Coromantee
Regions with significant populations | |
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Jamaicans of African descent |
Coromantee, Coromantins, Coromanti or Kormantine (derived from the name of the Ghanaian slave fort Fort Kormantine in the Ghanaian town of Kormantse, Central Ghana) is an English-language term for enslaved people from the Akan ethnic group, taken from the Gold Coast region in modern-day Ghana. The term was primarily used in the Caribbean and is now considered archaic.
Etymology
The name Coromantee, Kromantyn or Kromanti, in both
History
1690 Rebellion
Several rebellions in the 1700s were attributed to Coromantees. According to enslaver and colonial administrator
1712 New York Slave Revolt
On the night of 6 April 1712, a group of more than twenty black enslaved people, the majority of whom were believed to be Coromantee, set fire to a building on Maiden Lane near Broadway. While the white traffickers tried to put out the fire, the enslaved black folks, armed with guns, hatchets, and swords, defended themselves from the whites and then ran off. Eight whites died, and seven were wounded. Over the next few days, colonial forces arrested seventy black people and jailed them. Twenty-seven were put on trial, 21 of whom were convicted and sentenced to death.[6]
1731 First Maroon War
Led by
1733 Slave Insurrection
The 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in the
Planters regained control by the end of May 1734, after the Akwamu were defeated by several hundred better-armed French and Swiss troops sent in April from
1736 Antigua slave rebellion
In 1736, on the island of Antigua, an enslaved African known as Prince Klaas (whose real name was thought to be Court or Kwaku Takyi) planned an uprising in which whites would be massacred. Court was crowned "King of the Coromantees" in a pasture outside the capital of St. John's, in what white observers thought was a colourful spectacle, but was for the Africans a ritual declaration of war on the white enslavers. Due to information obtained from other enslaved people, colonists discovered and suppressed the plot. Prince Klaas and four accomplices were caught and executed by the breaking wheel.[9] They hung and starved six Africans and burnt another 58 at the stake. The site of these executions is now the Antigua Recreation Ground.[10]
1741 New York Conspiracy
In 1741, a supposed plot of arson in the Province of New York was allegedly conducted by three enslaved men, Cuffee, Prince, and Caesar. These three men were alleged to have burned several buildings, including the home of Lieutenant Governor George Clarke. The leaders, Cuffee and Quack (Kwaku), were tried for arson, found guilty, and burned at the stake. In total, they burnt 13 black men at the stake and hung 17, along with four whites. Among those arrested when the plot was discovered were 12 men and women of Akan origin. Seventy people were deported from New York. There is considerable historical debate as to how these fires were started.
1760 Tacky’s War
In 1760, another conspiracy known as
Eventually, Tacky was killed by a sharpshooter named Davy the Maroon, who was a Maroon officer in Scott's Hall.[12]
1763 Berbice Slave Uprising
In 1763, a slave rebellion in
After several months, a dispute between Cuffy and Akra led to a war. On 2 April 1763, Cuffy wrote to Governor van Hoogenheim saying that he did not want a war against the whites and proposed a partition of Berbice with the whites occupying the coastal areas and the blacks the interior. Akara's faction won, and Cuffy killed himself. The anniversary of Cuffy's slave rebellion, 23 February, is Republic Day in Guyana, and Cuffy is a national hero commemorated in a large monument in the capital, Georgetown.[15]
1765 Conspiracy
Coromantee enslaved people were also behind a conspiracy in 1765 to revolt. The leaders of the rebellion sealed their pact with an oath. Coromantee leaders Blackwell and Quamin (Kwame) ambushed and killed a group of colonial militiamen at a fort near Port Maria, Jamaica, as well as other whites in the area.[16] They intended to ally with the Maroons to split up the island. The Coromantins were to give the Maroons the forests while the Coromantins would control the cultivated land. The Maroons did not agree because of their treaty and existing agreement with colonial government.[17]
Anti-Coromantee measures
In 1765, a bill was proposed to prevent the importation of Coromantees but was not passed. Edward Long, an anti-Coromantee writer, states:
Such a bill, if passed into law would have struck at very root of evil. No more Coromantins would have been brought to infest this country, but instead of their savage race, the island would have been supplied with Blacks of a more docile tractable disposition and better inclined to peace and agriculture.[18]
Colonists later devised ways of separating Coromantins from each other by housing them separately, placing them with other enslaved people, and stricter monitoring. Since groups such as the Igbos were hardly reported to have been maroons, Igbo women were paired with Coromantee men to subdue the latter due to the idea that Igbo women were bound to their first-born sons' birthplace.[19]
1766 Rebellion
Thirty-three newly arrived Coromantins killed at least 19 whites in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica. It was discovered when a young enslaved girl gave up their plans. All of the conspirators were either executed or sold.[18]
1795 Second Maroon War
The Second Maroon War of 1795–1796 was an eight-month conflict between the Maroons of Trelawney Town, a maroon settlement created at the end of the First Maroon War, located in the parish of St James, but named after governor
1816 Bussa's Rebellion in Barbados
1822 Denmark Vesey conspiracy
In 1822, an alleged conspiracy by enslaved Africans in the United States brought from the Caribbean was organized by an enslaved man named
His insurrection, which was to take place on Bastille Day, 14 July 1822, became known to thousands of blacks throughout Charleston, South Carolina, and along the Carolina coast. The plot called for Vesey and his group of enslaved people and free blacks to execute their enslavers and temporarily liberate the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. Two enslaved men opposed to Vesey's scheme leaked the plot. Charleston authorities charged 131 men with conspiracy. In total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey.[21][22]
1823 Demerara Rebellion
Quamina (Kwamina) Gladstone, a Coromantee enslaved man in British Guiana (now Guyana), and his son Jack Gladstone led the Demerara rebellion of 1823, one of the most significant slave revolts in the British colonies before slavery was abolished. He was a carpenter by trade and worked on an estate owned by Sir John Gladstone. He was implicated in the revolt by the colonial authorities, apprehended, and executed on 16 September 1823. He is considered a national hero in Guyana, and there are streets named after him in Georgetown and the village of Beterverwagting on the East Coast Demerara.[23]
On Monday, 18 August 1823, Quamina and Jack Gladstone, both enslaved on Success plantation – who had adopted the surname of their master by convention – led their peers to revolt against the harsh conditions and maltreatment.[24] Those on Le Resouvenir, where Smith's chapel was situated, also rebelled. Quamina Gladstone was a member of Smith's church,[25] and the population there included: 2,500 whites, 2,500 freed blacks, and 77,000 enslaved people;[26] Quamina had been one of five chosen to become deacons by the congregation soon after Smith's arrival.[27] Following the arrival of news from Britain that measures aimed at improving the treatment of enslaved people in the colonies had been passed, Jack had heard a rumour that their masters had received instructions to set them free but were refusing to do so.[28] In the weeks before the revolt, he sought confirmation of the veracity of the rumours from other enslaved people, particularly those who worked for those in a position to know: he thus obtained information from Susanna, housekeeper/mistress of John Hamilton of Le Resouvenir; from Daniel, the Governor's servant; Joe Simpson from Le Reduit, and others. Specifically, Joe Simpson had written a letter saying their freedom was imminent, which heeded them to be patient.[29] Jack wrote a letter (signing his father's name) to the members of the chapel informing them of the "new law".[28]
Being very close to Jack, he supported his son's aspirations to be free by supporting the fight for the rights of enslaved people. But being a rational man,[30] and heeding the advice of Rev. Smith, he urged him to tell the other enslaved people, particularly the Christians, not to rebel. He sent Manuel and Seaton on this mission. When he knew the rebellion was imminent, he urged restraint and made his fellow slaves promise a peaceful strike.[31] Jack led tens of thousands of enslaved people to rise against their enslavers.[28] After the enslaved people's defeat in a major battle at Bachelor's Adventure, Jack fled into the woods. A "handsome reward"[32] of one thousand guilders was offered for the capture of Jack, Quamina, and about twenty other "fugitives".[33] Jack and his wife were captured by Capt. McTurk at Chateau Margo on 6 September after a three-hour standoff.[34] Quamina remained at large until he was captured on 16 September in the fields of Chateau Margo. He was executed, and his body was hung up in chains by the side of a public road in front of Success.[35]
Culture
Before becoming enslaved, Coromantins were usually part of highly organized and stratified Akan groups such as the
According to Long, Akan or "Coromantee" culture obliterated any other African customs, and incoming non-Akan Africans had to submit to the culture of the dominant Akan population in Jamaica. Akan deities referred to as Abosom in the Twi and Fante dialects were documented, and enslaved Akans would praise Nyankopong (erroneously written by the British as Accompong); libations would be poured to
Day names
Akans also shared the concept of the soul or
From Kumfu or Myal to Revival
Assimilation
Other Coromantee revolts followed, but these were all quickly suppressed. Coromantees (enslaved and runaway Maroons) and their Akan, imported from Ghana (the Gold Coast), ultimately influenced most of the black Jamaican culture: language, architecture, and food. After the British abolition of slavery in 1833, their influence and reputation began to wane as Coromantins were fully integrated into the larger British-influenced Jamaican society.
However, Akan loanwords make up the most significant part of the African influence in
In fiction
The king, too, falls in love with Imoinda. He gives her the sacred veil, thus commanding her to become one of his wives, even though she has already married Oroonoko. After unwillingly spending time in the king's harem (the Otan), Imoinda and Oroonoko plan a tryst with the help of the sympathetic Onahal and Aboan. They are eventually discovered, and because she has lost her virginity, Imoinda is sold into slavery.[43] The king's guilt, however, leads him to falsely inform Oroonoko that she has been executed since death was thought to be better than slavery. Later, after winning another tribal war, Oroonoko is betrayed and captured by an English captain who plans to enslave him and his men. The captain transports both Imoinda and Oroonoko to the colony of Surinam. The two lovers are reunited there, under the new Christian names of Caesar and Clemene, even though Imoinda's beauty has attracted the unwanted desires of other enslaved people and the Cornish gentleman, Trefry.[44]
Upon Imoinda's pregnancy, Oroonoko petitions for their return to the homeland. But after being continuously ignored, he organizes a slave revolt. The enslaved people are hunted down by the military forces and compelled to surrender on Deputy Governor Byam's promise of amnesty. Yet, when the enslaved people surrender, Oroonoko and the others are punished and whipped. Oroonoko decides to kill Byam to avenge his honor and express his natural worth. But to protect Imoinda from violation and subjugation after his death, he decides to kill her. The two lovers discuss the plan, and with a smile on her face, Imoinda willingly dies by his hand. A few days later, Oroonoko is found mourning by her decapitated body and is kept from killing himself, only to be publicly executed. During his death by dismemberment, Oroonoko calmly smokes a pipe and stoically withstands all the pain without crying out.[43]
References
- ^ Edwards, B. (1972). The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. United States: Arno Press.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-1647-6.
- ^ a b Long, Edward (1774), The History of Jamaica Or, A General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of that Island: With Reflexions on Its Situation, Settlements, Inhabitants, Climate, Products, Commerce, Laws, and Government (google), vol. 2, pp. 445–475
- ^ Long (1774), p. 447.
- ^ Long (1774), p. 345.
- ISBN 9781594163562.
- ISBN 978-1-4614-6201-9
- ^ "St. John Slave Rebellion". St. John Off the Beaten Track. Sombrero Publishing Co. 2000. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008. Retrieved 19 July 2008.
- ^ Mike Dash (2 January 2013). "Antigua's Disputed Slave Conspiracy of 1736: Does the evidence against these 44 slaves really stack up?". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian.
- ^ Brian Dyde, A History of Antigua, London and Oxford: Macmillan Education, 2000.
- ^ Long (1774), p. 451.
- ^ Long (1774), p. 468.
- ISBN 0-521-86338-4.
- ^ Ishmael, Odeen (2005). The Guyana Story: From Earliest Times to Independence (1st ed.). Retrieved 6 July 2008.
- ^ David Granger (1992). "Guyana coins". El Dorado (2): 20–22. Archived from the original on 26 June 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2008.
- ^ Long (1774), p. 465.
- ^ Long (1774), pp. 460–70.
- ^ a b Long (1774), p. 471.
- ISBN 0-252-06446-1.
- ^ Egerton (2004), pp. 3–4.
- The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina.
- The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, May 2001.
- ^ "Historic Cummingsburg". National Trust of Guyana. Archived from the original on 30 September 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
- hdl:1808/21075
- ISBN 978-2-13-057110-0.
- ^ da Costa (1994), p. xviii.
- ^ da Costa (1994), p. 145.
- ^ a b c "PART II Blood, sweat, tears and the struggle for basic human rights". Guyana Caribbean Network. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
- ^ da Costa (1994), pp. 180, 196.
- ^ da Costa (1994), p. 182.
- ^ "The Demerara Slave Uprising". Guyana News and Information. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
- ^ Bryant (1824), p. 83.
- ^ da Costa (1994), p. 180.
- ^ Bryant (1824), pp. 83–84.
- ^ Bryant (1824), pp. 87–88.
- ^ Thornton, John (2000), p. 182.
- ^ Egglestone (2001), pdf.
- ^ Egglestone, Ruth (2001). "A Philosophy of Survival: Anancyism in Jamaican Pantomime" (PDF). The Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers. 2: 1471–2024. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
- ^ a b "Quashee". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
- PMID 22360861.
- ^ "Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave. A True History". Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2006.
- ^ Hutner 1993, p. 1.
- ^ a b Behn, Gallagher and Stern (2000).
- ^ Behn, Gallagher, and Stern (2000), 13.
Sources
- Behn, A., C. Gallagher, & S. Stern (2000). Oroonoko, or, The royal slave. Bedford Cultural Editions. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
- Williams, Brackette (1990), "Dutchman Ghosts and the History Mystery: Ritual, Colonizer, and Colonized Interpretations of the 1763 Berbice Slave Rebellion", Journal of Historical Sociology, 3 (2): 133–165, .
- Egerton, Douglas R. He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey, 2nd edn. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.
- Bryant, Joshua (1824). Account of an insurrection of the negro slaves in the colony of Demerara, which broke out on the 18th of August, 1823. Georgetown, Demerara: A. Stevenson at the Guiana Chronicle Office.
Account of an insurrection of the negro slaves in the colony of Demerara, which broke out on the 18th of August, 1823.
- Hutner, Heidi (1993), Rereading Aphra Behn: History, Theory, and Criticism, University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-1443-4
- Hughes, Ben (2021), When I Die I Shall Return to MY Own Land: The New York Slave Revolt of 1712, Westholme Publishing. ISBN 1594163561
- Thornton, John K. (2000). War, the State, and Religious Norms in "Coromantee" Thought: The Ideology of an African American Nation-- Possible pasts: becoming colonial in early America. ISBN 0-8014-8392-1.
- Viotti da Costa, Emília (18 May 1994). Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: the Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823. ISBN 0-19-510656-3.