The Maroon Treaty is redundant
Published:Tuesday | March 2, 2021 | 12:10 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
According to Anglican historian Rev J.B. Ellis, “The Maroons in 1842 were granted all rights of British subjects.” What it means is that the act declared the Maroons entitled to all rights and privileges of British subjects, like the rest of the now free former enslaved peoples, whose split blood is the foundation of the 1834 Emancipation.
The act provided that the several tracts of land allotted to the Maroon towns and enjoyed by the Maroons should be reinvested in Her Majesty for the purpose of being allotted to individuals among them.
This act brought to an end the 103 years treaty of 1739. Yet 179 years later (1842-2021), we continue to perpetuate a lie and place value on a redundant treaty. The Government may choose, out of charity, to see the Maroons as a distinct cultural community, but they lose the right as a state within a state.
Let’s stop the capturing of the land of the people of Jamaica who fought and died in the hands of the Maroon militias, who supported chattel slavery.
DUDLEY C. MCLEAN II
Mandeville, Manchester