Samuel Grant

Last updated

Samuel Grant (1741-1808), Maroon officer from Charles Town, Jamaica. [1] Sam Grant was an officer of the Jamaican Maroons who made a career out of hunting runaway slaves.

Contents

Tried for killing sea captain

Grant first came to prominence as a member of a team of Windward Maroons that came under the command of Scott's Hall officer Davy the Maroon, who may have been his father. [2]

In 1774, Grant allegedly killed a white sea captain named Townshend and his black slave while hunting runaways near Hellshire Beach, and then fled to Moore Town for refuge. Admiral George Rodney, who was in Kingston at the time, sent two warships to Port Antonio in response to the incident. [3]

There was a stand-off as the Maroons stood by Grant, but the white Superintendent-General, Robert Brereton, persuaded the Moore Town Maroons to hand over Grant, who stood trial at Spanish Town. However, much to the surprise of local planters, Grant was eventually acquitted of the murder of Townshend. [4] [5]

Hunter of runaway slaves

Grant returned to Charles Town, where he rose through the ranks of the Maroon officer class, eventually becoming a major and nominally leader of the Maroon town, a post he held for many years. [6] In 1781, Grant was a part of the Maroon party that successfully hunted and killed the notorious leader of a community of runaway slaves, Three Fingered Jack. [7] [8]

Grant made a career hunting runaway slaves for neighbouring planters, but in 1797 he lodged a complaint about the length of time it took for the colonial authorities to pay him his rewards. [9]

Second Maroon War

During the Second Maroon War of 1795–6, the Windward Maroons remained neutral, but the governor, Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, ordered Grant to lead a party of Charles Town Maroons to Kingston to await his orders. However, an obeah man advised Grant that Balcarres planned to deport them, and Grant, suspicious of the governor, led his men back to their Maroon town in the Blue Mountains (Jamaica). Balcarres later admitted that he had indeed planned to deport the Windward Maroons. [10] [11] [12]

From the 1790s until his death, Grant was the leading Maroon officer in Charles Town, first as a major and then promoted to colonel. [13]

Later life and death

In 1807, the colonial authorities exposed a slave conspiracy, and one of the informers claimed that the Charles Town Maroons were conspirators. Grant, who was the elderly leader of Charles Town, denied the charges. William Anderson Orgill, the magistrate who investigated the case, dismissed the evidence of the slave conspirators, and chose to believe Grant's expressions of loyalty. [14]

Sam Grant died in 1808.

Related Research Articles

Old Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish, north-eastern Jamaica, used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons. They were led in the early 18th century by an Ashanti escaped slave known as Granny Nanny, or Queen Nanny. The town held out against repeated attacks from the colonial militia before being abandoned in 1734.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accompong</span> Place in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica

Accompong 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 fortified stronghold in the hilly terrain in the 17th century. They defended it and maintained independence from the Spanish and then later the British, after the colony changed hands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanny of the Maroons</span> Leader of Windward Maroons in Jamaica

Queen Nanny, Granny Nanny, or Nanny of the Maroons ONH, was an 18th-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons. She led a community of formerly enslaved Africans called the Windward Maroons. In the early 18th century, under the leadership of Nanny, the Windward Maroons fought a guerrilla war over many years against British authorities in the Colony of Jamaica in what became known as the First Maroon War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres</span> Scottish nobleman, soldier, politician and colonial administrator

General Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, 23rd Earl of Crawford, styled Lord Balniel until 1768, was a Scottish nobleman, soldier, politician and colonial administrator.

The First Maroon War was a conflict between the Jamaican Maroons and the colonial British authorities that started around 1728 and continued until the peace treaties of 1739 and 1740. It was led by self-liberated Africans who set up communities in the mountains. The name "Maroon" was given to these Africans, and for many years they fought the British colonial Government of Jamaica for their freedom. The maroons were very skilled, particularly in guerrilla warfare. It was followed about half a century later by the Second Maroon War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Maroon War</span>

The Second Maroon War of 1795–1796 was an eight-month conflict between the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town, a Maroon settlement later renamed after Governor Edward Trelawny at the end of First Maroon War, located near Trelawny Parish, Jamaica in the St James Parish, and the British colonials who controlled the island. The Windward communities of Jamaican Maroons remained neutral during this rebellion and their treaty with the British still remains in force. Accompong Town, however, sided with the colonial militias, and fought against Trelawny Town.

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 enslaved during Spanish rule over Jamaica (1493–1655) may have been the first to develop such refugee communities.

Major John Jarrett was a Jamaican Maroon leader of the Maroons of Cudjoe's Town in Jamaica. He was most likely named after a neighbouring planter with a similar surname.

Moore Town is a Maroon settlement located in the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains of Portland, Jamaica, accessible by road from Port Antonio. The easternmost Maroon town, Moore Town is located in the eastern end of the parish. Formerly known as New Nanny Town, Moore Town was founded in 1740 when the Peace Treaty was signed between the British colonial authorities and the Windward Maroons. This treaty allotted the Moore Town Maroons 1000 acres, but Moore Town only received 500. In 1781 the initial 500 acres was augmented with another 500 acres, taking their communal land up to 1,000 acres.

Major-General The Honourable George Walpole, was a British soldier and politician. He gained distinction after suppressing the Maroon insurrection in Jamaica in 1795. After entering Parliament in 1797, he served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1806 to 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents headed by Lord Grenville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town)</span> Settlement of Jamaican Maroons in Westmoreland, Jamaica

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.

Captain Davy 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 Jamaica.

Three-Fingered Jack a.k.a. Jack Mansong, led a band of runaway slaves in the Colony of Jamaica in the eighteenth century.

Montague James was a Maroon leader of Cudjoe's Town in the last decade of eighteenth-century Jamaica. It is possible that Maroon colonel Montague James took his name from the white superintendent of Trelawny Town, John Montague James.

Cuffee was an escaped slave in Jamaica who led other runaway slaves to form a community of free black people in Jamaica in the island's forested interior, and they raided white plantation owners at the end of the eighteenth century. The name Cuffee is a variation of the Twi Akan name Kofi, which is the name given to a boy born on a Friday.

Andrew Smith was a Maroon officer from Cudjoe's Town. His brother, Charles Samuels, was also an officer from Trelawny Town, and both officers reported to Colonel Montague James.

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.

Charles Town is one of four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located on Buff Bay River in Portland Parish.

Scott's Hall is one of the four official towns of the Jamaican Maroons. It is located in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica.

Free black people in Jamaica fell into two categories. Some secured their freedom officially, and lived within the slave communities of the Colony of Jamaica. Others ran away from slavery, and formed independent communities in the forested mountains of the interior. This latter group included the Jamaican Maroons, and subsequent fugitives from the sugar and coffee plantations of coastal Jamaica.

References

  1. ↑ Michael Siva, After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739-1842, PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library (Southampton: Southampton University, 2018), p. 272.
  2. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 75, 114. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/423482/1/LIBRARY_COPY_After_The_Treaties_Final.pdf
  3. ↑ Andrew O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), p. 147.
  4. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 75-6.
  5. ↑ R.C. Dallas, History of the Maroons, Vol. 1, p. 130.
  6. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, p. 76.
  7. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 113-5.
  8. ↑ Benjamin Moseley, A Treatise on Sugar (London: G.G. and J. Robinson, 1799), pp. 175-6.
  9. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, pp. 106-7.
  10. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, p. 139.
  11. ↑ Dallas, History of the Maroons, Vol. 1, pp. 234-5
  12. ↑ Lord Lindsay, Lives of the Lindsays; or, A Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres (London: John Murray, 1858),Vol. III, p. 102n.
  13. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, p. 272.
  14. ↑ Siva, After the Treaties, p. 195.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.