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Profiles

  • Nanny of the Maroons (Jamaica) (c.1686 - 1733)
    Queen Nanny or Grandy Nanny, Jamaican National Hero, was a well-known leader of the Jamaican Maroons in the eighteenth century. Historical documents refer to her as the "rebels (sic) old obeah woman," ...
  • Edward Smith (deceased)
    Edward's family are Maroon "red black." Dad had never been to a government school. (Dollis Daley).
  • Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. (1887 - 1940)
    Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH (17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940), was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a proponent of the Pan-Africanism moveme...
  • Cecil Williams Agustus Melville (1909 - 1961)
    "Jamaica, Civil Registration, 1880-1999", index and images, FamilySearch ( : accessed 17 March 2015), Matthew Melville in entry for Cecil Williams Agustus Melville, 1909.Esther Beckford was the midwife...
  • Frank Maxwell Welsh (1919 - 2004)

Scope of Project

This project is a sub-project of Jamaican Portal: "Out Of many, One People" project, and reflection of the Maroon history of Jamaica, West Indies.

The Maroons are descended from runaway slaves who established free communities in the mountainous interior of Jamaica during the long era of slavery in the island. African slaves imported during the Spanish period may have provided the first runaways, apparently mixing with the Native American Taino or Arawak people that remained in the country. Some may have gained liberty when the English attacked Jamaica and took it in 1655, and subsequently. For about 52 years, until the 1737 peace treaty with the British rulers of the island - which is still in force [1] - the Maroons stubbornly resisted conquest. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Maroons ).

Around 1728, Queen Nanny emerged as the primary general, leader, and obeah woman of the Windward Maroons, her reign extending until around 1740, shortly after the Maroons signed a peace treaty with the British. This period, particularly from 1728-1734, was representative of the Maroons in their greatest glory. (Cary 1970, p. 20) In order to understand the context of Queen Nanny's emergence as a central figure in Jamaican history, it is important to have rudimentary knowledge of Maroon history in Jamaica and an understanding of the specific African ethnic groups that influenced the Maroon identity. (Source: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43/282.html ).