Moore Town is a
Maroon
Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown".
Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...
settlement located in the
Blue Mountains and
John Crow Mountains
The John Crow Mountains are a range of mountains in eastern Jamaica.
Etymology
The name John Crow was first recorded in the 1820s and comes from the Jamaican name for the turkey vulture. It has been suggested that previous to this, the range was ...
of
Portland, Jamaica
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 ...
,
accessible by road from
Port Antonio
Port Antonio () is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for ...
. The easternmost Maroon town, Moore Town is located in the eastern end of the parish. Formerly known as New
Nanny Town
Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish, northeastern Jamaica, used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons (escapee slaves). During the early 18th century, the region was led by an Ashanti escapee slave known as Queen Na ...
, Moore Town was founded in 1740 when the Peace Treaty was signed between the British colonial authorities and the Windward Maroons.
This treaty allotted the Moore Town Maroons 1000 acres, but Moore Town only received 500.
In 1781 the initial 500 acres was augmented with another 500 acres, taking their communal land up to 1,000 acres.
While Maroons and the British initially referred to this settlement as New Nanny Town, from 1760 the colonial authorities called it Moore Town or Muretown, when it was reportedly named after acting governor Sir
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...
.
As of 2009 Moore Town has a reported population of 1,106.
Nanny Town
The conquest of Jamaica by the English in 1655 led to an influx of Western and
Central Africa
Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...
ns into the country through the slave trade.
Consequently, a number of the enslaved escaped to various parts of the mountains,
joining another group that had been released by the Spanish during the
Invasion of Jamaica
The Invasion of Jamaica took place in May 1655, during the 1654 to 1660 Anglo-Spanish War, when an English expeditionary force captured Spanish Jamaica. It was part of an ambitious plan by Oliver Cromwell to acquire new colonies in the Americ ...
.
These
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 mountain ...
, who inhabited Moore Town, claim descent from escaped Africans and
Taino men and women.
These people became known as the
Jamaican Maroons
Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of Free black people in Jamaica, free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern Pari ...
. This migration disrupted the slave plantation, resulting in periodic war between the Maroons and British.
After approximately 80 years of warfare, the Maroons controlled a sizeable amount of the mountainous forests of the eastern parts of Jamaica.
Eventually, the British recognized their autonomy by offering them peace treaties which brought an end to 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 Indigenous Jamaicans who helped Africans to set ...
.
In 1739,
Cudjoe
Cudjoe, Codjoe or Captain Cudjoe (c. 1659 – 1744),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 libra ...
, the leader of the Leeward Maroons in western Jamaica, signed a peace treaty that recognized the independence of
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 already living in the mountains launched an assault ...
and
Accompong
Accompong (from the Asante 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 ...
.
This treaty allowed them numerous benefits, including tax-free lands throughout the island.
These lands are still home to succeeding generations of the original Maroons in western Jamaica.
The community of Moore Town was founded by one of the Maroon leaders, "sister" to Cudjoe,
Nanny
A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...
, and 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 Indigenous Jamaicans who helped Africans to set ...
they lived in
Nanny Town
Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish, northeastern Jamaica, used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons (escapee slaves). During the early 18th century, the region was led by an Ashanti escapee slave known as Queen Na ...
.
Nanny refused to sign the Peace Treaty of 1740 between the British colonial government and the Windward Maroons, but acquiesced in the uneasy truce that followed. Nanny accepted a land patent which gave her people 500 acres of land, at a site which late became known as Moore Town.
Moore Town
After the signing of the treaty the people under Nanny's jurisdiction split into two groups, with one half migrating with her "brother"
Quao
Quao (d. c. 1750s) was one of the leaders of the Windward Maroons, who fought the British colonial forces of Jamaica to a standstill during the First Maroon War of the 1730s. The name Quao is probably a variation of Yaw, which is the Twi Akan ...
to
Crawford's Town Crawford's Town was one of the two main towns belonging to the Windward Maroon (people), Maroons, who fought a guerrilla war of resistance against the British colonial forces of Jamaica during the First Maroon War of the 1730s.
Crawford's Town was ...
and the other half relocating to New Nanny Town, which is now known as Moore Town.
When the colonial authorities identified New Nanny Town in 1760, they referred to it as Moore Town. The governor of the
Colony of Jamaica
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was Invasion of Jamaica (1655), captured by the The Protectorate, English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British Empire, British colon ...
at the time was
Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet
Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet (7 February 1713 – 11 September 1769) was a British colonial administrator who served as the governor of New York from 1765 to 1769, when he died in office. Moore also served as the lieutenant governor of Jamaica ...
, and it is possible the town was renamed in his honour.
By 1760 however, the successors of Nanny had lost control of Moore Town to the white superintendents, and in that year these superintendents commanded Maroon warriors in the fighting against
Tacky's revolt
Tacky's Revolt (also known as Tacky's Rebellion and Tacky's War) was a slave rebellion in the British colony of Jamaica which lasted from 7 April 1760 to 1761. Spearheaded by self-emancipated Coromantee people, the rebels were led by a Fante ro ...
. In the decade that followed, a Maroon officer named Clash attempted to challenge the authority of the superintendent, but he was unsuccessful because he did not have the support of his fellow Maroons.
In 1774, a Maroon officer from
Charles Town (Jamaica)
Charles Town is one of four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located on Buff Bay River in Portland Parish."The Charles Town Maroons today", Jamaica Observer 12 November 2018 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/observer-north-east/the-charl ...
named
Samuel Grant allegedly killed a white sea captain named Townshend and his black slave while hunting runaways in
Hellshire Beach
Hellshire Beach, Jamaica, is located near Portmore, Jamaica, Portmore, and famed for its fried fish and safe swimming. It has near white sands with a very small trace of black sand. Exposed when there is a sea running to the south, the waters close ...
, and then fled to Moore Town for refuge. Admiral
George Rodney
Admiral (Royal Navy), Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, Order of the Bath, KB (baptism, bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator. He is best known for his commands ...
, who was in
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...
at the time, sent a fleet to
Port Antonio
Port Antonio () is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for ...
in anticipation of a Maroon revolt. The white superintendent persuaded the Moore Town Maroons to hand over Grant, who stood trial at
Spanish Town
Spanish Town (Jamaican Patois: Spain) is the capital and the largest town in the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica, St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica, Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and Briti ...
. However, much to the surprise of local planters, Grant was acquitted of the murder of Townshend.
In 1770, there were 136 Maroons at Moore Town, but by 1797 that number had grown to 245.
Moore Town remained neutral during 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 renamed after Governor Edward Trelawny at the end of First Maroon War, located near Trelawny ...
of 1795–6.
In 1808, the population of Moore Town was 310, but it more than doubled to 665 in 1841.
The Maroons of Moore Town, under the leadership of Charles Town superintendent Alexander Fyfe (Fyffe), helped to put down the Christmas Rebellion of 1831–2, also known as the
Baptist War
The Baptist War, also known as the Sam Sharp Rebellion, the Christmas Rebellion, the Christmas Uprising and the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831–32, was an eleven-day rebellion that started on 25 December 1831 and involved up to 60,000 of t ...
, led by
Samuel Sharpe
Samuel Sharpe, or Sharp (1801 – 23 May 1832), also known as Sam Sharpe, was an enslaved Jamaican who was the leader of the widespread 1831–32 Baptist War slave rebellion (also known as the Christmas Rebellion) in Jamaica.
He was procla ...
.
In 1865, poor free blacks, led by
Paul Bogle
Paul Bogle (1822 – 24 October 1865)Dugdale-Pointon, T. Military History Encyclopedia good on the Web, 22 September 2008. was a Jamaican Baptist deacon and activist. He is a National Hero of Jamaica. He was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay ...
, rose in revolt against the colonial authorities in the
Morant Bay Rebellion
The Morant Bay Rebellion (11 October 1865) began with a protest march to the courthouse by hundreds of people led by preacher Paul Bogle in Morant Bay, Jamaica. Some were armed with sticks and stones. After seven men were shot and killed by t ...
. The governor called out the Moore Town Maroons one last time to put down the rebellion. Fyfe was called up once more to lead a combination of Moore Town Maroons, including some who resided in Hayfield and Bath, and they committed a number of atrocities before they captured Bogle. However, their cruelty in suppressing the uprising attracted a lot of criticism from Methodist missionaries and residents of
Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica
Saint Thomas(), once known as ''Saint Thomas in the East'', is a suburban parish situated at the south eastern end of Jamaica, within the county of Surrey. It is the birthplace of Paul Bogle, designated in 1969 as one of Jamaica's seven Natio ...
.
Government
Maroon officers
c. 1760s Captain Clash
c. 1760s Captain Sambo
1790s - ? Colonel Charles Harris
White superintendents
c. 1758 - c. 1782 Charles Swigle
1782 - 1804 Charles Douglas
1804- 1824 George Fuller (d. c. 1824)
1824 - 1827 John Anderson Orgill
1827 - 1830 George Minot (d. c. 1830)
c. 1830s Thomas Wright
Following the British recognition of Maroon settlements, British superintendents were assigned as diplomats to settlements to maintain good relations between the Maroons and the British.
However, in the mid-18th century, these superintendents gradually usurped the authority of the Maroon officers. The most notable Superintendent for Moore Town was Lt. George Fuller, who held this position in the early 19th century.
The British colonial authorities abolished the role of the superintendent in the 1850s.
20th century
Since Jamaica's independence from the British in 1962, the Government of Jamaica has recognized the sovereignty of the Maroons. Their recognition aligns with the terms of the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
, ,
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP or DOTROIP) is a legally non-binding United Nations resolution passed by the United Nations in 2007 that delineates and defines the individual and collective rights of indig ...
(2007) of particular note the "right for self-government in matters relating to local affairs".
Moore Town's head of state is given the title of colonel, which alternatively is referred to as a chief.
The system of election is unique in that no individual acting in the capacity of colonel has pursued the position; instead, they are approached with the opportunity and elected through acclamation.
The community is governed by a colonel who is assisted by a Maroon Council that consists of 24 members.
After the discontinuation of the superintendents, Maroon officers reasserted their authority over the Maroon towns. Ernest Downer served as colonel from 1952 to 1964, and C.L.G. Harris from 1964 to 1995.
In 1995, Wallace Sterling was elected as Colonel of Moore Town, and currently serves as Colonel.
Language and religion
Moore Town converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century, eventually embracing the Anglican Church. It is believed that Moore Town embraced the Church of England because that Protestant sect endorsed slave-ownership, and the Moore Town Maroons owned slaves. However, by the 1850s, the traditions of Revival and Pentecostalism grew out of the merging of West African religions with Christianity.
The Maroons of Moore Town have maintained a dialectal variant of the
Asante
Asante may refer to:
*Asante people, an ethnic group in Ghana
*Asante Empire
*Asante (name)
*Asante dialect, a dialect of the Akan languages
* Asante Kotoko S.C., a Ghanaian professional association football club
*Asante (album), 1974 jazz album b ...
language.
The Moore town variant is known as Kromanti.
The name Kromanti is derived from Coromantyn, at the time a Fante slaving sea port located on the Gold Coast of what is now known as Ghana. The Fantes kidnapped their rivals the Asante in the night time during the 1720s according to Edward Long. Before that, the Asantes were a tributary state to Denkyira and Denkyira sold many Asantes to the coastal Fantes who were very close to the British. So close, they are the only Ghanaians today with English names.
Prior to the 20th century Kromanti was spoken conversationally in Moore Town but since the 1930s its fluency has dwindled among the younger members of the community.
It is now reserved for ceremonial and religious purposes.
In conjunction with Kromanti, Jamaican Maroon Creole makes up what is considered
Maroon Spirit Language, or MSL.
The Kromanti Play is a ceremonial event that employs the use of Kromanti to communicate with ancestral spirits.
It is one of the few linguistic features that uniquely separates the Moore Town Maroons from the other Windward bands.
Due to its diminished fluency and the accompanying threat of cultural heritage being lost, Kromanti has been recognized in 2003 by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Music
Maroon Music is an important aspect of the Maroon culture and each of the Maroon Towns have their own distinct music genres, styles and instruments used in performance.
The Moore Town Maroons use several types of drums, along with drumming styles, to accompany their music making.
Moore Town is the only community of Maroons who also utilizes drums in "speech mode" to perform Drum-Language.
Drum-Language is used to communicate with the spirits of their ancestors, as well as call ceremonies to order.
Of the varying drums there is the Aprinting,
a duo of long cylindrical drums. There is also a supporting drum known as the "Rolling Drum", and a lead drum known as the "Cutting Drum".
The drums are not played by just any musician, and those who play them are given special titles that reflect their ability to do so.
Accompanying the drums are other instruments, such as Iron, Abaso Tik, and Kwat.
Across all the Maroon Communities, musicians use an instrument known as the Abeng, a wind instrument fashioned from the horn of a cow.
The Abeng can produce two pitches, and is used to perform "Abeng-Language".
Abeng-Language played a major role in communication during the
first
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
and
second
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
Maroon War, as its high pitch allowed it to convey complex messages across far distances.
External links
Maroon Heritage, Moore Townon unesco.org
References
{{coord, 18.075, N, 76.425, W, display=title
__FORCETOC__
Populated places in Portland Parish
Blue Mountains (Jamaica)
History of the Colony of Jamaica
Jamaican Maroon establishments