Message Board Archives

...in case anyone's interested in reading it:

PDF version on the Southampton university website

In reply to mikesiva

Congrats and thanks for sharing

In reply to mikesiva
Well done Mike. Just curious how long did this take you to research and write?

In reply to mikesiva

Thanks for sharing Mike.

In reply to mikesiva


Well done and congratulations. A major accomplishment. I will read it over the next week.

Congrats

In reply to mikesiva
Congratulations Bro – great achievement

In reply to mikesiva

Congratulations.

In reply to WI_cricfan et al

Thanks, guys....

My PhD was just under four years, 2014-18. However, I did a lot of my research in 2013, when I knew I'd been accepted into Southampton, so I spent a lot of time at the British Library, reading tons of "Journals of the Assembly of Jamaica". More ploughing through these archival documents continued in 2014 and 2015, while 2016-17 was mainly writing it up. 2018 was dedicated to fine-tuning it, again and again and again.

The British Library had lost some of the "Votes of the Assembly of Jamaica", so I found those in the National Archives in Spanish Town.

I thought you guys might find it interesting, because it's a part of our history. It's not just about the Maroons and their wars, but also about communities of runaway slaves who successfully resisted the Maroons after they came to terms, such as Jack Mansong, Cuffee, and runaways who formed communities in Hellshire and Me-No-Sen-You-No-Come, as well as those who found freedom in the aftermath of the Sam Sharpe Rebellion.

In reply to mikesiva

Thanks Mike...

In reply to mikesiva

Good work.

Congratulations.

In reply to mikesiva

Mike, I'm so glad to have this! Thanks a million for sharing. My current reading list is long but this is a hot shot with a bullet, yeah. I'll comment after I read.

--Æ.

In reply to mikesiva

Big up!! Bookmarked

In reply to mikesiva

Major. Major. Major. Thank you Mike. I have been reading through some of it. Excellent piece of work.

(Interesting to learn that the Maroons did not assist Sam Sharpe in the important Baptist War).The more we learn of our history the better for all of us.

Congratulations, sir!

//

In reply to Chrissy

Do one better, Chrissy, download it! It's a PDF so you can save it with ease; I suggest renaming it from LIBRARY_COPY_etc. to sth more telling like "Mikesiva's PhD dissertation on the Maroons".

--Æ.

In reply to Ewart

I have some of their blood running through my veins (of which I'm quite proud, of course), but there's much to be disappointed with them on after they signed the peace treaty with the Brits. For e.g., their role in capturing Paul Bogle.

--Æ.

In reply to mikesiva

congrats bro!

In reply to mikesiva

Should be an interesting read.

Congratulations!

In reply to mikesiva

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S

Mike , Very Good Work .

In reply to JayMor

Correct. And that is what this thesis is unravelling for us - those occasions of drift and why they happened.

I hope Mikesiva is going to get it published.


//

In reply to mikesiva

Thanks, Mike. Congratulations. Let me know when the book is published.

In reply to Fantom

Rhatid - you're still around. What's up man?

In reply to JayMor

Done

In reply to JayMor

you trying to pull an Elizabeth Warren on us? Well the nickname ‘Pocahontas’ is taken – how about - 'mountaineers'.--- that OK with you?

In reply to Chrissy

    /@
    \ \
     > \
 (__O)  \
(____@)  \
(____@)   \
 (__o)     \
       \    \

--Æ.

In reply to birdseye

"Mountaineers" might work but for a different reason, Birdie. "JahMaroon" better, no?


--Æ.

In reply to JayMor

creative – a like that

In reply to JayMor

Nice

In reply to mikesiva

Congratulations Mike. Well done. I will not be able to start reading it during the next two weeks but it's a must read. I read Carey Robinson's "The Iron Thorn" about two years ago, so my appetite has been whetted.

In reply to mikesiva

Mike, congratulations on your achievement. Thanks for the posting and this addition to knowledge so many of us are lacking in our common history. I look forward to reading your thesis.

In reply to mikesiva

Congrats Mike, I look forward to reading it.

In reply to Headley, Ewart, et al

Thanks, guys...it means a lot to hear such positive support from my fellow West Indians.

I've quoted from Carey Robinson's "Iron Thorn" a bit. But his work is not a referenced one, so it has a few issues, as you will see, when you read on.

As for publishing, sadly I'm getting very little interest here in the UK. They seem to shy away from works on British slavery...I wonder why!


That might have to wait until I return to the Caribbean, or maybe Ewart might be interested!

In reply to mikesiva

Well, after reading up everything I could find on the publishing houses and knowing how difficult it is with them, I self-published. Eventually covered my costs.

I think you should try the publishing houses at UWI (there are two of them). But before you do that, wouldn't Southampton have a publishing press? No immediate reason why they should not be interested.

//

In reply to mikesiva

Mike, really well done!
I remember that day at Lords many years ago when you looked forward to this moment. Long road and hard work. Enjoy your labour!

Congrats bro. TriniD will read later.

In reply to Ewart

You know I never knew this - I was discussing your chapter on Jamaica Welfare during my morning walk.

I am very glad I made your book required reading - particularly that chapter.

In reply to Chrissy

Well, as you know I was publishing my own newspaper here for three decades, so I knew a bit about that part of the business.

I was able to get some financial assistance from the CHASE Fund which covered costs for printing and pre-press. CHASE is credited in the book. But I paid out of pocket for travel, research, photography, editing and proofing. Worse, I got nothing for the writing.

As you can see it worked out in the end.

//

In reply to JayMor, Halliwell et al

Thanks again, guys....


Yes, I remember that day at Lords, wondering if and when this road would ever end!

My son and daughter also have heard family stories from their grandfather about Maroon ancestry. But the story was an unusual one. It was about Maroon ancestry in Trelawny, and the question was, how was that possible if the Maroons of Trelawny Town were all deported to Nova Scotia and then Sierra Leone?

That was one of the personal questions that inspired my research. I discovered that not all the Trelawny Town Maroons were deported, and that 58 stayed behind, and became a part of the "free black" population of rural St James and rural Trelawny. It's possible that my kids are descended from the 58.

In reply to mikesiva

And if that's true then so are you? Or are you referring to the maternal side?


I can't wait to read your work, the Maroons has always fascinated me, as you may know I have a deep deep interest in African slavery with emphasis on those Muslim slaves who used their jihad to fight against that great mighty great EVIL.

In reply to mikesiva

Wow, Mike! You're forcing me to get to it even faster.   The Western Cockpit maroons are whom I'm associated with (in fact, born just outside Maroon Town, in a place called Vaughnsfield). I so wish Mama were still alive; she was only able to tell a tiny bit of the story and would've been delighted to hear more details.

--Æ.

In reply to JayMor, Emir et al

My kids have inherited their Maroon claim from their mother, my wife....


I'm Indo-Jamaican....

I know Vaughnsfield well. It could be that you're descended from the 58, which I've devoted a few pages to, or you could be descended from the Returned Maroons.

The Returned Maroons are those Trelawny Town Maroons who were deported to Sierra Leone, but who came back to Jamaica on several ships after Emancipation in the 1840s, when Jamaica was looking for immigrant labour from Sierra Leone. It's estimated that between 64 and a couple hundred or so returned, and most of them settled in Flagstaff. I originally included a section in my PhD on the Flagstaff Returned Maroons, but had to omit it because I was over-running the word limit!

I hope to publish something about the history of the Flagstaff Returned Maroons one day in the not-too-distant future....

This from a Sierra Leone newspaper

In reply to mikesiva

Mike, is Cuffee an anglicised spelling of Kofi?

//

In reply to mikesiva

Big up, bossman.

In reply to MikeSiva
Now you're making it such that I'll have to save the entire darn thread alongside the dissertation download, Mike! LOL. So much info, my head is about to pop! Nuff thanks, sah.

In reply to Ewart

I think you made that conclusion already, Ewie.   Cuffee is sometimes spelt Cuffy for the anglicised Kofi (Friday born, like yours truly). See the Jamaican (maroon) day names in the rightmost column here. As you run through them, though, cases where ours reasonably differ from the original Twi over in the left columns is because there were sizable imports of Fantes (and maybe Brongs too) speaking a different strain on the Akan language.

--Æ.

In reply to mikesiva

nuff respect. Congrats on your achievement. will give it a read