Scott's Hall is one of the four official towns 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 ensl ...

. It is located in

Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica Saint Mary is a parish located in the northeast section of Jamaica. With a population of 114,227 it is one of Jamaica's smallest parishes, located in the county of Middlesex. Its chief town and capital is Port Maria, located on the coast. It i ...

. Scott's Hall is one of the towns belonging to the Windward Maroons, which are situated along 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 ...

. While

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 ...

is in the easternmost part of the mountain range,

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-charle ...

is more centrally located. However, while Moore Town and Charles Town are situated 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 ...

, Scott's Hall is on the westernmost edge of the range in St Mary. The only Leeward Maroon town in Jamaica is

Accompong Town 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 fort ...

, located in the western

Cockpit Country Cockpit Country is an area in Trelawny and Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, Saint Ann, Manchester and the northern tip of Clarendon parishes in Jamaica. The land is marked by steep-sided hollows, as much as deep in places, which are separated ...

. However, the Returned Maroons 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 from Sutton's Estate in south-western Jamaica, and th ...

now live just outside

Maroon Town, Jamaica Maroon Town is a settlement in Jamaica. It has a population of 3122 as of 2009. Geography and economy Maroon Town is located in the conical Cockpit Country that spans parts of the parishes of St. James, St. Elizabeth and Trelawny. Located in Sa ...

History

Originally, the largest Windward Maroon town was

Crawford's Town Crawford's Town was one of the two main towns belonging to the Windward 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 in the Spanish ...

, located high in the Blue Mountains. However, a leadership conflict between Quao and Edward Crawford in 1754 resulted in the destruction of Crawford's Town. Scott's Hall was established by supporters of Quao in 1749, and when a conflict five years later resulted in the destruction of Crawford's Town, more supporters of Quao were relocated to Scott's Hall. However, upon the establishment of Scott's Hall, white superintendents assumed control of the Maroon town, and the Maroon officers reported to them. In 1760, while Cudjo and

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 ...

were the nominal Maroon leaders of Scott's Hall, they reported to the Moore Town superintendent, who marshalled the Maroon forces during

Tacky's War Tacky's War, Tacky's Revolt, or Tacky's Rebellion, was a widespread slave rebellion in the British Colony of Jamaica in the 1760s. Led by Akan people (then referred to as Coromantee but originally from around Kromantsie in the Central Region of ...

. Davy, a legendary marksman, is credited with personally killing Tacky, and bringing an end to the main part of the revolt. By the time Cudjo and Davy died, sometime before the mid-1790s, the superintendent did not see the need to appoint another Maroon officer, and instead ruled the smallest Maroon town directly. In 1770, there were 42 Maroons living in Scott's Hall, and by 1797 the village's population had only increased marginally to 45. In 1808, the Maroon population of Scott's Hall was just 51, but by 1841 it had more than doubled to 105. In 1781, the superintendent of Scott's Hall, Bernard Nalty, led a party of Windward Maroons that killed

Three Fingered Jack (Jamaica) Three-Fingered Jack a.k.a. Jack Mansong (died c. 1781), was the leader of a band of runaway slaves in the Colony of Jamaica in the eighteenth century. After the Jamaican Maroons signed treaties with the British colonial authorities in 1739 and 1740 ...

, a notorious leader of a group of runaway slaves. Because only a few Scott's Hall Maroons owned slaves, they did not follow the other two Windward Maroon towns in embracing the Anglican Church version of Christianity. Instead, the Maroons of Scott's Hall welcome Baptist missionaries into their village. Like Charles Town, a large number of residents in Scott's Hall were non-Maroons.

Government

Maroon officers

c. 1760 - c. 1793 Captain Cudjo and Captain

c. 1790s Colonel George Gray c. 1807 - c. 1809 Captain John Gordon (d. c. 1809) c. 1809 Captain Peter Ellis 2016 – Present Colonel Rudolph Pink In 2016, Rudolph Pink was elected Maroon colonel of Scott's Hall. A dispute over the leadership of Scott's Hall resulted in the arrest of Pink for breaches of a coronavirus curfew, and allegations of an attempted coup by Lloyd Lattibeaudiere. There is a rival claimant to the post of chief of Scott's Hall, named Rastalogy Francis. A maroon receivership internal government investigation (MRIGI) concluded by reinstating Pink as the Maroon chief of Scott's Hall. On January 9, 2020, Pink asked the Jamaican government to ratify or sign a document, called the “free paper”, by maroons.

White superintendents

c. 1760s Edward Cresswell, Benjamin Brown and John George c. 1773 William Trower c. 1776 - c. 1782 Bernard Nalty c. 1782 - c. 1785 Daniel Fisher 1785 - c. 1787 William Virgo Brodbelt 1787 - 1792/4 John Spence Brodbelt 1792/4 - c. 1796 Edmund Pusey March c. 1796 - c. 1797 John March 1797 - 1831 Thomas March (d. 1831) 1831 - ? Philip Thomas Livingston p. 278.

21st century

Once a year, Scott's Hall promotes a traditional Maroon festival named Kyushu (water fest). This traditional festivity speaks to ceremonial ancestors and the signing of the treaty. Scott's Hall has a population of over 3,000, and is a traditional farming community. Its natural resources include sustainable resources such as bamboo. Scott's Hall boasts a museum, and a head office for the new Maroon paramount chief is currently under consultation.

References

{{reflist Jamaican Maroon establishments Jamaican Maroon history Jamaican Maroons History of the Colony of Jamaica