The conquest of America by the European powers involved the enslavement of indigenous societies, and when these were exterminated or rebelled, the invaders resorted to the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of people in African societies.
The history of slavery in America is the history of the rebellions of subjugated peoples and in particular of the slaves of African origin.
These rebellions were common in the Portuguese colonies of Brazil and in the Spanish colonies of South America and the Caribbean.
But not only did slaves rebel in the Portuguese and Spanish domains. There were also continuous rebellions in the English and French colonies.
One of these rebellions in Haiti culminated in the liberation of the island by the Afro-Haitian majority and the constitution of the first republic after the independence of the United States.
There were also slave revolts in Jamaica, Guyana and North America that we will briefly describe below.
The maroons of Jamaica
Jamaica or Xaimaca was originally an Arawak nation related to the Taíno of Cuba and Santo Domingo. Its population was enslaved or killed by the Spanish in less than fifty years. The role of the colony was secondary during the 16th century and first half of the 17th century. From 1658 it passed into English hands, and 1.500 slaves escaped inland under the leadership of a former slave called Ysassi.
During the following years, the English authorities introduced numerous slaves, from 550 in 1662 to 8,000 in 1664.
The rebellions continued uninterrupted. In 1673 200 slaves rebelled in the plantation of Major Sebly who was killed along with 13 other colonists and employees. The rebels obtained weapons and ammunition and run to the mountains, successfully resisting the expeditions sent to capture them. These rebels would be the nucleus of what would later be called Leeward Maroons. In 1678 there was another rebellion in a plantation (Captain Duck's) that was successfully suppressed by the colonial authorities. In 1685 the slaves of a plantation in Guanaboa (Mrs Gray's) also revolted and joined others to form a group of 150 that were lost in the bush.
A few years before in 1669 or 1670, a slave ship with slaves from Madagascar run aground and the slaves escaped and gradually settled in several villages in the eastern lands of the interior. In 1690 there was a great rebellion of 400 slaves from the Gold Coast in the Sutton (Clarendon) plantation, managing to escape some 318 that joined the Leeward communities. The rebellions continued; in 1704 several Coromantee slaves revolted, in 1720 a group led by a Madagascar-born slave from the Down plantation escaped, settling in the mountains, behind Deans Valley.
At that time there were so many groups of escaped slaves and resistant communities that it was not surprising that a general war broke out. It was the so-called "First War of the Maroons" (1725).
At that time the maroon communities of Leedward were led by Cudjoe, while the Windward (Nanny Town) were commanded by Cuffee and at another time in the war by a woman former slave called Nanny, who was their main obeah (shaman) of the Windward.
The maroon area was inhabited by several thousand Afro-Jamaicans, the vast majority of which were Coromantee or Akan-speakers from the Gold Coast or from Dahomey.
By 1736 after 11 years of war, there were three rebel populations: one in St George (which included a remnant of Windward rebels), another in St Elizabeth whose leader was Accompong and the third in St James commanded by Cudjoe
By that date a peace treaty was formalized, which was interpreted by many as a betrayal by Cudjoe who established very friendly relations with the English.
In the following years, many of the Maroon communities managed to maintain their independence and isolation until, over time, they gradually joined the life of the colony.
The maroons of the Guayanas
Sugarcane plantations based on slave labor since the beginning of the seventeenth century were established in the European colonies of the Guayanese coast. These territories were alternately in the hands of Spanish, English, Dutch and French. Finally, the Dutch domain was consolidated in Suriname, the French in Cayenne (1674) and later the English in Georgetown (1812). During the seventeenth and eighteenth century many plantation slaves escaped establishing rebel communities "maroons" in the jungle interior. The colonial armies, in particular the Dutch and French tried unsuccessfully to dominate these groups, which finally settled down giving rise to what would be called in the colonial "jargon": the "black bush." These Maroon communities survived until the twentieth century where six major nations are recognized:the Saramaka and the Djuka (with a population of 15,000 inhabitants each), the Aluku (1,000 inhabitants), the Matawai (1,000 inhabitants), the Paramaka (1,000 inhabitants) and the Kwinti (with a few hundred)
In the territory of Cayenne a Maroon community was formed: the Marrons de la Montaigne de Plomb (Lead mountain marrons) that was destroyed in 1748.
The maroons of North America
In the United States there were a large number of slave rebellions. In the first decades of the eighteenth century in South Carolina there are repeated references to groups of black maroons that created problems. In 1765 the number of black rebels had multiplied having destroyed a rebel camp in 1768. A similar situation was lived in Georgia in 1771. Later, a certain number of blacks who fought with the English under the promise of freedom and were defeated followed fighting for years along the Savanna River. In 1802, a Maroon camp was established in the swamps near Elizabeth City, in North Carolina, in the midst of the United States, under the leadership of a slave known as Tom Copper
By 1812 alliances of native and African rebels are registered, incorporating several hundred blacks from the Carolinas and Georgia to the aboriginal villages. The fights were violent continued during the following year 1813. In 1816 the troops of the United States attacked the Black fort in Appalachicola Bay that was taken after a 10-day siege, killing 270 men, women and children, with only 40 survivors . New expeditions against the maroons took place in 1816, 1819 and 1820 in Ashepoo, Williamsburg County and near Georgetown in South Carolina.
In 1821 a true maroon rebellion broke out in Onslow, Carteret and Bladen counties in North Carolina. While the situation was controlled, many rebels escaped. In 1827 rebel communities were registered in Alabama and near the city of New Orleans. Just 9 years later, near this last city, another Maroon community in Cypress Swamp was registered in Cypress Swamp.
The following year, in 1837, the so-called "War of the Seminoles" began, which confronted the United States army with native Seminoles and rebel blacks (1,650 native fighters and 250 blacks). By 1851 an Afro-Comanche alliance is registered in Mexico, according to the Pennsylvania Freeman it is noted that 1,500 former slaves were allied with the Comanches of Mexico. In 1856 a maroon shelter is registered in North Carolina in a swamp between Bladen and Robeson counties. The black rebellions and the maroons groups multiplied even more during the civil war until the abolition that allowed a radical demographic rearrangement in the society of the United States triumphed, forming numerous Afro-American communities in the cities of the north and northeast, which would give largely place to the current situation.
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