town; Accompong settled in Saint Elizabeth Parish, in a community that came to be known as Accompong Town;[6] and Nanny and Quao founded communities in Portland Parish.

Nanny became a folk hero. The British were unsuccessful in their attacks on Nanny Town, thanks to its strategic location, and her idea to control access to it. They fought off soldiers despite being outnumbered. Cudjoe also led slave rebellions in Jamaica.

By 1720, Nanny and Quao had settled and controlled an area in the Blue Mountains. It was given the name Nanny Town, and consisted of 500 acres (2.4 km²) of land granted by the government to the refugee slaves under a 1739 treaty ending the First Maroon Wars. Nanny Town had a strategic location overlooking Stony River via a 900-foot (270 m) ridge, making a surprise attack by the British practically impossible.[4] The Maroons at Nanny Town also organized look-outs for such an attack, and designated certain warriors to be summoned by the sound of a horn called an abeng.

The community raised animals, hunted, and grew crops. Maroons at Nanny Town and similar communities survived by sending traders to the nearby market towns to exchange food for weapons and cloth. It was organized very much like a typical Ashanti society in Africa.

The Maroons were also known for raiding plantations for weapons and food, burning the plantations, and leading freed slaves to join their mountain communities. Nanny was highly successful at organizing plans to free slaves. During a period of 30 years, she was credited with freeing more than 1000 slaves, and helped them to resettle in the Maroon community.[4]

Leadership and Obeah

Many in her community attributed Nanny's leadership skills to her obeah powers.[7] Obeah is an African-derived religion that is still practised in Suriname, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, Belize and other Caribbean countries. It is associated with both good and bad magic, charms, luck, and with mysticism in general. In some Caribbean nations, aspects of Obeah have survived through synthesis with Christian symbolism and practice introduced by European colonials and slave owners.

Nanny's tribe of origin, Ashanti, strongly resisted Europeans in West Africa and the New World. She was also likely influenced by her brothers and other Maroons in Jamaica.

Nanny possessed wide knowledge of herbs and other traditional healing methods, practised by Africans and native islanders. She served as a physical and spiritual healer to her community, which in turn would elevate her status and esteem.

Death

In the Journal of the Assembly of Jamaica, 29–30 March 1733, is a citation for "resolution, bravery and fidelity" awarded to "loyal slaves ... under the command of Captain Sambo", namely William Cuffee, who was rewarded for having fought the Maroons in the First Maroon War and who is called "a very good party Negro, having killed Nanny, the rebels old obeah woman".[8] These hired soldiers were known as "Black Shots".[9]

Another record states that in 1739, a parcel of land named Nanny Town was awarded to "Nanny and her descendents" under a treaty with the colonial government.[10] Some claim that Queen Nanny lived to be an old woman, dying of natural causes in the 1760s. The exact date of her death remains a mystery. Part of the confusion is that "Nanny" is an honorific, and many high-ranking women were called that in Maroon Town. However, the Maroons are adamant that there was only one "Queen Nanny."

Nanny's remains are buried at "Bump Grave" in Moore Town, one of the communities established by the Windward Maroons in Portland Parish.

Attacks on Nanny Town

Between 1728 and 1734, Nanny Town and other Maroon settlements were frequently attacked by British forces. They wanted to stop the raids and believed that the Maroons prevented settlement of the interior. By some accounts based on Nanny's death in 1733, many Maroons of Nanny Town after that travelled across the island to unite with the Leeward Maroons.[4] In 1734, a Captain Stoddart attacked the remnants of Nanny Town, "situated on one of the highest mountains in the island", via "the only path" available: "He found it steep, rocky, and difficult, and not wide enough to admit the passage of two persons abreast."[11]

In addition to the use of the ravine, resembling what Jamaicans call a "cockpit". The Maroons also used decoys to trick the British into ambushes. A few Maroons would run out into view of the British and then run in the direction of fellow Maroons who were hidden and would attack. After falling into these ambushes several times, the British retaliated. Captain Stoddart "found the huts in which the negroes were asleep", and "fired upon them so briskly, that many were slain in their habitations".[11]

Legacy

In 1739 the British governor in Jamaica signed a treaty with the Maroons, promising them 2500 acres (10 km²) in two locations. They were to remain in their five main towns – Accompong, Trelawny Town, Mountain Top, Scots Hall, Nanny Town – living under their own chiefs with a British supervisor in each town. In exchange, they agreed not to harbour new runaway slaves, but to help catch them for bounties. The Maroons were also expected to fight for the British in the case of an attack from the French or Spanish.

Nanny is known as one of the earliest leaders of slave resistance in the Americas, and one of few women in that role. She is celebrated in Jamaica and abroad.

References

  1. ↑ Government of Jamaica, national heroes listing
  2. ↑ Quoted in Campbell, Mavis C., The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655-1796, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1990, pp. 177, 175.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Jamaica's True Queen: Nanny of the Maroons". Jamaicans.com. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Queen Nanny of the Maroons". Blackpast.org. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Anderson, Helen Willinsky ; photographs by Ed (2007). Jerk from Jamaica barbecue Caribbean style (Rev. ed.). Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. p. xiii. ISBN 1607744589.
  6. ↑ Wright, Col. Martin Luther. "The Accompong Town Maroons: Past and Present". 1992 Festival of American Folklife catalogue, 1992. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Campbell, 1990.
  8. ↑ Campbell, p. 177.
  9. ↑ Campbell, p. 37.
  10. ↑ Gottlieb, 2000.
  11. 1 2 Edwards, vol. 1, p. 525.
  12. ↑ "About Queen Nanny of the Jamaican Maroons". itzcaribbean.com. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  13. ↑ "Moore Town Maroons". Blue & John Crow Mountains. Retrieved 9 December 2015.

Bibliography

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