The terms of a settlement between the Sierra Leone Company and a group of Maroons.
Creators: The Sierra Leone Company founder Henry Thornton sent The Terms in a letter to William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland and Home Secretary, in October 1799. Sierra Leone colony Governor Thomas Ludlam, Maroon Superintendent George Ross, and Maroon captains Montague James, Andrew Smith, Charles Shaw, John Palmer, Thomas Johnstone, and a captain named only as Baily discussed revisions to The Terms on October 2, 1800
Date of Creation: 1799-1800
Place of origin: England and Freetown, Sierra Leone
Physical measurements: 2 pages, one covered on both sides and one single-sided
Materials: Paper and ink
Process by which it was made: Handwriting
Current location: National Archives, Kew, London, United Kingdom
Further Reading
Kenneth M. Bilby, True-born maroons (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005).
Ruma Chopra, Almost Home: Maroons between Slavery and Freedom in Jamaica, Nova Scotia, and Sierra Leone (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018).
Mavis C. Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655-1796 (Amherst, MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc., 1988).
Barbara Klamon Kopytoff, “Jamaican Maroon Political Organization: The effects of the Treaties,” Social and Economic Studies 25, no. 2 (June 1976), 87-105.
Cassandra Pybus, Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and their Global Quest for Liberty (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006).
Information contributed by Rachel B. Herrmann.