St. John's Maroon Church is a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church located in Maroon Town, a district of

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

, the capital of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. It is one of the oldest churches in the country. 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 ...

were men, women and children, originating from the

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 ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, who had surrendered at the end of the

Second Maroon War The Second Maroon War of 1795–1796 was an eight-month conflict between the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town), a Maroon settlement later re-named after Governor Edward Trelawny at the end of First Maroon War, located near Trelawny Par ...

. They had been deported to

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

by the colonial authorities in 1796. They were then transported to Freetown in 1800, where their opportune arrival and assistance enabled the authorities put down a rebellion by some of the

Nova Scotian Settlers The Nova Scotian Settlers, or Sierra Leone Settlers (also known as the Nova Scotians or more commonly as the Settlers) were African-Americans who founded the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Sierra Leone, on March 11, 1792 ...

, the founders of Freetown. They settled down in an area that became known as Maroon Town. The Maroons gradually gave up their African beliefs and converted to Christianity. In 1820, they received a grant of land between Percival and Liverpool Street in Maroon Town. Uncomfortable worshiping in Nova Scotian chapels, a group led by Charles Shaw Harding built St. John's Maroon Church in 1822. It is a small white building surrounded by a low white wall. While the Maroons gradually integrated into Freetown society, many of them continued to attend the church. They followed their own brand of Methodism and maintained their independence of the Methodist establishment until 1900. The congregation has dwindled, but still survives. The 200th anniversary of the founding of the congregation of St John's Maroon Church was celebrated in 2007.CCEP Foundation
The church was declared a national heritage site in 1956 under the Monuments and Relics Ordinance of 1 June 1947.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Johns Maroon Church Churches in Freetown Churches completed in 1820 19th-century Methodist church buildings Methodist churches in Sierra Leone