African Events

7/29/2019 African Events

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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO INDEPENDENCE

BACKGROUND

In 1812 Trinidad was made a crown colony of England and became a model forthe rest of the British West Indies. The Crown Colony system would allow rBritain to have greater control in the governing of her colonies. This system

consisted of a governor at the head and a nominated council selected by thegovernor.

This system of government was favoured by the British for several reasons:

-The British government wished to control the manner in which imperialaid was used in the colonies.-The Haitian Revolution and the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica madewhites residing in the British West Indies and the British government veryconcerned about the capabilities of blacks in so far as overthrowingcolonial rule.

The Legislative Council was introduced as part of the Crown colony system in1831 and the elective element came into being in 1924 but limited to thelandholders and people of European descent

In 194, adult suffrage was introduced and this widened the electoral pool. As aresult, many political parties emerged on the scene in the hopes of capturing thesupport of the larger electorate. Nevertheless the elections of 1946 saw no partywin with a clear majority.

In this period, leaders of various politically oriented groups agitated for more

constitutional change. By 1950 the number of elected members in theLegislative Council increased to 18 out of a total of 26. It was at this point thatelected members outnumbered those that were appointed by the Governor.In the Executive Council, there were five elected members, who would each holda ministerial portfolio. Again no party won a clear majority in the 1950 elections

By 1956 the Constitution would be ratified again allowing for 24 elected seats inthe Legislative Council. The Executive Council now had seven elected membersfrom the Legislative Council led by a chief minister.

Constitutional issues were reopened in 1955-1956 by the Sidman Committee but

they merely recommended changes be made in ministerial structure; this too leftthe population at large dissatisfied with its proposals.

WHO WAS INVOLVED

The most significant movement in the period immediately before independencewas the 1930s labour movement. This period in Trinidad and Tobago was not

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unusual, much of the working class across the globe particularly in Europe wereestablishing trade unions.

The colonial authorities were not responsive to the needs of workers in Trinidadand Tobago and in fact only furthered imperial economic interest. WhileCiprianiemerges advocating on behalf of the under dogs his methods are seen as tooslow and ineffective and towards the end of his career the masses want moreradical change

The oil industry was largely owned by foreign businessmen and as such many ofthe profits left the island. Additionally many South Africans worked in the local oilindustry and introduced segregation policies in the industry, which also angeredthe workers.

Additionally the peasantry was frustrated due to the unavailability of land asmuch of the land was reserved for the oil industry.The red book system became another issue of contention for workers. The redbook constituted a system of documentation of job performance with which

workers were unhappy as it tainted their reputation with potential employers.

Moreover the colonial authorities failed to establish a minimum wage. Theseconditions led to the Hunger Marches and numerous labour riots thatcharacterized this period.

Albert Gomes

Albert Gomes was a politician and writer and unionist and also the first Chief

Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He established the Political Progress Groupsand would later lead the Party of Political Progress Groups. He also played a rolein forming the Democratic Labour Party, and would also lead this party in 1960for a brief time when Rudranath Capildeo took up a position at the University ofLondon.

In 1937 he was elected to the Port of Spain City Council and would sit on thecouncil for nine years. He also held the position of Deputy Mayor for three years.By 1945 he was elected to the Legislative Council and was reelected to thenewly restructured Council in 1946. He held this position until the 1956 GeneralElection when the Peoples National Movement under Eric Williams won a clear

majority.

Tubal Uriah Buzz Butler

Uriah Butler was a trade unionist and politician; he is most noted for his work withthe Oil Workers Trade Union and his role in the Hunger Marches of the 1930s. In1936 he formed his own Party most popularly known as Butlers Party howeverhe was imprisoned during both World War 1and 2 and his political activities were

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limited. After his release he reformed the party in 1946. Between 1950 -1956Butler was in London attempting to garner support for his party, his political groupwas probably the most representative of the existing demographic in Trinidadand Tobago. His party won the elections in 1950 but was excluded from thegovernment by the then Governor. In the 1956 and 1961 elections the party sawa dramatic drop in its support base and after 1966 the party did not contestanother election.

Eric Williams

Eric Williams often referred to as the Father of the Nation formed the PeoplesNational Movement on June 22nd 1955. It was a political party with a long termstructure based on a charter; he further organized the party around strictdiscipline. Williams also established the trend of political parties issuingmanifestos that contained the partys views and goals.

The PNM and in particular, Eric Williams symbolized what the masses wanted fortheir children: a good education leading to an excellent professional career. Erissscholastic abilities helped him solicit support from the population.

With the elections in 1956 the PNM contested the polls under the premise thatthe country had, under Gomes endured six years of corruption, mismanagementand inept administration. Furthermore they claimed that as a new party, theywere offering a change for the better. The PNM won 13 out of the 24 seats andWilliams went on to select his cabinet and formed the first true party governmentin Trinidad and Tobago.

The PNM won again in 1961 where they secured 20 out of 30 seats, then underthe leadership of Eric Williams ushered the country into independence.

Rudranath Capildeo

Rudranath Capildeo accompanied Eric Williams to Malborough House in Londonto participate in the discussion with the British Government about the shaping ofthe Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago.

OUTCOME

Trinidad and Tobago became an independent nation on August 31st 1962 and

gained its status as a sovereign nation. With independence the bicameralparliamentary system was adopted to govern the country. This included:

A Governor General, who represented the Crown, acted as a ceremonialHead of State and was Commander in - Chief of the newly establishedRegiment.

A Prime Minister who was the Executive Leader of the country and theLeader of the Cabinet of Ministers appointed by the Prime Minister

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Parliament comprising the House of Representatives with electedmembers and a Senate with appointed members.

Additionally Trinidad and Tobago got its own National Emblems which included: -

The National Flag: The flag was selected by the Independence Committeein 1962. Red, black and white were the chosen colours, symbolising fire(the sun, representing courage), earth (representing dedication) and water(representing purity and equality), respectively

The National Anthem: Forged from the Love of Liberty

The Coat of Arms: The Coat of Arms was also created by theIndependence Committee, and features the Scarlet Ibis, the Cocrico andHummingbird. The shield bears three ships, representing both the Trinity,and the three ships that Columbus sailed

The National Birds: The Scarlet Ibis found in Trinidad and the Cocricofound in Tobago.

The National Flower: Chaconia

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous-vented_Chachalacahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous-vented_Chachalaca


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1EMANCIPATION

BACKGROUND

By the latter half of the eighteenth century economic changes, closely related tothe slave trade and chattel slavery, and political changes, particularly in Britain,had also created a more enabling environment for abolitionism.

Political Economy of AbolitionismChanging economic, political and religious dynamics helped to shape an anti-slavery environment and facilitate the abolitionist cause. The fact that chattelslavery, as a system of production, was becoming increasingly uneconomicalwas only one aspect of the economic equation.

Capital accumulation from the slave trade and slave labour had created a newclass of industrialists and financiers with interests opposed to the old landedelites. In the latter half of the 18 th century, the rising industrialists, in Britain andthe United States, were demanding an end to the trade restrictions placed on

them by an outdated mercantile system with Navigation Laws that mandated thattrade within the British Empire must be carried in British ships, laws that forcedthe purchase of materials for growing industries - raw sugar for refining, cottonfor cloth making etc. - from British colonies at inflated prices, and put high tariffson competing products from other suppliers when they were not available withinthe ambit of Britains monopoly.

With new technologies and systems of organization increasing productioncapacity the new industrialists wanted free trade to exploit new sources of rawmaterials in Asia, in Africa, wherever available, and to expand markets for theirproducts. The inability of the industrialists in the U.S. to shake the British

governments hardline trade policies was a major cause of the American War ofIndependence, 1775 - 1783. The loss of the American colonies was a staggeringblow to the British economy and monopoly system.

The British industrialists and financiers, frustrated by the impact of governmentpolicies on their growth potential and resentful of the cost of the Caribbeancolonies to the home governments, including in no small measure the defencecosts, began to challenge the entrenched political power of the traditional eliteswho included the slave holding plantocracy.

Money tied to African enslavement, which for centuries bought seats in

Parliament and votes, was not the only money around as the economic structureof Britain and its Empire began to change. The power of new money couldfinance political reform campaigns and the campaigns of willing reformers. Itcould finance mass awakening to how slave holder interests made life moreexpensive for the ordinary man who had to buy the most expensive sugar in theworld and garments made from the most expensive cotton. It could financecompatible agendas such as the abolition of the slave trade and lateremancipation. And it did all that.

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Religious non-conformists in the latter part of the 18 th Century, Methodists,Baptists and Quakers fighting against the domination of the established Christianchurches (Catholic, Anglican and others) formed common cause with the newindustrialists. Anti-slavery activism benefitted them both in an environment wherethe mass response to abolitionism was growing. Methodists and Baptists, whileprominent in the anti-slavery movement in Britain, agreed to be silent on theissue when they sought to expand their flock in the Caribbean.

When Charles James Fox introduced the resolution in the British parliament in1806 to abolish the slave trade it was therefore in a very different environmentfrom when it was rejected in 1783.

In 1832 Political Reform movements aligned with the new class succeeded inremoving rotten Boroughs, fraudulently created voting constituencies (each witha bare handful of people) which were purchasable, and making other changes inthe British Parliament which broke the stranglehold of the Caribbean planterlobby and pro-slavery legislators.

In this changed political environment, with a mass movement calling to removethe stain of chattel slavery from the British conscience, there was an additionalpotency to the determination of Africans to be free, well expressed by SamSharpe, the leader of a panic-instilling revolt in Jamaica in 1831, when he wasabout to be hanged. He said to Reverend Henry Bleby:

I rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery...

WHO WAS INVOLVED

Many actors contributed to the abolition of the slave trade, which preceded theemancipation of Africans in the New World from the sinister institution of chattelslavery. The primary movers were the enslaved Africans themselves. Theirheroic struggles aroused and fuelled the efforts of abolitionists in Britain, theUnited States and Europe whose campaigns against the slave trade and slaveryincreased in intensity and effectiveness as resistance and revolts grew amongthe enslaved.

The Role of the EnslavedAfricans, individually and collectively continuously struck blows against theplantation system, undermining its economic viability, creating military challenges

and associated financial burdens for the metropolitan countries, increasinginsecurity among slave holders, and posing moral challenges for the societieswhich practiced this evil.

Resistance and RevoltResistance was a consistent feature of the epoch. Historians distinguish betweentwo types; passive and active, all forms of which incurred severe punishments ondiscovery or suspicion.

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Passive resistance included such things as pretended inability to understandinstructions, feigning illness, even ingesting substances to induce symptoms ofillness, mishandling of equipment and a range of creative techniques toslowdown the production process on the estate short of blatant sabotage.

Active resistance included the poisoning of slave masters and animals, and inparticular instances the enslaved themselves; destroying tools and equipment,

suicide, individual physical confrontations with overseers or owners, escaping theestates and forming maroon communities, the guerilla warfare of marooncommunities and spontaneous as well as organized revolts.

MaronageMany Africans liberated themselves by escaping from the slave plantations.Maronage, as this form of freedom came to be called, began with the first arrivalsin Hispaniola in 1502, some of whom immediately disappeared from theenslavers. Maronage continued to grow throughout the centuries of chattelslavery. In Jamaica it is estimated that in the 1820's, over 2500 Africans wereescaping the slave plantations each year.

In Trinidad, caves in the hills of Paramin became one area of refuge. Brigand Hillin Central Trinidad got its name from the British practice of calling maroons,brigands. In April 1819 three Africans were shot and 25 captured at a Marooncamp in Tamana. Maroon communities occupied the Central range in Tobago.Wherever slavery existed, whether in Dutch, Danish, Spanish, French, Portugeseor English-occupied territories Maroons could be found.

RevoltsAfrican revolts against slavery started in Africa with uprisings at the Forts on thecoast and daring attacks on European slave ships in the rivers in which fellow

Africans freed their kith and kin. Revolts continued on the slave ships and beganvirtually upon arrival in the Americas. A major one is recorded in Hispaniola in1519. They became more numerous and more potent the longer the institutionendured. By the 18th Century revolts were becoming so organized and powerfulthat, combined with the challenge of the Maroons, they were threatening thesurvival of the slave system.

One example of well-coordinated national action was a successful rebellion in theDutch colony of Berbice (which later became a part of modern Guyana) inFebruary 1763. It led to Africans governing the country, except for a small areaon the coast to which the remaining whites had fled, until March 1764, when

international reinforcements were brought in by the Dutch.

During the year of liberation the Africans had set up an administrative structureunder the leader of the rebellion, Kofi, to organize defence, the production of foodand other activities necessary to sustain the new state. They also engaged innegotiations with their former rulers in a vain attempt to have the small andvulnerable newly independent state recognized.

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Eventually one uprising, the Haitian revolution, succeeded in the permanentestablishment of a state ruled by the formerly enslaved, a first in human history.

The historic Haitian revolution, which started in August 1791 and culminated in1804 with the declaration of Haitis Independence, shook the very foundations ofthe system of chattel slavery and was the single most powerful blow in thestruggle for its abolition.

It was no coincidence that in 1806, two years after Haiti declared Independence,Britain immediately abolished the slave trade to its newer colonies, Trinidad,Berbice, Demerara, Essequibo and St Lucia, and on May 1,1807 ended the slavetrade to all its territories. The Act abolishing the slave trade also outlawed theparticipation of British subjects, ships or capital. The US too passed an Act in1807, outlawing the slave trade from January 1, 1808, followed by France andthe Netherlands in 1818.

In gaining victory, the Haitians militarily defeated the French, the British and theSpanish, the most powerful European armies of the time, and drove the Frenchout of Haiti completely. This awesome demonstration of African military prowess

struck fear into the minds of whites who lived in the colonies and leaders inEurope and America, beyond the growing dread instilled by the unceasing warsagainst Maroons, the frequent revolts on plantations, and the ever-present threatof poison. Abolition from below now loomed as a real possibility.

For enslaved Africans, Haiti was inspiration, the assurance that they could winthe war for their Freedom, the symbol of Liberty.

Tobago was shaken by major revolts in 1771, 1773 and 1774. The names Sandyand Sampson are recorded as the leaders of the 1771 and 1774 revoltsrespectively.

The most devastating rebellion recorded in Grenada was one led by Fedon in1795.

The first major plot for revolt in Trinidad was discovered in 1805. Trinidad hadonly experienced a mass influx of enslaved Africans from the1780's. I

In 1816 Barbados was shaken by the Bussa revolt.

In 1823 it was Demerara, another Dutch colony which later became a part ofmodern day Guyana.

In 1831 a rebellion led by Nat Turner killed approximately 60 whites, the highestnumber killed in a single uprising in the Southern United States.The resistance and revolts of Africans, and the suppression of the revolts, hadmultiple effects on the struggle for African liberation:

Fear and Insecurity - The fear and insecurity which was growing beforethe Haitian revolution and exploded with it was further augmented by the

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revolts which followed. The panic responses to the 1831 rebellion inJamaica led by Sam Sharpe attest to this. Whereas questioning thecontinuation of the slave system was more concentrated in themetropolitan countries before, after Sam Sharpe the planters in Jamaicathemselves began to openly express doubts that the system could survivemuch longer.

Finance and Economics - Every African who escaped or committed

suicide, every animal poisoned, every tool broken, every day of labourwithheld through feigned illness, or made impossible by harsh punishmentmeant a financial loss for the planters. Revolts with their massdestructiveness turned the incessant drips into floods of lost property andproductive capacity, and increased the cost of defending property and aninhumane system. The cost of military defence had to be borne not onlyby individual estate owners or collectives of them but by the colonialgovernments when they reached a certain scale.As resistance intensifiedtherefore slavery as an economic system became increasingly inefficientand the military expenses associated with its maintenance escalated,raising questions among decision makers about the value of its

continuation, despite the unprecedented accumulation of wealth it hadbrought.

Morality - Revolts and their suppression had moral impacts in themetropolitan countries as well. They drew attention to the humanity of the

Africans (the animals they were portrayed to be would not be sodetermined to be free) and the inhumanity of their treatment. Theconstancy of uprisings, despite brutal suppression, raised questions aboutwhat kind of treatment would drive human beings to expose themselvesover and over again to the unimaginable tortures and cruel deaths theysee inflicted on those who rebel - being burnt alive on slow fires, having

their bones broken by beatings on racks and left to die slow deaths, hungby their limbs in public squares until they expired, chopped off headsdisplayed on spikes and other sadistic demonstrations meant todiscourage rebellion.

Stories of African heroism when captured fighters were subjected to barbarismwere also being conveyed by European observers. Bryan Edwards the Britishhistorian provided accounts of African stoicism which he had witnessed. Onereport spoke about the utmost firmness and composure of an African chained toa stake and being burnt uttering not a groan (as) he saw his legs reduced toashes.

Africans, who escaped their masters in Britain and had their cases, not to bereturned, heard in the courts, added to the popular enlightenment about thenature of chattel slavery. In the most famous such case in 1772, Lord Mansfieldissued a judgement in favour of an African called Somerset.

People in Britain and Europe, being alerted, would find out more and more aboutthe ingrained, systemic cruelties, which characterised the lives of the enslaved.

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Knowledge of the horror awakened deep moral misgivings among the massesand those in the upper echelons of society who were detached from its monetarybenefits, or were people of conscience.

More details of personal pain and observation would emerge when Africans whohad been freed or escaped began to get opportunities to tell their stories inperson or through their writings.

Mothers and wives in the countries that supplied the soldiers to defend slaveryfelt even greater loss for their sons and husbands who were dying in increasingnumbers to prop a system whose injustice was being revealed.

African resistance therefore laid the basis for a mass movement fertilizing the soilin which the seeds of abolitionist conscience and activism would flourish.

Abolitionist MovementsThe late 18th Century saw a flourishing of the abolitionist movement in Britain.Names like Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharpe, Thomas Buxton and WilliamWilberforce are well known for the leading roles they played in the abolitionmovement. Initially it focused on the abolition of the iniquitous slave trade. Aminority advocated the gradualabolition of slavery itself. Up to the time when theBritish slave trade was abolished some key figures, such as Wilberforce, wereagainst the abolition of slavery.

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In France there was the Socit des Amis des Noirs (1788 - 1793) whichdistributed anti-slavery literature, lobbied government officials and addressed theNational Assembly. It was led by prominent figures including its founder Jacques-Pierre Brissot, Maximilien Robespierre, Marie-Jean Condorcet, Antoine Lavoisier,Jerome Petion and Louis-Alexandre La Rochefoucauld. Historians are divided onhow much credit can be given to the society for the abolition of slavery by theFrench government in 1794, later reversed by Napoleon, because of its elitism,organizational weaknesses and limited activity outside of Paris.

William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown and Harriette Beecher Stowe are among thebetter known names of advocates in the United States where the movementcampaigning for the abolition of slavery came to the fore in the early 19 th Century.It is to be noted that some States in the North had passed Acts for the gradualemancipation of slavery in the 18th century, beginning with Pennsylvania in 1780.Massachusettes actually ended slavery in 1783. But chattel slavery remainedfirmly entrenched in the US South.

African Aboilitionist LeadersWhile the history books hardly mention Africans as abolitionists, many free

Africans were in the vanguard of the abolition movement:

Olaudah Equiano, who purchased his freedom in the US,Ottobah Qobna Cugoano, who was freed in the UK, and other free Africansfounded the Sons of Africa a UK-based abolitionist organization. They workedwith other abolitionist groups, including the Society for the Abolition of the SlaveTrade founded by Clarkson which later became the British Anti-Slavery Society.

Prominent female abolitionists in Britain included Mary Prince, whoseautobiography chronicled her suffering in slavery in Bermuda and Antigua, andPhillis Wheatley, a poet, emancipated after the death of her owner in Boston.

From the very beginning they were about ending slavery.

David Walker, who published anAppealto the enslaved to rise up in 1829 and iscredited with originating radical abolitionism in the US.

Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth, who escaped slaveryin the United States, became prominent campaigners for emancipation in thatcountry.

OUTCOME

Triumph came in the British colonies with the Act of 1833 and the end ofApprenticeship in 1838. Chattel slavery, despite a ferocious fight to maintain it inthe colonies of other European countries, was a doomed institution after that.

On August 1st, 1834, the British governor in Trinidad, Sir George Hill, read theEmancipation proclamation to an agitated group of enslaved Africans, gatheredoutside of the Governors Office, which is now called the Treasury Building inPort of Spain, in the area that is now known as the Brian Lara Promenade at the

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corner of Edward Street and Independence Square. They had come to know iffull freedom was indeed going to be postponed.. They listened incredulously asthe governor confirmed that on the basis of the Act for the Abolition of Slaverythroughout the British Colonies; for promoting the Industry of themanumitted Slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto entitled tothe Services of such Slaves, it was clear that justice and compensation wasintended for the enslavers and not the enslaved

The Act was passed in the British parliament on August 28, 1833, and stated thatfor another six years the bulk of the enslaved, the agrarian workers, would belegally bound to the hated masters. They would be forced to work without payfor 45 hours per week, and subject to physical punishments. They could chooseto work for low wages beyond the compulsory time. In the case of non-agrarianworkers the period of apprenticeship as this system was called would last forfour years.

With their hopes for freedom from the most cruel institution ever imposed onhuman beings dashed, the people began to chant loudly Pas de six ans, pointde six ans Not six Years, no to six years refusing to disperse and return to theestates. Over the next few days more and more Africans came into Port of Spainand gathered in other areas of the country refusing to work. Extravagant showsof military force, including canons at the ready, and public floggings were used toquell the situation.

The struggle against enslavement would continue. Trinidads first major armedrevolt took place in 1837 with a mutiny of soldiers led by Daaga. On August 1,1838, the British government, under pressure, cut short the apprenticeshipsystem by two years and finally ended slavery in the Caribbean colonies theycontrolled.

Other European governments and the US government continued their struggle tomaintain the system of chattel slavery for varying periods after the British action,alternating between measures to ameliorate the conditions of enslaved Africansand brutal suppression of revolts.

All eventually issued Emancipation Proclamations as follows:

1811 Spain (in Spain and its colonies excluding Puerto Rico & Cuba)

1848 France April 22 (came into effect at different times over next fewmonths)

1848 Denmark September 22 (forced by massive African actions in StCroix) Apprenticeship (a forced indentureship) to 1878

1863 Holland July 1 (with 10 yr apprenticeship for Suriname only) NB: StMarteen gained emancipation in 1848 because ofemancipation in French St Martin which shared the sameisland

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1865 United States (Emancipation proclamation of Jan 1, 1863 only applied tosome States and not effective. Full ending with 13th

amendment to the constitution on Dec 13, 1865)

1873 Puerto Rico March 22 (by Spanish National Assembly)

1886 Cuba (Spanish government proclamation when most already free).

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MAROON WARS & SETTLEMENTS

BACKGROUND

In several territories, European powers launched major wars against themaroons. The wars developed as the colonizers sought to recapture Africanswho grew strong enough in their maroon settlements to attract increasingnumbers to escape bondage, and to launch guerilla raids on the plantations, to

destroy them sometimes, to procure needed supplies, including arms andammunition, sabotage operations, and to free more of their enslaved brethren.

WHO WAS INVOLVED

Palmares, Brazils most famous Quilombo (the Portugese term for a Maroonsettlement) is often described as a nation within a nation, since it was able tosurvive as a self-governing virtual state for almost one hundred years. ThePortugese finally conquered this formidable settlement in 1694, and in 1695 killedZumbi, its most revered leader, who had continued to wage guerilla war againstthem after the fall of the Quilombo.

In Suriname the Dutch, wearied by battle defeats in an unwinnable war sincethey took over the territory from the British in 1667, signed peace treaties withNdjuka, Saramaka and Matawai maroon communities in the1760's. Warscontinued against other Maroons until independence in 1863. Several Marooncommunities still exist in Suriname.

Identifiable Maroon communities exist in Jamaica as well. Nanny Town, is namedafter a female Maroon leader of the early 18 th century. Nanny is recognized asone of the countrys national heroes. In 1739 the British signed peace treatieswith Maroon leaders Cudjoe and Quao after 10 years of war. Based on the termsof one of these treaties, residents of the town of Accompong are still exempt from

taxes.

Africans in the United States who escaped slavery in Florida and the Carolinasfrom the early 18th Century founded highly organized, productive settlementsalong the banks of the Appalichacola river in Florida, then nominally Spanishterritory. They later formed alliances with the Seminoles, an American Indiangroup, and played a major role in the three Seminole Wars, 1816 - 1858, whichwere mainly directed at recapturing the African maroons. The wars at timesengaged half of the US army, cost the US government $40 million and the loss of1500 soldiers.

Some Maroon communities were organized by the people called Black Caribs,who originated from mixtures of escaped Africans and indigenous peoples of the

Americas. A well organized group controlled and successfully defended a largepart of the island of St Vincent for over 100 years until they were finally defeatedby the British in 1796. Most of those who survived the war and the post-wargenocide were deported to Honduras and their descendants scatteredthroughout Central America are known today as the Garifuna.

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70% of the population of the Esmeraldas province in Ecuador today aredescribed as Afro-Ecuadorians, descendants of "La Repblica de los Zambos,"or the "Zambo Republic", which emerged as an autonomous state in Ecuador,ruled by African-Indigenous mixtures, called Zambos by the Spaniards, in the late17th Century. Escaped Africans constantly added to the population of theRepublic which like other Maroon states had its history of wars and treaties.

OUTCOME

Over the centuries many of the treaties, guaranteeing the autonomy of Maroonsettlements, which were signed between Europeans and Maroons, resulted fromnegotiations initiated by the Europeans. It was in the interest of both parties tosecure peace - the colonizers because they could not defeat their formerlyenslaved militarily, and the Africans because the continuous wars disrupted theirefforts to build viable communities.

An unfortunate effect of the treaties was that agreements meant to guarantee thesecurity of both planters and Maroons were disadvantageous to those stillenslaved since Maroon assistance to them was equivalent to endangering theplantations. Despite this, there was never any permanent security for Maroon

territories since the existence of these free African societies was incompatiblewith the European mindset with its myths about their own superiority, their fearsabout the ever-present military threat of these communities, the demonstrationeffect of liberated territories, and the ways in which their growth and developmentcould impact on European dominance.

While there were long periods of relative peace in some instances, major warsdid break out from time to time. In Jamaica for example the Second Maroon Warinitiated by the British against a major settlement of the Windward Maroons in1795 broke nearly 60 years of peace. Though once more the British could notdefeat the Maroons on the field of battle they were now able to disrupt and

displace far more substantial, settled communities with large numbers of womenand children, with their superior fire power. When the British sought peace, theMaroons, anxious for a return to normalcy, found themselves trapped in abetrayal that resulted in mass executions and deportations.

Overall however, as a result of the autonomy many Maroon communitiessecured, they often preserved African languages, religion and other forms ofculture.

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