LIVE FREE OR DIE: Dr. Thomson Fontaine’s History Book – The Maroons of Dominica -1764-1818

They [i.e., the Maroons] have taken different positions in this mountainous strong country, have formed separate encampments and elected chiefs; and from thence send out small parties, who have attacked the estates drove away the cattle, and done every mischief in their power. Edinburgh Advertiser, 1785.

Former Government of Dominica statistician and economist at the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Fontaine has published a gem of a work on the history of Dominica’s Maroons and their fight to end slavery on the island. The book is written in a manner well-informed by Fontaine’s education as a statistician and economist in that we are given charts with intricate details on those who served in the maroon guerrilla armies led by chiefs such as Jacko, Balla, Congoree and Pharcelle.`

On April 14, 2021 Amazon.com listed Dr. Thomson Fontaine’s newly published history book,  The Maroons of Dominica 1764-1818-Resistance, Rebellion, and Freedom from Slavery (Bala Press, 326 pages, 2021) at Number 1 on its list of recently published history texts in its category. It is only fitting and proper as Dr. Fontaine has published a work unparalleled in the history of Dominican letters; the first history of our legendary freedom fighters, by one born at or about a camp run by the legendary maroon chief Balla. In Fontaine’s “Author’s Note” he relates:

I was born and grew up in the village of Grand Fond just two miles from Rosalie           Estate on the South Eastern coast of Dominica, and in the vicinity of Balla’s camp.

Fontaine tells the story by providing us with layer upon layer of newspaper articles from the United Kingdom, and Britain’s American colonies which later became the United States. He also provides us with records of debates in the British Parliament by abolitionists such as William Wilberforce who point to the Maroon resistance in Dominica as cause to end the odious practice of slavery.

The centuries old intercourse in way of trade, culture, and development between Dominica and what is now  the United States is noted throughout the book. Fontaine has laid his hands on precious new information that specifically outlines the sympathies stirred by the Maroons freedom struggle as far away as Pennsylvania:

The oppressions that the unhappy negroes endure in Dominica and the other islands, have occasioned their late excesses, and prove the absolute impropriety of tyrannizing over that description of people…without trampling in such a cruel manner as is practiced upon every principle of equity and human tenderness which, if not adopted, scenes of the most dreadful and shocking nature, will possibly, at some time or the other, be the consequences of their exertions for freedom, unless, a period shall arrive, when they will be placed on a footing of the other inhabitants of the world [The Pennsylvania Packet, 17^th February 1786]

The book reveals the indomitable fighting spirit of Maroons chiefs Balla and Jacko in how they met their ends – determined to live free or die.

Re Chief Balla:

[Being intruded upon in his camp Balla fled and shouted from a hill, as in to taunt the British soldiers pursuing him] “O you thieves, you come like thieves, that is not fair”…fleeing to another hill, with a white shirt on, Balla again taunted the soldiers and disappeared. Balla’s camp consisted of ten large houses which was built to hold ten persons each…[shot in desperate battle] Balla then called out several times, as long as he was able, Canda, Canda, femme moi! Venne render, bois pas bonne encore, Balla il pris, Balla va mourir [Canda, Canda, my wife, come and meet me, the tree is no longer good, Balla is gone, Balla is going to die. He then died. And so, it was about 2 o’clock on Sunday 18 March 1786, the most feared Maroon leader in Dominica, Balla, died in the forest of Dominica, less than two miles from the Layou River.

In the barbaric tradition of the ruling slave power on Dominica, Balla’s heart was ripped from his chest, his head then cut off, and  exhibited on a pole in the Roseau marketplace to frighten enslaved Africans away from any thought of resistance. Such would not work as Jacko and others arose out to continue the struggle into the 19^th century.

Re  Chief Jacko:

[At Page at 190] On the 12^{th of} July, when the Chief of Chiefs, Jacko, who had remained free, in the mountains of Dominica, for over 46 years was shot to death. The Caledonian Mercury [October 13, 1814]  recalled  the event like this. ‘On the 12^th of July, the camp of Jacko, one of the chiefs, was surprised, while many of its inmates were absent seeking for wild yams, and other vegetable stores, to enable them  to make a retreat to another quarter. Jacko made a desperate resistance, he killed two rangers, wounded a third, and was shot through the head while in the act of leveling a musket at a fourth. He had been a resident in the woods upwards of 40 years and was considered as head chief of all the runaway camps on the island. His male adherents fought their way and escaped on bye paths, which the rangers could not follow.”

That the Maroon had shed the shame of subjugation to live free or die caused an eruption of humanitarian sentiment led by white British abolitionists such as William Wilberforce, Granville Sharpe, and Thomas Clarkson. These men of good conscience were vocal leaders, inside and outside the British Parliament and supported the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. They succeeded in that task when the slave trade was abolished on March 25, 1807. The abolitionist then sought to eradicate the odious system of slavery itself. Their advocacy in Parliament, was given resonance by Maroon resistance in the mountainous fastness of Dominica. Such resistance met with the savage suppression of those who sought liberty from brutish British governors such as Ainslie. In 1817 the Parliament heard cases of acts of the greatest cruelty against the slaves. The case of wanton cruelty against an enslaved African female, Jeanton, is recited here as so typical of the barbaric practices of the slave power:

Assaulted by her master, confined in an iron chain fastened to her neck, arms and padlocks. She was further maimed, defaced, mutilated, and cruelly tortured, and her arms fractured. [Page 217]

The Leeds Mercury of 22 April 1818 is referenced in its reporting of the anti-slavery arguments in Parliament of William Wilberforce and Samuel Romilly. Both men were said to have roundly condemned the inequities of the court system on Dominica as unfair to Africans:

“Grand Jury [in Dominica] had abused the high trust reposed in them, for the purpose of screening the abominable cruelties committed upon a number of slaves.” [Page 218]

The heroic exertions in the cause of liberty by the Maroons, and the allied humanitarian impulse of British abolitionists, in time, met with victory. On July 26, 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. It would abolish slavery in Dominica, the British West Indies and across the British Empire. Wilberforce died three days later, on 29^th July 1833 – mission accomplished. This work serves to ensure that  we remember the heroic service and sacrifice of the Maroons, and the British abolitionists who sought the end of slavery.

All Dominicans can take pride in Dr. Fontaine – a true Dominican patriot who has long served the best aspirations of our homeland. Today, he walks in the  liberating path of Maroon Chiefs, this time in the field of good governance and economic development in South Sudan. May all Dominicans, and others, who read this book be similarly inspired to advance the cause of liberty. May it never be that we adopt barbaric practices against our own people as was practiced by our former oppressors. To do so would be to betray those who fought for our freedom by surrendering our liberty and desire for good governance to corrupt tyrants.  It is my hope that this book shall find a place on every Dominican school’s bookshelf, and in the homes on our island. So enlightened, we can resist and so eradicate any emerging stench of tyranny which seeks to envelope our land.

N.B. Dr. Thomson Fontaine is a founding member of the Dominica Arts & Literary Association (DALA) – http://www.da-writers.com/featured_item/thomson-fontaine-phd/.

The book can be purchased from the following link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737008106/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_glt_fabc_43SWAAYPKTZP6JVEEMXF