Juan de Bolas originally Juan Lubolo (1604?–1664) was one of the first chiefs of the
Jamaican Maroons
Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of Free black people in Jamaica, free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern Pari ...
.
Background
When the English captured
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
from the Spanish in the 1655
Invasion of Jamaica
The Invasion of Jamaica took place in May 1655, during the 1654 to 1660 Anglo-Spanish War, when an English expeditionary force captured Spanish Jamaica. It was part of an ambitious plan by Oliver Cromwell to acquire new colonies in the Americ ...
, the latter freed their slaves, who fled into the mountainous forests of the interior, where they established independent communities of
Free black people in Jamaica, and fought a guerrilla war against the English. It is likely that these early Spanish Maroons were descended from both escaped African slaves and
Taino men and women.
Juan de Bolas and his Maroon community was based primarily around the town of Lluidas Vale. The Spanish attempted to retake the
Colony of Jamaica
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was Invasion of Jamaica (1655), captured by the The Protectorate, English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British Empire, British colon ...
, and to this end Don Christobal de Ysasi relied on his alliance with the Spanish Maroons to secure this victory.
Juan switches sides
However, Governor
Edward D'Oyley succeeded in persuading one of the leaders of the Spanish Maroons, Juan de Bolas, to switch sides and join the English along with his Maroon warriors. In 1660, when Ysasi realised that de Bolas had joined the English, he admitted that the Spanish no longer had a chance of recapturing the island, since de Bolas and his men knew the mountainous interior better than the Spanish and the English. Ysasi gave up on his dreams, and fled to
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
.
The English named two
rivers
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...
and a
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
after him to commemorate his assistance in expelling the Spaniards and bringing an end to
Spanish Jamaica, as well as capturing hostile Maroons.
The English appointed him Colonel of the
Black Militia and guaranteed his
palenque
Palenque (; Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamha ("big water" or "big waters"), was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD ...
land and liberties "for ever".
War with other Maroons and Death
There was at least one other group of Spanish Maroons who did not agree to terms with the English authorities, led by a Maroon named
Juan de Serras
Juan de Serras was one of the first Jamaican Maroon chiefs in the seventeenth century. His community was based primarily around Los Vermajales, and as a result the English called his group of Maroons the Karmahaly Maroons. It is likely that his Ma ...
. The English called this group the Karmahaly Maroons, because they came from Los Vermejales. The English colonial authorities then used de Bolas and his "Black Militia" to hunt de Serras and his Maroons.
De Bolas was killed in an ambush by an unaligned palenque in 1664.
Some historians believe that de Bolas was killed by Maroons from the group led by de Serras. Following the death of de Bolas, his group of Black Militia Maroons faded from history, while de Serras and his community continued to trouble the English authorities for years to come.
[Campbell, ''The Maroons of Jamaica 1655-1796'', pp. 25-26.]
Legacy
De Bolas is mentioned in ''
Segu'', an historical novel from Guadeloupean author
Maryse Condé
Maryse Condé (née Marise Liliane Appoline Boucolon; 11 February 1934 – 2 April 2024) was a French novelist, critic, and playwright from the French Overseas department and region of Guadeloupe. She was also an academic, whose teaching car ...
.
Jamaican novelist
Victor Stafford Reid wrote an historical novel entitled ''The Jamaicans'' in 1976, and the main character was Juan de Bolas.
Jamaican singer
Eric Donaldson named his 1979 Dynamic Sounds album after De Bolas, entitled 'Juan De Bolas'.
See also
*
Juan de Bolas Mountain
*
Juan de Bolas River
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolas, Juan de
Jamaican Maroon leaders
1600s births
1664 deaths
People from Clarendon Parish, Jamaica
Jamaican rebel slaves
17th-century Jamaican people