The Pull Of Freedom (15 page)

Chapter Forty-Three

Cudjoe had refused to see Colonel Guthrie, he was not sure that the white man was not out to set a trap for him. He sent his men to secure the way, they spread out with guns and traps all the way down to the cotton tree at the bottom of the hill.

Asha wanted to accompany her father, he refused at first but he finally capitulated when she said, “I'm Ashanti woman I know what to do in war.”

He shrugged in resignation, the girl sounded so much like Nanny at times that he knew when to hold his peace and not argue.

When they finally reached the cotton tree, Colonel Guthrie was there. He laid his gun on the ground. He had twenty men with him; they were all dressed in uniform except two.

Cudjoe spotted one in gentleman’s clothes and squinted his eyes.

“Am I seeing right? Kes?”

Kes stepped forward to the front of both sides, they were very tense, he laughed, “call off the guns Cudjoe, the Assembly has agreed to grant you your full freedom, 1500 acres of land between Trelawney town and the Cockpits and you can hunt wild pigs anywhere except within a three mile limit of towns and plantations.”

Cudjoe relaxed and exhaled.

"You will also be commander here and you can name your successors.”  Colonel Guthrie, a big man with a red tinted beard and a barrel of a belly said with forced heartiness.

“There are two conditions,” Guthrie cleared his throat and watched as the friendly look in Cudjoe’s eyes faded, “the governor named two white men to live here permanently with you so that friendly contact can be maintained with you and the colonists and you will have to return any runaway slaves to the plantations.”

“I'm not sure I like that, Cudjoe said turning away.

Kes walked up to Cudjoe and whispered in his ear, “I fought for this for you, take the deal, what will happen if two white men live here? They will keep to themselves who knows they might even become maroons.”

Cudjoe stood silently for a while and looked at Guthrie. Guthrie returned his look unwaveringly.

“I agree,” Cudjoe said strongly, the men in uniform started clapping in glee followed by the loud singing of the maroons in the trees and on the hillsides.

Guthrie looked around; he would have been in deep trouble if Cudjoe had refused. He had no idea so many men were stationed throughout the hills.

He exchanged hats with Cudjoe and said, “one of the men that the Governor appointed is a friend of your friend Kes here.”

Cudjoe nodded, “who is he?”

“Mark Simmonds Sir,” Mark said, coming to the forefront of gathered men.

Asha gasped and came closer to the ring of men.

Mark looked at her and winked.

Chapter Forty-Four

It took Asha and Mark three months before they got married—both in the traditional Ashanti way and the English style.

Bridget attended with her husband, declaring herself the honorary mother of the bride. Mamee argued with her good-naturedly over the title.  She caught Ibo’s eye from Nanny’s party and decided that she was not going back to the Simmonds plantation.

She had gotten the option of staying with Asha in the maroon village by Massa Robert. Her heart pains had turned out to be nothing more than gas but she had played the sickness card for all it was worth. Massa Robert had reluctantly granted her freedom after a long argument with Massa Mark.

“I'm staying here with Asha and Mark,” she declared loudly while looking at Ibo longingly.

Nanny was there too, she had made the trek with her men to see her niece joined to the white man. Her men had willingly followed when she declared that she was needed in Cudjoe’s camp. She arrived on the morning of the wedding feast but no one was surprised to see her.

She had refused a similar offer made to her by Guthrie. She was not enamoured with the idea that she would be helping out the plantation owners by giving back the runaways. She was uncomfortable with the idea of selective freedom. Freedom was not to be bargained for was her stance.

Kes who was also a part of the wedding celebration stood in a quiet corner with Nanny trying to persuade her to take the offer. Quao stood near them and silently listened, nodding readily when Kes made a point but Nanny shook her head stubbornly.

Cudjoe sat beneath the cotton tree, they had named the tree Cudjoe’s tree. He didn't mind that his daughter was tying herself to the white man—he saw benefit in that for his village. Besides, the two of them seemed to really love each other. They had reached across the divide of colour and culture to find a common ground in the uncertain times of slavery.

His brothers sat beside him almost forming a circle: Accompong sat to his right, Cuffy to his left, Jelani directly faced him and Quao, who still held resentment towards him for turning the people away when they needed help, had sat reluctantly beside Jelani and gave him a hostile appraisal. Nanny came to join them, she seemed relaxed, not as world weary as she normally did. Today she was forgetting her burdens. She proudly completed the circle. They were together again, the first time for eighteen years.

They sat in silence absorbing the significance of the occasion. The festivities flowed around them. There were so many things they wanted to say to each other—these children of the Asanthene, brought from Africa on a boat as slaves.

“Asha’s offspring will bring great changes to this country,” Nanny said quietly, “they will fight this battle of freedom better than we can, they will be infused with the pull of freedom from birth. The future will be turbulent but they will survive.”

“Do you see anything about me?” Jelani asked excitedly.

Nanny looked at him and quirked her brow, “in the future your name will be forgotten.”

“No,” Jelani looked stricken, “will I be called by that stupid English name that Cudjoe teases me with?”

Nanny shrugged, “what does he call you?”

Cudjoe grinned and smacked his leg, “whenever he acts like an English man I call him Johnny.”

“The name that the overseer gave me on the Simmonds plantation years ago.” Jelani looked pained.

Accompong cleared his throat, “I would like to know too what will happen to me.”

Nanny laughed, “Accompong, Accompong. You will be a great leader once you remove yourself from Cudjoe’s shadow.”

Cudjoe sniffed, his face contorting, “you insult me.”

Nanny looked at him slyly, “people will remember you forever as a freedom fighter, they will name a hill after you.”

He looked mollified, “how far in the future are you talking?”

Nanny shrugged, “no specific date, I just know.”

“That leaves Cuffy and me,” Quao said earnestly.

Cudjoe laughed, “this one is easy let me tell you. Nanny is not the only one with the gift of knowing.”

“Go ahead,” Quao said grinning, Cudjoe just had to compete with Nanny.

“Quao will sign that peace treaty that Nanny is refusing,” Cudjoe said deeply, “and Cuffy will father twenty sons.”

The group laughed, including Nanny.

“Do you remember when we came over on the ship?” Jelani asked after a long pause, he looked at Nanny.

Nanny grinned, “you were a baby, what do you remember?”

“I remember that cut on my back and your voice in the dark,” Jelani said seriously, “I asked, how can you be so sure that we will be free where we are going, and you said, no one can take your freedom unless we let them.”

“And no one will,” Nanny said smiling, “no one will.”

THE END

Did you enjoy reading this book?

Please take a few seconds to share you thoughts on it. You can do so by leaving a
review
on Amazon.

Author’s Notes

Soon after arriving in Jamaica, Nanny and her five brothers escaped from slavery. Her brothers were Cudjoe, the great Maroon leader, Accompong, Johnny, Cuffy and Quao. This Ashanti family soon became leaders of the Maroons and of many other free Africans.

The name Johhny is English in origin. Hence, I took the liberty of assigning an African name to the brother known as Johnny. He was given the name Jelani which means mighty. All the others retained their African names, according to the accounts of history, except this brother.

By 1720 Nanny had taken full control of the Blue Mountain Rebel Town. It was renamed Nanny Town. There Nanny, Quao and their people cleared over 600 acres of forest for cultivation. Their society was organized like the Ashanti society.

In 1739 Cudjoe signed a peace treaty with the British. This treaty gave the Maroons lands and rights as free men. But in return they promised the British to do three things: They promised not to war against the British. They were to help capture run-away slaves. Lastly, they were to help the Government put down revolts.

Article fourteen of the article of pacification; states that two white men shall live with the Maroons “in order to maintain a friendly correspondence with the inhabitants of this island.” Even though this treaty was to encourage a friendly relationship between the two parties, it also gave white planters first-hand knowledge of the situation in the Maroon camp. Most important of all, the treaty also required the Maroons to act as a sort of police force for the planters, returning future runaways to the plantations, and drafting them to fight against future rebellions.

Nanny refused a similar offer. Instead she agreed to enter into a truce with the British. Nanny did this half-heartedly. She agreed to it mainly because she saw that her people were tired of war and wanted peace. Instead, Nanny bargained for a land grant with the British. After the truce the Windward Maroons split into two groups. One went closer to Crawford Town with Quao as their chief. Nanny and her people were given a land grant of 500 acres at Cottawood. Cottawood was called “New Nanny Town. ”

OTHER BOOKS BY BRENDA BARRETT

Contemporary Romance

Private Sins (Three Rivers Series-Book 1)
-
Kelly was in deep trouble, her husband was a pastor and she his loyal first lady. Well she was…until she had an affair with Chris; the first elder of their church. And now she was pregnant with his child. Could she keep the secret from her husband and pretend that all was well? Or should she confess her private sin and let the chips fall where they may?

Loving Mr. Wright (Three Rivers Series- Book 2)
-
A man with a past. A woman who was tired of being single. Erica was tired of searching for the right man, she had all but resigned herself to a single life but then the mysterious Caleb Wright showed up and Erica saw one last opportunity to ditch her single life. He was perfect for her. But what was he hiding? Could his past be that bad that they could not get pass it?

Unholy Matrimony (Three Rivers Series- Book 3)
-
The problem: Phoebe was poor and unhappy with her lot. The solution: Marry a rich man and she would be happy. It should be simple, except that her rich suitor, Ezekiel Hoppings, was ugly and her poor suitor, Charles Black, was handsome. But the more she came to know both of them, the more Phoebe realized that some solutions were not as simple as they first appear.

The Preacher And The Prostitute
-
Prostitution and the clergy don't mix. Tell that to ex-prostitute Maribel who finds herself in love with the Pastor at her church. Can an ex-prostitute and a pastor have a future together?

New Beginnings
-
When self-styled ‘ghetto queen,’ Geneva, was contacted by lawyers who claimed that Stanley Walters, the deceased uptown financier, was her father she was told that his will stipulated that she had to live with her sister uptown to forge sisterly bonds. Leaving Froggie, her ‘ghetto don,’ behind she found herself battling with Pamela her stepmother and battling her emotions for Justin a suave up-towner.

Full Circle
-
After Diana graduated from school, she had a couple of things to do, returning to Jamaica to find her siblings was top priority. Additionally, she needed to take a well-earned vacation. What she didn’t foresee was that she would meet Robert Cassidy and that both their pasts would be so intertwined that disturbing questions would pop up about their parentage, just when they were getting close.

Historical Fiction/Romance

The Empty Hammock
-
Workaholic, Ana Mendez, was certain that her mother was getting senile, when she said she found a treasure chest in the back yard. After unsuccessfully trying to open the old treasure chest, Ana fell asleep in a hammock, and woke up in the year 1494 in Jamaica! It was the time of the Tainos, a time when life seemed simpler, but Ana knew that all of that was about to change.

Jamaican Comedy (Material contains Jamaican dialect)

Di Taxi Ride And Ot
her Stories
-
Di Taxi Ride and Other Stories is a collection of twelve witty and fast paced short stories. Each story tells of a unique slice of Jamaican life.