Nanny Town
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nanny Town | |
|---|---|
Abandoned Maroon Village | |
  Nanny Town | |
| Coordinates: 18°04′06″N 76°31′27″W / 18.0683°N 76.5242°W[1] | |
| Country | Jamaica |
| Parish | Saint Thomas |
| Founded | c1700 |
| Destroyed | 1734 |
| Founded by | Nanny |
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 Nanny, or Granny Nanny, who gave the town its name. The town was steadfast, and held-out against repeated attacks from the colonial militia before being abandoned in 1734.[2]
Nanny of the Maroons (also known as Queen Nanny and Granny Nanny) is supposed to have been born in what is now Ghana, West Africa, as a member of the Ashanti nation, part of the Akan people. Allegedly, she was enslaved along with her five "brothers-in-arms", and brought to eastern Jamaica. She and her five "brothers", Cudjoe, Accompong, Johnny, Cuffy and Quao, decided to flee the oppressive conditions of the sugar cane plantations to join the autonomous African communities of Maroons which had developed in the mountains.
These communities of Free black people in Jamaica originated from people formerly enslaved by the Spanish, who had refused to submit to British control. The Maroons of Nanny Town claim descent from escaped African slaves and Taíno men and women.[3]
The Maroon communities grew as many more slaves escaped the plantations and joined them. Angered by continued raiding of plantations and armed confrontations, the colonial government mounted the First Maroon War of the 1730s in an effort to defeat and capture the runaway slaves.[4]
One story is that Nanny and her "brothers" split up in order to continue the resistance to the plantation slave economy across Jamaica. Cudjoe went to Clarendon, where he was soon joined by about a hundred Maroons from Cottawood; while Accompong went to St. Elizabeth, where a Maroon community was later named for him. Nanny and Quao made their way to Portland and the Blue Mountains.
A more likely origin for the Leeward Maroons the Coromantee rebellion on Sutton's estate in western Jamaica in 1690. Most of these slaves escaped to form the Leeward Maroons.[5] Cudjoe is probably the son of one of the leaders of this revolt.[6] While Cudjoe emerged as the leader of the Leeward Maroons of the west, Nanny came to prominence as one of the main leaders of the Windward Maroons of the east.
