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 (Southampton: Southampton University, 2018), pp. 61–2. sometimes spelled CudjoThomas W. Krise, "Cudjo", in Junius P. Rodriguez (ed.), ''The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery'', Volume 1, 1997, p. 203. – corresponding to the Akan day name Kojo, Codjoe or Kwadwo – 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 ...

leader in

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 ...

during the time of

Nanny of the Maroons 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 ...

. In

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 ...

, Cudjoe or Kojo is the name given to a boy born on a Monday. He has been described as "the greatest of the Maroon leaders." 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 ...

are descended from Africans who conquered enslavers and established communities of

Free black people in Jamaica Free black people in Jamaica fell into two categories. Some secured their freedom officially, and lived within the slave communities of the Colony of Jamaica. Others ran away from slavery, and formed independent communities in the forested mountai ...

in the mountains of the

Colony of Jamaica The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was pri ...

during the era of slavery on the island. African slaves imported during the Spanish period may have provided the first runaways, apparently mixing with the Native American Taino or

Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greater ...

people that remained in the country. Some may have gained liberty when the English attacked Jamaica and took it in 1655, and subsequently. Cudjoe was the leader of a community of runaway slaves known as

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 ...

. For nearly a century, until the 1739 and 1740 peace treaties with the British rulers of the island, the Maroons victoriously resisted conquest.

Origins of Cudjoe

Western slaves ran away into the Cockpit Country and established the first community of Leeward Maroons in the mountainous interior of the island. The runaway slaves were called Maroons, after the Spanish word ''cimarron''. The Leeward Maroons most likely emerged in 1690 when there was a Coromantee rebellion on Sutton's estate in western Jamaica, and most of these slaves ran away to form the Leeward Maroons. Cudjoe is probably the son of one of the leaders of this revolt. Milton McFarlane explains that his family's

Accompong Accompong (from the Akan name ''Acheampong'') is a historical Maroon village located in the hills of St. Elizabeth Parish on the island of Jamaica. It is located in Cockpit Country, where Jamaican Maroons and indigenous Taíno established a for ...

Town Maroon oral history states that Cudjoe was the freeborn son of Naquan, who was the leader of the rebels who fled from Sutton's estate. According to contemporary white planters, Cudjoe challenged a Madagascan escaped slave for the leadership of the Leeward Maroons in 1720, and when he defeated and killed his challenger, Cudjoe became the undisputed leader of these western Maroons. The two main Maroon groups in the 18th century were the Leeward and the Windward Maroons, the former led by Cudjoe in Trelawny Town and the latter led by

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

Quao Quao (d. c. 1750s) was one of the leaders of the Jamaican_Maroons#Establishment of the Leeward and Windward Maroons, Windward Maroons, who fought the British colonial forces of Jamaica to a standstill during the First Maroon War of the 1730s. The ...

Description

White colonial physician R. C. Dallas, who wrote his account half a century after Cudjoe lived, claimed the Maroon leader was described short and stout, with a "wildness in his manners". He also described Cudjoe as having "a very large lump of flesh upon his back, which was partly covered by the tattered remains of an old blue coat, of which the skirts and the sleeves below the elbow were wanting." Slaver

Thomas Thistlewood Thomas Thistlewood (16 March 1721 ‒ 30 November 1786) was an English planter in colonial Jamaica. Thistlewood migrated to the western end of the Colony of Jamaica where he became a plantation overseer, plantation owner and slaver. His lengthy ...

, who actually met Cudjoe in 1750, noted in his diary that "he had on a feather’d hat, Sword at his Side, gun upon his Shoulder...Bare foot and Bare legg’d, somewhat a Majestic look".

Treaty with the British

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 ...

of the 1730s, the English colonial forces failed to secure any significant victories against Cudjoe's Leeward Maroons. In 1739, Cudjoe reached an agreement with the British that recognized the Leeward Maroons as an independent nation. The Maroons also received a large tract of land and would not have to pay any taxes on it. However, Cudjoe, in return for this recognition of autonomy, promised to return runaway slaves and help put down future slave rebellions. In the 1740s, some Leeward Maroons who opposed the 1739 treaty rose in revolt, but Cudjoe crushed those rebellions. According to one story, Cudjoe died at

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, ...

in the Blue Mountains five years after peace was concluded. However, white Jamaican writers

Edward Long Edward Long (23 August 1734 – 13 March 1813) was an English-born British colonial administrator, slave owner and historian, and author of a highly controversial work, ''The History of Jamaica'' (1774). He was a polemic defender of slavery. Li ...

and

wrote of personal encounters with Cudjoe in the 1750s and 1760s. In the last written reference, Long described how Cudjoe led his Leeward Maroons in a martial performance at Montego Bay for Governor Sir William Lyttleton in 1764. That same year, Thistlewood reported receiving news that "Colonel Cudjoe is dead some time ago".

Legacy

The treaty of 1739 named Accompong as Cudjoe's successor, and Accompong tried to take control of Trelawny Town when Cudjoe died in 1764. However, the governor, Roger Hope Elletson, asserted his new authority over the Leeward Maroons. Elletson instructed Superintendent John James to take the Trelawny Town badge of authority away from Accompong, and to give it to a Trelawny Town Maroon officer named Lewis. James instructed Accompong that he was to only have authority over Accompong Town. Cudjoe Day is celebrated in Jamaica on the first Monday in January.Understanding Slavery Initiative.
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References

{{Authority control Jamaican Maroon leaders Jamaican rebel slaves Year of birth uncertain 1764 deaths 18th-century Jamaican people