ShareThisMoore Town: Port Antonio Attractions & Sightseeing, Jamaica
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Eighteen kilometers (11 miles) south of Port Antonio, a long–forgotten world unfolds. This is the largest surviving village of the Windward Maroons, who held off British soldiers for years, refusing enslavement and was the home of Nanny, a national heroine.
Moore Town is home to the descendants of independent communities of former runaway slaves known as Maroons. The African ancestors of the Moore Town Maroons were forcibly removed from their native lands to the Caribbean by Spanish slave traders in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The term Maroon, derived from the Spanish word cimarron (wild), refers to those slaves who fled the plantations in the early 1600s and established their own settlements in the Blue and John Crow Mountains of eastern Jamaica.
By the early eighteenth century, the Maroon communities controlled much of the eastern part of the island. In opposition to the expanding plantation system of the British, they formed well–organized and efficient underground military units. After decades of warfare, the British finally yielded to the communities' demands for recognition of their autonomy by signing a treaty with the Maroons in 1739.
The Colonel, the leader of the Maroons, also lives here and you will probably have the opportunity to meet him during your visit. You are welcome to walk around the town. Be sure to see Bump Grave in the town square, the town's best–known site and burial place of national heroine Nanny. The tomb of Nanny is decorated with flags.
At the southern end of town lies Bump Grave, the burial site of Queen Nanny, the fierce leader of the Windward Maroons. The grave is inevitably marked with flying flags and often with fresh flowers from the Blue Mountains.
The Maroon Village was founded in 1739 after the signing of the Peace Treaty with the English. The Wildcane River which flows through the village eventually becomes a part of the Rio Grande.
Port Antonio Attractions, Sightseeing and Tours - Place of interest to visit on your Jamaica Holiday
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