60199616-flight-to-freedom-african-runaways-and-maroons-in-the-americas

300 Flight to Freedom
ing some of the most fertile spots, in return for recognition of British sovereignty
over the island and the other usual terms found in peace treaties with
local peoples and Maroons. These included the return of runaways, assistance
in the defence of the colony, and the ultimate right of the colonial state
to determine disputes in its law courts.
Clearly, the treaty was only a holding mechanism
on both sides, since its terms did not satisfy
either party, and the imperial government,
under pressure from a land-hungry and angry
plantocracy, would never allow the Black Caribs
to retain so much territory. It was therefore no surprise
that the treaty was not faithfully observed on
either side. This eventually led to the more definitive
war of 1795–96. Joseph Chatoyer, the Black
Carib leader, refused to surrender to his
aggressive enemies, but he eventually surrendered
to the mortal wounds that he received
at their hands. The British transported 4,338
Black Caribs first to the neighbouring island
of Balliceaux in the Grenadines, but since this
island was too small to accommodate them,
they were transferred to the sister island of
Bequia. The problems at this new location
were the island’s scanty food resources and its
insalubrity, which led to the death of many of
the exiles within a few months. The British
therefore embarked the remaining 2,248 Black
Caribs for Belize in 1797, though 200 of them
died on the journey. The authoritarian state
Figure 30. Joseph Chatoyer by
Agostino Brunias, 1773
systematically tracked down and slaughtered
most of those who remained hidden
in St Vincent (Craton 1982, 147–53, 190–94,
204–6; Gargallo 2002, 9–11, 57–67; see also chapter 2).
As noted in chapter 4, in the second decade of the nineteenth century
American military forces and armed planter bands carried out a series of
invasions into Spanish Florida. Porter (1951, 254) states bluntly that the original
impulse for these incursions was American expansionism, caused by the