Samuel Grant (1741-1808), 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 ...

. Sam Grant was an officer of 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 ...

who made a career out of hunting runaway slaves.

Tried for killing sea captain

Grant first came to prominence as a member of a team of Windward Maroons that came under the command of Scott's Hall officer

Davy the Maroon Captain Davy (d. late 1700s) was an eighteenth-century Maroon officer at Scott's Hall who gained notoriety by killing coromantyne Tacky (chief) of the tribe, the leader of Tacky's Revolt, the most dangerous slave rebellion in eighteenth-century Jama ...

, who may have been his father. In 1774, Grant allegedly killed a white sea captain named Townshend and his black slave while hunting runaways near

Hellshire Beach Hellshire Beach, 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 o ...

, and then fled to

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 ...

for refuge. Admiral

George Rodney Admiral George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, KB ( bap. 13 February 1718 – 24 May 1792), was a British naval officer. He is best known for his commands in the American War of Independence, particularly his victory over the French at the ...

, who was in Kingston at the time, sent two warships 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 b ...

in response to the incident. There was a stand-off as the

Maroons Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...

stood by Grant, but the white Superintendent-General, Robert Brereton, persuaded the

Maroons to hand over Grant, who stood trial at

Spanish Town Spanish Town ( jam, label=Jamaican Creole, Panish Tong) is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and British capital of Jamaica from 1534 until 1872. Th ...

. However, much to the surprise of local planters, Grant was eventually acquitted of the murder of Townshend.

Hunter of runaway slaves

Grant returned to Charles Town, where he rose through the ranks of the Maroon officer class, eventually becoming a major and nominally leader of the Maroon town, a post he held for many years. In 1781, Grant was a part of the Maroon party that successfully hunted and killed the notorious leader of a community of runaway slaves,

Three Fingered Jack Three Fingered Jack is a summit of a shield volcano of the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon. Formed during the Pleistocene epoch, the mountain consists mainly of basaltic andesite lava and was heavily glaciated in the past. While o ...

. Grant made a career hunting runaway slaves for neighbouring planters, but in 1797 he lodged a complaint about the length of time it took for the colonial authorities to pay him his rewards.

Second Maroon War

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 re-named after Governor Edward Trelawny at the end of First Maroon War, located near Trelawny Par ...

of 1795–6, the Windward Maroons remained neutral, but the governor,

Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and ''de jure'' 23rd Earl of Crawford (18 January 175227 March 1825) was the son of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. He was a general in the British Army. Early life He entered the army at the ag ...

, ordered Grant to lead a party of Charles Town Maroons to Kingston to await his orders. However, an

obeah Obeah, or Obayi, is an ancestrally inherited tradition of Akan witches of Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo and their descendants in the African diaspora of the Caribbean. Inheritors of the tradition are referred to as "obayifo" (Akan/Ghana-region ...

man advised Grant that Balcarres planned to deport them, and Grant, suspicious of the governor, led his men back to their Maroon town in the

Blue Mountains (Jamaica) The Blue Mountains are the longest mountain range in Jamaica. They include the island's highest point, Blue Mountain Peak, at 2256 m (7402 ft). From the summit, accessible via a walking track, both the north and south coasts of the isl ...

. Balcarres later admitted that he had indeed planned to deport the Windward Maroons. From the 1790s until his death, Grant was the leading Maroon officer in Charles Town, first as a major and then promoted to colonel.

Later life and death

In 1807, the colonial authorities exposed a slave conspiracy, and one of the informers claimed that the Charles Town Maroons were conspirators. Grant, who was the elderly leader of Charles Town, denied the charges. William Anderson Orgill, the magistrate who investigated the case, dismissed the evidence of the slave conspirators, and chose to believe Grant's expressions of loyalty.Siva, ''After the Treaties'', p. 195. Sam Grant died in 1808.

References

Jamaican Maroon leaders Colony of Jamaica people {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Samuel 1741 births 1808 deaths Date of birth unknown