Nanny

Jamaican rebel leader

• Born: Unknown
• Birthplace: Probably Africa
• Died: 1750’s
• Place of death: Jamaica

Nanny inspired generations of black Jamaicans to seek and secure freedom and equality, which began with the First Maroon War in the early eighteenth century. Her legendary actions and clever tactics against British troops won limited territory and some rights for many fugitive slaves and initiated what would be the emancipation of all enslaved Jamaicans. Also, Nanny ensured that African traditions and lore would continue to influence Jamaican culture.

Early Life

Scholars have sought clues about the enigmatic Nanny for decades, and many have pondered whether she existed or was only a mythical creation to motivate rebels and intimidate soldiers. Few Jamaican histories note her role in rebellions or accurately portray her significance, if she is mentioned at all. Documents, including a land grant and peace treaty, indicate that a black woman named Nanny lived in Jamaica in the 1730’s. Oral sources, including songs, emphasize that Nanny affected Jamaican culture by contributing her insights, ingenuity, and fortitude to liberate Jamaican slaves. A conglomeration of these resources, in addition to geographical namesakes and a grave-site memorial, have increased the likelihood that Nanny existed and therefore had a profound influence on Jamaican history.

Precise information about Nanny is elusive. Many biographical details about her have been distorted or misrepresented by interpreters’ agendas. Most scholars accept that Nanny was probably born in the 1680’s in the Gold Coast region of what is now Ghana in Africa, based on a description of her in a 1740 land grant indicating that she was middle aged. Some researchers hypothesize she belonged to a royal family in the Asanti band or Akan ethnic group because followers used the title “queen” to refer to her. Her parents’ names were not recorded, and “Nanny” might not have been her birth name. Many Jamaican women were called “Nanny,” which was a name probably derived from African terms that affectionately describe wise women who acted as caretakers of their people and preserved and transferred ancestral traditions and stories between generations. Nanny’s mother or female kin may have taught her African techniques and traditions that helped her appear powerful in Jamaica.

Several accounts tell how Nanny and her sister, who was identified by many names, including Sekesu, arrived in Jamaica (the date not specified), where Nanny chose to rebel against slavery. Sekesu remained enslaved (captured possibly during an escape when her crying baby revealed their location). The sisters became the symbolic mothers of eighteenth century Jamaican blacks. Some stories refer to Nanny’s brothers—Cudjoe, Cuffee, Quaco, Accompong, and Johnny—who also were associated with black rebellions in Jamaica, and sources consistently name Nanny’s husband Adou. The couple had no known offspring.

Life’s Work

Whether African royalty or a slave, Nanny rallied black Jamaicans to defy and seek independence from British slave owners and officials. Slavery had existed in Jamaica since sixteenth century Spaniards gained control and imported Africans. Several slave revolts occurred during the seventeenth century. English troops conquered the Spanish in the mid-seventeenth century, and many slaves escaped into the Jamaican rain forest and hills.

English officials had encouraged settlers to establish sugarcane plantations and utilize slave labor, importing more Africans. Many slaves resisted and sought ways to impede agricultural production. Some escaped, eluding captors in Jamaica’s mountainous terrain. These fugitive slaves, known as Maroons, formed communities to help each other. Both the Windward Maroons, living in the northeast, and the Leeward Maroons, living in the west, strived to free slaves. Nanny, also called Granny Nanny, lived on eastern Jamaica’s Blue Mountain in a settlement called Nanny Town in her honor. Maroons revered her because she guided fugitives to sanctuaries, helped them survive, and urged them to seek freedom. Nanny demanded autonomy for all Maroons.

The Maroons gathered information about the British from allied slaves on plantations. Tensions intensified as more settlers arrived, blocking Maroon access to land. The Maroons soon raided plantations. By the 1720’s, enraged British officials mobilized troops and militias to capture the Maroons. Although Nanny never served as a combatant, she achieved acclaim as a military leader, sometimes being referred to as a general, sharing strategies on how best to fight and eliminate the British. She emboldened Maroon guerrillas to fight even though their forces numbered several hundred men compared to several thousand men fighting for the British.

Nanny’s reputation as a masterful leader grew as tales of her daring and cunning circulated. She seemed invincible to most people, and she provoked fear in the British. Among her alleged feats was her ability to snatch fired bullets and shoot them back at enemies. Although this seems impossible, some Africans reported bullet catching as a war tactic. Legend describes how Nanny’s kettle could boil water without a fire and how she used the kettle to trap British soldiers or startle them, causing them to fall into gorges. Nanny may have used herbs to sedate enemies as well. These tales led many of the colonists to believe that Nanny was supernatural and had magical powers. The Maroons believed her powers reinforced her role as an obeah, or spiritual director, who retained African ways within Maroon communities. Spiritual guidance included respect for forebears. When Nanny despaired of defeating the British, ancestors told her to plant the pumpkin seeds she found in her clothes and to persist. Those seeds quickly produced food that strengthened the Maroon fighters.

Furthermore, the resilient Nanny offered Maroons practical advice, often based on African military customs and an awareness of nature. Cleverness often defeated technology. She told fighters how to use abeng (cow horns) to alert Maroons when British troops approached and to designate where to attack. She taught Maroons how to use jungle leaves, ferns, and bark to disguise themselves as trees, then to control breathing muscles and to stand silently before ambushing enemy soldiers.

British forces attacked and occupied Nanny Town in 1734, but Nanny and her followers regrouped in the jungle and soon formed Moore Town. Fighting continued until the Windward Maroons signed a peace treaty with the British in 1739. Nanny, probably distrusting the British and resenting the use of the word “surrender” in the treaty, did not sign it. The government issued Nanny a land grant in 1740, giving 500 acres to the Windward Maroons.

Although a slave seeking reward money lied to authorities, telling them that Nanny had been killed in 1733, the 1740 land grant indicates she was alive in 1740. Historians believe she lived until the 1750’s. A monument was placed by her grave by Maroons in Moore Town.

Significance

Nanny had an impact on Maroons even after her death. Seeking independence, Maroons pressed for emancipation from British rule, which was finally achieved in 1834. Nanny and the legends she inspired have retained credibility in modern Jamaica. Her spirit prevails in Maroon communities, where people believe she is often present. They credit her for uniting and strengthening Maroons, past and present. An annual Nanny Day celebrates her achievements on behalf of her people and her determination to protect and maintain African traditions in Maroon cultures. Some of the festivities, however, are closed to non-Maroons out of respect to her, because it is believed that Nanny observes the festivities.

Furthermore, Nanny has many namesakes, and she is pictured on local currency and praised in poetry and song. She was featured in Phyllis Cousins’s Queen of the Mountain (1967), a fictionalized biography for children that was approved by the Jamaican ministry of education. In 1976, Nanny was named a Jamaican national hero, the only woman—and the only Maroon—to receive such recognition.

Nanny, the touchstone for a significant Caribbean community, merits further study. Unfortunately, many older histories have relied on biased accounts that were based on hearsay from British sources, which often were racist; some were distorted to detract from Nanny’s military successes against British troops. The secrecy of Nanny’s identity and an indigenous reliance on oral history obscure some facts. Modern Maroons protect Nanny’s legacy, warning that non-Maroons who travel to the site of the original Nanny Town risk curses and illness. Such superstitions guard Nanny and the African-Maroon culture she struggled to perpetuate while resisting opponents who would have assimilated Maroons and destroyed their ethnic traditions and culture.

Bibliography

Campbell, Mavis C. Maroons of Jamaica, 1655-1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration, and Betrayal. South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey, 1988. Campbell, a historian who has lived with Maroons, claims to have proof that Nanny existed. The author also explores the rebel activities based on archival records and Maroon lore and cultural practices.

Gottlieb, Karla Lewis. The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny, Leader of the Windward Jamaican Maroons. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2000. The most thorough source of information about Nanny, including legal documents, the author’s interpretation of the 1739 treaty, and a poem. Illustrations, bibliography.

Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. A history of the British abolition movement, including the role of Granville Sharp and others in founding the Society for the Abolition of Slavery.

Monteith, Kathleen E. A., and Glen Richards, eds. Jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: History, Heritage, and Culture. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies, 2002. A scholarly collection of essays that includes suggestions for primary resources useful for placing Nanny in context with other Jamaican rebels.

Sherlock, Philip, and Hazel Bennett. Story of the Jamaican People. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener, 1998. A chapter features Africans in Jamaica, including Nanny, fighting for independence. Maps, bibliography, index, and an illustration of the 1740 land grant.

Zips, Werner. Black Rebels: African-Caribbean Freedom Fighters in Jamaica. Translated by Shelley L. Frisch. Foreword by Franklin Knight. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener, 1999. Originally published in German, this text was written by an anthropologist and director of the documentary “Accompong: Black Rebels in Jamaica,” which presents events from a Maroon perspective.