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Queen Nanny – the Moroon Movement in Jamaica

vintage map reproductions caribbean

Map of the Central America, 1720.

In the 18th century, colonialism and its consequences had fully hit the West Indies with the British, the Dutch, the Spanish and the French carving up the territories in the Caribbean between themselves. Noteworthy events took place in Jamaica around the time this map was released. Between 1655 and 1670, the British took over the control of the island from the Spanish. In this transition period, many former slaves escaped slavery and established free communities inland. They gradually took control over large areas of the Jamaican inland and organised regular raids on the plantations. Conflicts with the British administration followed, known as the First and Second Maroon wars. One of the leaders of the Maroon movement was Queen Nanny. She was born in what is today Ghana, West Africa. After being sold as a slave, she was transported to Jamaica to work on a sugarcane plantation, which was a booming industry in the West Indies around that time. After escaping from the plantation, she founded a Maroon settlement in the mountains called Nanny Town. She was responsible for successfully defending the settlement against the British Army. Thus, she became one of the earliest leaders of slave resistance in the West Indies.

To learn more about Queen Nanny, read Karla Gottlieb’s: “The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny, Leader of the Windward Jamaican Maroons”.

Buy restored reproduction of this map printed on a high quality handmade paper here.