#  "The Most uncontrolled Freedom": The Haitian Revolution, Jamaican Maroons, and the French Connection 

 



Jeffrey A. Fortin

The Haitian Revolution rocked the Atlantic world, abruptly changing its socio-political composition. By examining the impact of the Haitian Revolution more closely, we can see its effects on marginalized populations across the Atlantic world. Perhaps there is no better illustration of this than the Trelawney Maroons of Jamaica. British colonies, in particular, reacted strongly to the slave insurrection in Haiti. Britons’ fears of a French plot to destroy the Empire provoked iron-fisted dealings with rebellious communities. Throughout the mid 1790s, Jamaica's white officials feared the arrival of French insurgents on the island, who, they alleged, would spark a revolution similar to Haiti's. In response to these anxieties, aroused by the Haitian Revolution and the concurrent radical French ideology, the Trelawney Town Maroons—whose identity developed in opposition to slaves, mulattoes, and others in the African Diaspora—rebelled. In attempting to gain concessions from British officials, Maroons encountered a ruthless governor, who deported the entire community to Nova Scotia. Once adrift in the British Atlantic, the Trelawney Maroons confronted exile in an empire that once recognized them as a quasi-independent nation. This working paper raises questions about several important issues challenging scholars of the Atlantic world. For instance, what was the influence of revolutionary ideology among persons of African descent in the late eighteenth-century Atlantic world? How pervasive were British fears of French-inspired revolts of African peoples? How fluid and variegated were African Diaspora identities in the Age of Revolution? Finally, how did the removal of marginalized populations alter an increasingly complex British Atlantic World?

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