The Maroons

These people were the descendants of the African slaves brought to the island of Jamaica by the Spaniards. The island of Jamaica was discovered by Columbus in 1494. It is about the size of the State of Connecticut, with a mountain range running through the island, rising in some places to a mile in height. The name Jamaica means "The Isle of Springs."

During the conquest of Jamaica by the English, the Maroons, deserted by their masters, fled to the mountain fastnesses, where they lived a fierce and wild life.

Their numbers being daily increased by accessions of deserting slaves, they soon became formidable to the white inhabitants, whom they plundered and assassinated. In 1738 an agreement was entered into by which they secured their independence, and they maintained it for one hundred and forty years; but the English finally determined to get rid of them from the island, and barbarously resorted to the use of bloodhounds.

One hundred of these ferocious creatures were imported from Cuba, and, under the direction of experienced huntsmen, were let loose upon the mountaineers, to seize and tear them to pieces.

Thus hemmed in on every side, and hunted down like wild animals, the poor Maroons had no alternative except submission.

Only about six hundred escaped: they were transported from the burning climate of Jamaica to the bleak shores of Nova Scotia, and there they miserably perished.

In 1833 the English Government emancipated all slaves in the West Indies, requiring still a period of apprenticeship, and making an allowance to owners of about nineteen pounds for each slave, in a slave population of 309,338.