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Maroon (people) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source A Maroon (from the word marronage or American/Spanish cimarrón: "wild, savage, fugitive, runaway", lit. "living on mountaintops"; from Spanish cima: "top, summit") was a runaway slave in the West Indies, Central America, South America, or North America. Maroon populations are found from the Amazon River Basin to the American states of Florida and North Carolina. Early History In the New World, as early as the 1512, blacks had escaped from Spanish and Portuguese owners and either joined indigenous peoples or eked out a living on their own. Sir Francis Drake enlisted several 'cimaroons' during his raids on the Spanish. As early as 1655 runaway slaves had formed their own communities in inland Jamaica. Usage and other terms The name Maroon is the British and French corruption of the Spanish 'cimarrones', meaning wild or untamed. While the word 'maroon' was used extensively for the escaped blacks in Jamaica, it was in use throughout the Carribean. The French used the word 'marron' for any fugitive slave. In the Guianas escaped slaves were commonly known as Bush Negroes or Refugee Blacks. In Spanish speaking areas, the villages were sometimes called palenques or quilombos, and the free blacks were called palenqueros. Culture Escaped slaves were frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture. African traditions include such things as the use medicinal herbs together with special drums and dances when the herbs are administered to a sick person. Other African healing and 'magical' rites have survived through the centuries - see, for example, the accompanying photos of a medicine man and a protective charm from Suriname. The jungles around the Caribbean Sea offered food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. Maroons survived by growing vegetables and hunting. They also originally raided plantations. At these attacks, the maroons would burn crops, steal livestock and tools, kill slavemasters, and invite other slaves to join their communities. Individual groups of Maroons often allied themselves with the local indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations. Maroons played an important role in the histories of Brazil, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica. There is much variety among Maroon cultural groups because of differences in history, geography, African nationality, and the culture of indigenous people throughout the Western hemisphere. Maroon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. They sometimes developed Creole languages by mixing European tongues with their original African languages. One such Maroon Creole language, in Suriname, is Saramaccan. The Maroons created their own independent communities which in some cases have survived for centuries and until recently remained separate from mainstream society. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Maroon communities began to disappear as forests were razed, although some countries, such as Guyana and Suriname, still have large Maroon populations living in the forests. Recently, many Maroons have moved to cities and towns as the process of urbanization accelerates. Geographical distribution North America Florida The Black Seminoles, Maroons who allied with Seminole Indians in Florida, were by far the largest and most successful Maroon community in North America. Mexico See Gaspar Yanga, Afro-Latin, Black Mexican. Central America Panama By 1570 the number of Maroons in Villano, near Nombre de Dios in the north of Panama exceeded 2,000. See Cimarron people (Panama), Bayano. Honduras, Belize, Guatemala See Garifuna. Carribbean islands Jamaica When the British invaded Jamaica in 1655, a large number of Africans who had been enslaved by the Spanish colonists escaped into the hilly, mountains regions of the island to live a life free from slavery, joining those who had previously escaped from the Spanish to live with the Taínos. Over time the Maroons came to control large areas of the Jamaican interior and they would often move down from the hills to raid the plantations. They were very organised and knew the country well. Because of this additional run-away slaves joined them. The two main Maroon groups were the Trelawny Town or Leeward Maroons - led by Cudjoe - and the Windward Maroons - led by Queen Nanny and later by Quao. The Maroons were skilled hunters and warriors and, hard as they tried, the British Army could not control or defeat them. In Jamaica, Maroons intermarried with Taíno and Miskito people from Central America, establishing independence in the back country as the island changed hands from the Spanish to the British in the 17th century. Jamaican Maroons fought against slavery and for Jamaican independence from the British. Ironically, they were also paid to return captured slaves and fight for the British in the case of an attack from the French or Spanish. Many of them were deported in 1796 to Nova Scotia and eventually to Sierra Leone. Famous among Maroon rebels was Queen Nanny, also known as Granny Nanny, leader of the Jamaican Maroons in the 18th century. She is the only female listed among Jamaican national heroes, and has been immortalized in songs and legends. Granny Nanny was known for her exceptional leadership skills, which were particularly important in the First Maroon War in the early 1700s. For example, she planned guerrilla warfare that confused the British. Her remains are buried at "Nanny Bump" in Moore Town, the main town of the Windward Maroons who are concentrated in and around the Rio Grande valley in the eastern parish of Portland. To this day, the Maroons in Jamaica are to a large extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican culture. The isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today led to their communities being amongst the most inaccessible on the island. In their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of Trelawny, the Leeward Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6th to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty that was signed with the British after the Maroon War. A British governor signed a treaty promising the Maroons 2500 acres (10 km²) in two locations, because they presented a threat to the British. Also, some Maroons kept their freedom by agreeing to capture runaway slaves. They were paid two dollars for each slave returned. Haïti See Mawon. Others Similar Maroon communities emerged elsewhere in the Caribbean (St Vincent and Dominica for example), but none were seen as such a great threat to the British as the Jamaican Maroons. In Cuba, there were maroon communities in the mountains, where escaped slaves had joined refugee Taínos. Remnants of these communities remain to this day (2006) for example in Viñales. South America Suriname The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname by Wim S.M. Hoogbergen gives an overall picture of the interesting history of the Aluku or Boni in Surinam from their origins until 1860, using the archives of The Netherlands, France and Surinam. Presently they live along the Lawa River, the border river between Surinam and French Guiana, with about 2,000 people. They fled there after protracted warfare against the white planters and their colonial armies. Another author who wrote on the Boni-history is John Gabriel Stedman. Other Maroon tribes still found in Surinam are the Saramaka, the Paramakans, the Ndyuka or Aukan, the Kwinti and the Matawai. By 1770 it was said that there were 5.000 or 6.000 Maroons. By 1863, at the abolition of slavery in Surinam, their number was about 10,000 (and 38,545 slaves). By 1972 the number of Marrons was 35,838, and in 2004 it was 72,553. That is 15% of the total Surinam population. Brazil One of the best-known quilombos was a Brazilian settlement/kingdom called Palmares (the Palm Nation) which was founded in the early 17th century by run away slaves in the northeast of Brazil. At its height, it had a population of over 30,000 free men, women and children, and was ruled by a king, Zumbi by name. Palmares was eventually wiped out in 1694. It lasted for almost 100 years as an independent nation. Notes References
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