Jamaica’s Windward Maroon “Slaveholders”

This article is a quantitative analysis of data sets from 1810–20 related to Maroon “slaveholding” in the Proceedings of the Honourable House of Assembly Relative to the Maroons, which have been published in the Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica. Colonial officials in Jamaica identified some Maroons in the Charles Town and Moore Town census records as slaves or slaveholders. The data provide important insights into how bondage may have functioned in Maroon settlements. The data, in combination with an analysis of nontraditional slavery, suggest that slaveholding practices among the Maroons may have been influenced by West African cultural norms and opportunities that emerged on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. This scholarship contributes to studies of both the Maroons in the Americas and nontraditional slaveholding.