Page 11 - The Maroon- Patricia Reid

The second incident and development in the Maroon-slave masters interaction to which the Maroons should ring

alarm bells, is that in 1744, within five years of the signing of the 1739 peace treaty, the planters-dominated House of

Assembly passed a law that it was illegal for Maroons to own other Negroes as slave. This was a slap in the face of

the Maroons and a reality check to their place and space in the slave society, even with a signed treaty.

Fast-forward to the 20th century and ask the question: where does the Jamaican Maroons legally, economically,

politically and socially stand? The latter three areas mentioned are too well known, so let us discuss where do the

Maroons stand legally in the face of the two treaties signed in 1739 and 1741. In 1842, four years after the abolition

of slavery in 1838, a law was passed providing that all Maroon lands be revested in Her Majesty (Queen Victoria) for

the purpose of being allocated to individual Maroons who were entitled to only two acres each.

Still no alarm bells were heard by Maroons as they clutched the document of the peace treaty tighter. Prior to this, in

1832 the Government of Jamaica passed a law declaring all Maroons as “Free Subjects of Her Majesty Island”. Note

how the law did not say “free subjects of Accompong Town, Trelawny Town, Moore Town, Crawford Town State;

but “Her Majesty Island”.