Nanny — Maroon Chieftainess

Nanny —Maroon ChieftainessAuthor(s): ALAN TUELONSource: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4 (DECEMBER 1973), pp. 20-27Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean QuarterlyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23050240 .

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Nanny — Maroon Chieftainess

To most Jamaicans the name 'Nanny' is respected because of the legends passed down from generation to generation, from the time of the 'First Maroon War'. During that period she inspired and helped lead the most formidable band of Maroons in the Blue Mountain area in their triumphant resistance against the government of that time.

Since the signing of the Peace Treaties in 1739,1 Nanny's name has lived on among the Maroons, particularly those of Portland, and to this day the most incredible tales are still told of her exploits, and her descendants regard her memory with awe.

Nanny's name can be seen on most maps that cover the Blue Mountain area, on which'The Site of Nanny Town' is shown. Her name frequently passes the lips of the farming community of Portland who are engaged in the preparation of huts for shelter against the heavy rains of that Parish. That member of the palm family, the limbs of which are used for preparing these huts, is commonly known as 'Nanny Thatch'.

Histories of Jamaica mention little or nothing of Nanny, although most refer to the fall of Nanny Town in 1734, when a Captain Stoddard fired on the stronghold, with swivel guns, purportedly creating havoc and great losses among the fleeing rebels. The most recent writer of a Maroon history suggests that Nanny may, in fact, not have existed at all. '

However, the legends and grossly exaggerated accounts by the Maroons of the deeds of this awe-inspiring woman impressed Herbert Thomas eighty years ago and they are none the less impressive for their continuing persistence.

4

This writer hopes to unravel some of the mystery shrouding Nanny and perhaps justify the high regard in which she was held by her followers in her own day and by her descendants at present. Unfortunately, the conditions under which the Maroons lived and fought prevent us from easily establishing her existence as a fact.

Of Nanny's origin we must rely on the conclusions of an American priest, Joseph J. Williams, who, in 1938, wrote an exhaustive paper on some aspects of the Maroon history. He relied a great deal on 'The History of The Maroons' by R.C. Dallas (published in 1803) and the Journals of the Assembly of Jamaica. Williams also spent considerable time and patience gathering information from the Maroons themselves, particularly those of Accompong.5

Williams wrote "... six members of an Ashanti family, consisting of five brothers Cudjoe, Accompong, Johnny, Cuffee and Quaco, and one sister, Nanny, made their escape from slavery and

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assumed leadership of the Maroons, as well as of the rebellious slaves. Nanny as a sister of Cudjoe and Accompong was clearly herself an Ashanti and her name may well be a corruption of the

Ashanti word, Ni, mother.

This family at first made its headquarters in the mountains of the Parish of St. James, at a settlement called Cudjoe's Town from which settlement Accompong was sent to establish the town that bears his name in St. 'Elizabeth's'. Just when Nanny assumed

charge at Nanny Town in Portland it is difficult to determine..."6

Williams made a rather sweeping generalisation here. There can be no doubt, based on contemporary documents, that two distinct

groups of rebels1 operated independently for many years. It is highly unlikely that in the early 1730's a member of the Leeward gang could have risen to such an exalted position as Nanny held in the ranks of the Windward gang. However, there is reason to suppose that

Cudjoe, Accompong and Johnny were brothers for the Treaty with

Cudjoe mentions such a relationship in the fifteenth clause ... "That

Captain Cudjoe shall, during his life, be chief commander in

Trelawny-Town; after his decease, the command devolve on his brother captain Accompong; and, in case of his decease, on his next brother captain Johnny..."

Some writers have suggested that Nanny was a wife of Cudjoe but this seems doubtful as reference is later shown concerning Nanny and her husband.

Although stories told of Nanny by the Maroons are without doubt exaggerated, some are so gruesome that she must indeed have

held rather extraordinary powers8. She was supposed to have kept a

huge cauldron "Nanny's Pot", which boiled without the aid of fire, into which were lured to a watery grave unsuspecting British soldiers and Militiamen. She was also attributed with the ability to catch the bullets of the soldiers with her posterior and hurl them back at her assailants in an obscene but effective manner It seems that there

may have been substance in the remark of Col. Rowe of Accompong, when he told Joseph Williams that "... Nanny had a lot of science about her..."9

During the period of 'The First Maroon War', (about 1729 to

1739), the increasing development of the island, particularly in the

east, was such that the rebels in the Blue Mountains had less freedom to use the land unhindered as they had long been used and their access to the coast became more restricted. Consequently, they increased their marauding activities with devastating effect. This, in

turn, drew upon them more serious attempts by the government to

effect their dislodgement. The rebels had a complex of camps in the

Stony River Valley in Portland. Many attempts were made to

capture these by both Regular troops from Britain and parties made

up of local volunteer militia and 'willing' slaves. These rebel bases were referred to in contemporary reports as the 'rebels towns' or,

sometimes, as the 'Negros towns'. The largest and most formidable

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of these was known as the 'Great Negro Town' which was situated

below 'Carrion Crow Peak'. The term 'Carrion Crow' has long since

been replaced by 'John Crow' and the Peak is now curiously known as 'Abraham'.

Such was the importance and effect of the 'Great Negro Town'

and its inhabitants that a map of the island produced some years after peace was made depicts only one mountain in the eastern end of

the island — "Carrion Crow Hill"10.

The 'Great Negro Town' was known to the rebels as 'Nanny Town'. The fact was revealed in "The further examination of Sarra

alias Ned taken by Order of His Excellency October 1st 1733"11. The unfortunate prisoner disclosed that "... the old Towns formerly taken by the Soldiers goes now by the name of Nanny Town, that there are now, or were when he was there three hundred men, all

armed with Guns or Launces, that they have more fore Army than

they use, that the Number of Women and Children far exceed those of the men, that the Rebels have one head man who orders

everything...."

This town was eventually taken and held by a very strong force,

commanded by Col. George Brook(s) in December 1734, during a

period of Martial Law. The much praised William Stoddard was one of four captains serving under Col. Brook. However the cost in lives

and money is inestimable there have been no less than ten attempts on the stronghold, during a four-year period.

From the middle of 1735 Nanny Town was referred to in official

reports by that name, many references being made in connection

with the occupying force, the barrack, surgeon or Commissary.

The first conclusive proof of Nanny's existence was contained in

information obtained from an Ebo named Cupid, described as having escaped from the rebels and captured on the estate of a Mr. Bendish

in St. Mary's in January 1734-5, about two months after the fall of

Nanny Town. Cupid revealed that a gang of about forty rebellious men with a far greater number of women and children were in the

valley of the Wag Water and were intending making their way to John Cuffee's Town to Leeward and were apparently having a very difficult time. The information continued "... Adou keeps still to Windward ... with a great party and amongst them Mr. Orgill's Scipio, Cesar and Adubah, also Nanny and her husband, who is a

greater man than Adou but never went in their battles."12 It appears that Nanny's position was an important one and perhaps this wasthe reason that her husband did not risk his life in battle.

Further proof of Nanny' existence can be found sometime

before, in 1733, when a number of negroes were rewarded after

service in parties commanded by Christopher Allen, Henry Williams, and Sambo, a negro captain who commanded a party of "black shott" throughout the campaign against the Windward rebels. A negro described as "William's Cuffee,' a very good party negro", said to "have killed Nanny, the rebels old obeah woman"

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was rewarded with the "sum of five pounds, a common silver-laced hat, a good blue baize coat with a red cross on the right breast and ten yards of ozaburghs". He also qualified for a similar coat and hat and ten shillings on the twentieth day of December annually13. This is confusing, for it is doubtful that there were two Nannys of

importance. However, it must be remembered that Williams

suggests that the name could have been of Ashanti derivation. It must be assumed that the claim of William's Cuffee was a false one.

When the treaty was signed with the Windward rebels there was a very ferocious obeah woman in attendance. In his fascinating account of this ceremony Philip Thicknesse, who served as a Lieutenant in the Regular Army, wrote that she "... had a girdle round her waste ... with nine or ten different knives hanging in sheaths to it, many of which I have no doubt, had been plunged in human flesh and blood..."14

There is no reason to conclude that this obeah woman was

Nanny, unless an obeah woman was a particularly unusual

phenomena among the 'free' Africans.

Williams was told by the Maroons that after the destruction of

Nanny Town in 1734, Nanny had brought her followers to Charles Town15. The treaty was signed in this same area at a settlement known as Crawford Town, which some years later, when the Maroons settled nearer the coast, became known as 'Old Crawford

Town'. The new settlement was called 'New Crawford Town' and was

near the site of present day Charles Town in the Buff Bay Valley16.

However 'New Nanny Town' was sited near to the present Moore Town in Portland. Although it seems logical to name the new settlement after the old it was in fact occupied by Nanny, still very

much alive after the treaty. The land patent for 'New Nanny Town'

reads "... wherefore the commissioners underwritten being met

together do certify that the above Thomas Newland did lay an order

for Negro Nanny and the people residing with her on five hundred acres of land in the Parish of Portland...."17

The earliest record of the populations of the new settlements

was given in 1749 by Edward Long. That for Nanny Town totalled

70 persons whilst that for Crawford Town was 23318. It is puzzling that Nanny and her followers did not settle with the main windward

groups. Perhaps the group was forcibly split up by the government. However, it is possible that at the signing of the treaty Nanny's

group were not with Quao but further east, though still subject to

the same terms. The Portland Maroons today mention a 'Womens

Town' that was situated somewhere in the rugged hills of that

Parish. This was presumably a secret haven for the women, children

and non-combatant men. An official report in 1733 made reference to

"the great fires from a settlement believed to be a 'womens' town'

near the Great Plantain Walk"19.

The site of the original Nanny Town is seldom visited today. Recent generations of Maroons have kept away from the area and

23



firmly believe that no straight-haired man can visit the area without some harm befalling him. C.L.G. Harris writes "It is also claimed in all seriousness by the Maroons that no outsider, without being conducted by them, may reach this place and return alive"20. After

the treaty of 1739 the troops abandoned their barrack and the site became rapidly overgrown with creepers and lianas and gradually a secondary growth of tropical rain forest engulfed the area.

It is recorded fact that several parties have attempted to locate the site of Nanny Town and met with mixed fortunes. The most noteworthy illfated attempt was made in the late 1930's by a group of schoolboys from Jamaica College. These eager lads set out from Blue Mountain Peak and became lost for about two weeks. The

'Daily Gleaner' of that period carries some interesting accounts of the efforts of search parties to locate the missing boys21.

The search for the site and Stoddard's swivel guns had previously held a great fascination for Herbert Thomas, an Inspector in the Jamaican Constabulary. Referring to the mounting of his expedition in 1890 he writes ... "I at once set to work to make enquiries as to the probabilities of procuring a guide to the spot; and I then began to realise the awe and superstitution with which the population of this parish (St. Thomas) regard the place and its surroundings

"2 2.

Reginald Murray, a well-known explorer of the Blue Mountain area, several times visited the correct site in the 1930's. He wrote that "application to be guided to the locality is generally met with

point black refusal"23.

Murray described some of the evil fates awaiting the unwelcome explorer

" ...Hunters affirm that strange noises are heard by night

and will not be satisfied that they may be due to the crash of a forest tree, waking the echoes and reverberating from spur and cliff down the winding valley, or maybe the hurtling of a rock dislodged from the heights by the action of recent rain.

At times an unclassified speckled bird with a red tail has visited a hut and occupants have returned from hunting late in the day to find their lodging gutted by fire. Fire-arms have gone off spontaneously, causing wounds or death.

A vocal monster, the 'whooping-boy', a legless dog, floats across waterfalls and through the mist of dark ravines, when he gives tongue the hunter regardful of safety had better make tracks for his yard...".

A very strange experience befell a group that visited the site in about I86024. Writing about thirty years after his visit, Mr. Williams a member of that group referred to their reaching the site ... "I remember that on arriving at the spot, the 'enchanted ground', according to negro tradition, we chaffed those who were with us about their superstitious fears and set out on our return to the hut with light hearts feeling satisfied that we had achieved the object of the expedition and that there was nothing to be alarmed at in

24



anything we had seen or met". He continues "About 3 o'clock in the morning Barrett woke me up and said 'Did you hear that awful row?' I said 'No'. Then he went on to say that he had been woke up by the most awful, extraordinary sounds he had ever heard in his life —

which seemed to come up from the valley and pass close over the roof of the hut... Barrett was certainly much impressed by the sounds he ... heard that night, and when reminded that the noise might have been made by sea birds26 flying back to roost, he replied that he was in the habit of sleeping out in brooks and forests and was accustomed to the noises made by birds at night, or at least acquainted with them.

I forgot to say that when he woke me up and asked if I had heard the row, he added — 'I was so terrified that my flesh shrunk up and though you were sleeping next to me I could not move a finger to wake you'.

There is no doubt whatever that what he heard made a deep impression on him and I have never known anyone so alarmed or confess to being so terror stricken. If anything had occured that first night, it might perhaps have been put down to excited imagination, but the next night we were under no apprehension of being disturbed".

This writer was more fortunate when in July 1967 a successful

expedition was guided to the site of Nanny Town by a group of hunters from the Rio Grande Valley. It was proven beyond doubt that the site visited was that captured by the force led by Col.

George Brook(s) in December 1734. No lasting ill-fortune was suffered by any members of the party, perhaps Nanny's 'influence' had mellowed after 237 years. However, many minor setbacks and rather odd accidents were experienced, although the very nature of the rugged terrain encouraged these occurences.

More recently a group of British soldiers abandoned an attempt to descend from Blue Mountain Peak to the area around Nanny

Town when one of their number fell and injured his back. Thd difficulties of traversing the terrain led the Maroons to establish this

stronghold in the first instance.

According to tradition Nanny was buried on a hill in the settlement of New Nanny Town, now Moore Town, near which the soil has never been tilled nor houses erected. There is a mound

opposite the school in Moore Town and Colin Harris, the present Colonel of the Maroons there, believe this to be the spot where

Nanny lies.

The lasting preservation of the site of her former stronghold would seem a fitting memorial to this remarkable woman who

played such an important role in the long hard and successful

struggle of a few hundred negroes against all the might and resources of one of the richest possessions in the British Empire.

ALAN TUELON

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FOOT NOTES

1. The Treaty with the Maroons in the West of the island, known as the Leeward band, was signed at Trelawny Town on March 1st 1738-9 between Captain Cudjoe and the governments representatives John Guthrie and Francis Salder.

The treaty with the Windward band who inhabited the eastern part of the island, was signed at Crawford Town on June 23rd 1739, between Captain Quao and Robert Bennett.

2. Frederic Cassidy in 'Jamaica Talk' wrongly suggests that Nanny Thatch was associated with goats.

3. Carey Robinson, 'The Fighting Maroons,' 1969, p. 54.

4. Herbert T. Thomas 'Untrodden Jamaica', 1895.

5. 'The Maroons of Jamaica' by Joseph J. Williams S.J. Prof, of Cultural

Anthropology, Boston College Graduate School, U.S.A. 1938.

6. ibid. p. 467.

7. The term 'Maroon' does not occur in contemporary documents referring to Jamaica until some years after the treaties were signed.

8. See article 'The Spirit of Nanny' by C.L.G. Harris 'Sunday Gleaner' August 6th 1967.

9. Joseph J. Williams, 'The Maroons of Jamaica', p. 388

10. "A New and Correct Chart of the Island of Jamaica" by Mount and Page 1778.

11. Original documents in Public Record Office, London, C.O. 137, 54, 354.

12. Calendar of State Papers — America and West Indies 1735. 484 (ii).

13. Journals of the Assembly 29 March 1732 • 3.

14. Philip Thicknesse "Memoirs and Anecdotes" 1788. Note: Thicknesse was more more notable for discovering the artist Gainsborough than for his exploits against the Maroons.

15. Joseph J. Williams 'The Maroons of Jamaica', p. 387

16. See early maps of Jamaica, especially that by Thomas Jeffrys in 1794.

17. Patent Liber 22 Folio 16 Jamaica Archives.

18. Edward Long 'History of Jamaica' 1774. Vol. II p. 349. The figures for the Leeward settlements were 276 at Trelawny Town and 85 at Accompong.

19. Journals of the Assembly 26 April 1733.

20. See footnote (8).

21. Douglas Hall "Lost in The Blue Mountains" 1938. Note: The writer is now Professor of History at U.W.I.

22. Herbert T. Thomas "Untrodden Jamaica'.' p. 35 Note: Thomas claimed to have visited the site but in fact visited a different location situated at an elevation of several hundred feet above the actual site

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although in the Stony River valley.

23. See article "A Visit To Nanny Town". Sunday Gleaner 28th October 1951.

24. A letter from W.R. Williams concerning Herbert Thomas's book, published in Victoria Quarterly Vol. IV No. 1 1891-2.

25. The seabirds referred to were no doubt the Black-Capped Petrel, or 'Blue

Mountain Duck', now thought to be extinct in Jamaica. They roost on steep mountain sides and fly out to sea at dawn and return at dusk.

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Documents

Nanny — Maroon Chieftainess