Cattawood Springs is a place in

Portland Parish Portland, with its capital town Port Antonio, is a parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of St Thomas and to the east of St Mary in Surrey County. It is one of the rural areas of Jamaica, containing part ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

located at

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

18 04' 00",

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

76 26' 00". Originally this was a

Maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...

settlement. Its name probably derives from the

Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...

word ''katá'' which means to cover conceal or protect.

History

Cattawood Springs was a place of refuge for

Queen Nanny Queen Nanny, Granny Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons ONH (c. 1686 – c. 1733), was an 18th century leader of the Jamaican Maroons. She led a community of formerly enslaved Africans called the Windward Maroons. In the early 18th century, under t ...

and the

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensla ...

during the

First Maroon War The First Maroon War was a conflict between the Jamaican Maroons and the colonial British authorities that started around 1728 and continued until the peace treaties of 1739 and 1740. It was led by self-liberated Africans who set up communities in ...

, especially when the militias captured

Nanny Town Old Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish, north-eastern Jamaica, used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons (escaped slaves). They were led in the early 18th century by an Ashanti escaped slave known as Granny Nanny, ...

. However, under Nanny's leadership, the Windward Maroons mounted attacks from Cotterwood, and recaptured Nanny Town on more than one occasion. The Windward Maroons made overtures to join forces with

Cudjoe Cudjoe, Codjoe or Captain Cudjoe (c. 1660s – 1764),Michael Sivapragasam''After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842'' PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library ...

towards the end of the 1730s. After the Windward Maroons signed a peace treaty with governor Edward Trelawny in 1740, Queen Nanny's Maroons abandoned Nanny Town, and resettled in New Nanny Town, which was eventually renamed

Moore Town Moore Town is a Maroon (people), Maroon settlement located in the Blue Mountains (Jamaica), Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains of Portland, Jamaica, accessible by road from Port Antonio. The easternmost Maroon town, Moore Town is located in ...

. Some of the original inhabitants left Cattawood in 1730 to join up with

Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) Cudjoe's Town was located in the mountains in the southern extremities of the parish of St James, close to the border of Westmoreland, Jamaica. In 1690, a large number of Akan freedom fighters from Sutton's Estate in south-western Jamaica, and th ...

. According to one story, a group of one hundred men women and children went to join Cudjoe, and they were probably members of the group led by Captain Cuffee, who was one of Cudjoe's deputies at the signing of the 1739 peace treaty with the Leeward Maroons. They retained their name subsequently settling in

Cotterwood Cotterwood is a town in Saint Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica. It is at latitude 18° 4' 60" N, Longitude 77° 54' 0" W and at an altitude of 107 metres. The community here was founded by Jamaican Maroons who originally came from Cattawood Springs in P ...

Saint Elizabeth Parish Saint Elizabeth, one of Jamaica's largest parishes, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is located at the mouth of the Black River, the widest on the island. History Saint Elizabet ...

. pp. 44–5.

References

Jamaican Maroon establishments Populated places in Portland Parish {{Africandiaspora-stub