THE Second Maroon War in upper St James (known at different times as Cudjoe Town, Flagstaff, Furry Town, Trelawny Town or Maroon Town) between the British Government and the St James Maroons erupted after two Maroons were whipped in Montego Bay at the Whipping Post of the Cage building located in Sam Sharpe Square.

These two Maroons were were caught stealing pigs in the town, arrested and jailed in the lock-up housing the “Cage”— a building used for torture and humiliation of prisoners and which contained the public devices, most of which were dismantled and demolished at the time of emancipation in 1838. But the outer section of the “Cage”, its latest addition, built in 1810 — 28 years before the abolition of slavery — is still standing in the square; a monument and testament to a dark and ominous past for our ancestors in this parish of St James.

The peace treaty between the British and the Maroons in 1739 (Western) and 1741 (Eastern), has as part of the agreement for Maroons to:

(a) capture runaway slaves seeking their freedom and return them to the authorities and slave owners for a fee; or alternatively if the runaway slaves cannot be recaptured, they must be killed by the Maroons and a presentation of two matching pair of ears to the authority is rewarded by a payment of 50 pounds. The matching pair of ears is the proof of death. (b) The Maroons will help the Government to put down slave rebellions and defend the island from foreign invasion. Additionally, the Cudjoe Town Maroons received 1,500 acres of land; the Accompong Town Maroons received 1,200 acres; and the Eastern Maroons only 1,000 acres. These large parcels of land were of poor quality, infertile and tedious to be successfully productive unlike the huge swathe of fertile plains owned and dominated by the white plantocracy.

Maroon lands are the sources of every major river cascading from the mountainous backbone of Jamaica unto the rich alluvium plains. Rainfall in the high mountains liberated calcium, phosphorous, potassium, and other minerals which inundates the sugar plantations below, bringing unspeakable wealth to the owners of these properties. This strategic economic rigging and outmaneuvering of the Maroons have left them underdeveloped and among the poorest of the poor living in Jamaica.

For 278 years, after the first peace treaty, the Maroons have become a victim of organised poverty and, ironically, the partnering with the slave masters to fight against their fellow Negroes who were struggling to gain, like the Maroons, their freedom also. However, Maroons have seen a total reversal in the fortunes of both Negro groupings, as it is the Maroons who are now at the bottom of the socio- economic pyramid and need the help of the rest of the Negro population.

They deserve our pity and forgiveness even in the face of their unspeakable cruelty to the non-Maroon population on behalf of the slave masters. So this disrespectful attempt to “educate” the population about Maroons being our freedom fighters and heroes is nothing more than lying foolishness marinated by British brinksmanship. The Maroons were despicable agents of a merciless British slave system. When the preceding truths are publicly admitted through a collective act of public confession and apology,….. we all can move on,… but this “three card game” in our history must stop and the guilty needs to come clean. Then redemption will flow down like water and forgiveness like a mighty stream, and those of us who know otherwise,… beyond the carefully crafted propaganda and anansism…. will feel relieved that we are no longer taken for “quarshie fools to be treated like puppets on a string. We never were — even though we played the fool — to create subtle advantages for ourselves.

Clearly, a structured slave system of divide and rule in which the Maroons thought themselves “special Negroes” in the eyes of the white slave masters, were offended by the whipping of two Cudjoe Town Maroons in Montego Bay jail in the Town Square in full view of prisoners who were brought in to watch the whippings, as well as the general public. But to make matters worse, the whip was, with much relish, in the hands of one non-Maroon Negro runaway slave who the Maroons themselves had captured in the mountains and turned over to the authorities for a fee. In today’s imagery is the picture of a prisoner whipping two policemen who were earlier responsible for his arrest and detention, doing so in the full glare of the public view.

The humiliation of the entire Cudjoe Town Maroon community became unbearable and the second Maroon War broke out in 1795 in upper St James. This war saw some very interesting development: The Parish Church Assembly Hall, then at the bottom of Church Street —meeting place of the St James Vestry (Parish Council) — was mysteriously burnt to the ground. The Accompong Town Maroons were bribed by the Government to stay out of the war by not giving any support to their brothers and sisters with whom they fought to secure, strange as it may have been, the 1739 peace treaty. The bribe money was 500 pounds.

Not to be outdone, the Eastern Maroons, comprising Moore Town, Charles Town and Crawford Town boarded a ship — supplied by the colonial governor — the Earl of Balcarres, in Port Antonio — sailed to Falmouth Trelawny, disembarked and marched for some seven hours to Maroon Town to shoot down their fellow Maroons for a fee.

When the Accompong Town Maroons saw the Eastern Maroons making a lot of money (50 pounds per Cudjoe Town Maroon killed) they joined the fight against their neighbouring brothers and sisters in Cudjoe Town and began killing them also for money. Major General George Walpole, after whom Walpole Lane near Overton Plaza is named, and who later became a British MP… led the military and the Eastern Maroons with active support from the then governor, the Earle of Balcarres, in a massive assault against the Cudjoe Town Maroons in rebellion.

As the war waged on, the Governor announced that if the Cudjoe Town fighters surrendered they would receive forgiveness from the State. After much hesitation, the upper St James Maroons, totalling some 600 inclusive of family members, reported to Montego Bay. They were tricked (again). Governor Balcarres had a ship waiting out in the ocean. The Maroons were forcibly loaded on — men, women and children and shipped out of the island to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and over four years later shipped again in another ship named Asia to Sierra Leonie,West Africa. Typical Jamaican: Many found their way back home before Emancipation and after the abolition of slavery 1838 they pooled resources, purchased a ship, and a huge batch also “cum back a dem yard”.

The church the Jamaican Maroons founded in Free Town, Sierra Leonie, West Africa, is now a national monument, as declared by the Government, and the Jamaican Maroons’ descendants continue to operate this church up to today.

In the meantime here in Jamaica and much earlier, the colonial government took away the 1,500 hundred acres of land that were given to the Cudjoe Town Maroons on the basis of what was claimed to be a breach of the 1739 peace treaty. Most of the confiscated lands were given to the Accompong Town Maroons who conspired against their fellow Maroons during the Second Maroon War in upper St James.

Our heroes, eh?

Shalman Scott, a political commentator and historian, is the first mayor of the city of Montego Bay.