Nèg Mawon (The Maroons)
The Nèg Mawon (Maroons) were the core of St. Lucia’s revolutionary freedom fighters in the 1790s. They were enslaved Africans and their descendants who escaped the brutal plantation system, forming hidden communities in the island’s dense, mountainous rainforests. From these enclaves, they launched a fierce guerrilla war against the British Army, determined to secure their freedom and prevent re-enslavement.
During the 1790s, the term, Nèg Mawon, became synonymous with the island’s freedom fighters. Following the French Revolution’s abolition of slavery in all French colonies, the British invaded St. Lucia to reinstate the brutal system. In response, hundreds of formerly enslaved men and women fled to the impenetrable rainforests and mountainous terrain, forming a guerrilla army .
The British, unable to defeat these freedom fighters in conventional battle, labeled them “Brigands” (bandits). The term “Neg Mawon” was used to brand them as criminals, savages, and runaways.
The Neg Mawon of St. Lucia were not simply hiding; they were waging war. They used their intimate knowledge of the island’s dense forests and ridges to launch surprise attacks on British forces. Their call to arms was “Liberté ou la mort” (Liberty or Death), signaled by the blowing of a conch shell across the mountains.
The French Revolution
The revolution was sparked by the ideals of the French Revolution and the 1794 abolition of slavery in French territories. The French abolition of slavery in 1794 was not a straightforward moral decision. It was the product of a unique and volatile combination of slave rebellion, military emergency, and revolutionary ideology—a reality that helps explain why it was so short-lived.
The Decree – 4 February 1794
The National Convention in Paris voted to abolish slavery in all French colonies on 16 Pluviôse, Year II (4 February 1794). The text was brief: it declared that “slavery of the Negroes in all the colonies is abolished” and that all men, regardless of color, living in the colonies were French citizens with full constitutional rights.
However, the decree contained a critical flaw. It did not specify how it would be implemented. The task of working out the practical measures was handed to the Committee of Public Safety, which never produced an application decree. This ambiguity meant that enforcement depended entirely on local circumstances.
The primary driver of the 1794 decree was the slave uprising in Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti) that began in August 1791.
By 1793, the situation was dire. Civil Commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel, sent to restore order, faced a war on multiple fronts: rebelling slaves, British invaders, and Spanish forces. In a desperate bid to rally the Black population to the Republic, Sonthonax unilaterally proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the northern province on 29 August 1793, with Polverel extending it to the rest of the colony in September.
When news reached Paris, the Convention essentially ratified Sonthonax’s fait accompli. The decree of 4 February 1794 was less an act of pure idealism than an official endorsement of a decision made under extreme pressure in the colonies.
The Strategic Motivation: Countering the British
The abolition was also a weapon of war. By 1793, France was at war with Britain and Spain. Britain was actively invading French Caribbean colonies, and the French needed to secure the loyalty of the Black population—especially the armed rebels—to repel them.
Georges Danton’s speech at the Convention on 4 February 1794 made this explicit. He argued that by declaring universal liberty, France would rally the freed slaves to fight against the British: “Let us launch liberty into the colonies; it is today that the Englishman is dead”. The decree was, in part, a strategic gamble to transform potential enemies into Republican soldiers.
The decree was also shaped by the universalist ideals of the French Revolution. The Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) had proclaimed all men free and equal, creating a glaring contradiction with colonial slavery.
The Society of the Friends of the Blacks (Société des Amis des Noirs), founded in 1788, had campaigned for abolition, though initially favoring a gradual end to the slave trade rather than immediate emancipation. The revolutionaries of 1794, facing the reality of slave revolt and foreign invasion, finally acted on the principle that “all men, without distinction of color” were citizens.
Why It Did Not Apply to St. Lucia
St. Lucia was not under French control in February 1794. The island had been captured by the British in April 1794, just two months after the abolition decree was passed.
The decree therefore never came into effect in St. Lucia through French authority. When the Neg Mawon of St. Lucia rose in 1795, they were fighting against the British, who had already reinstated slavery on the island. Their struggle was not a response to a French abolition that had been enacted locally—it was a fight to **achieve and defend a freedom that the French Republic had proclaimed in principle but could not enforce in practice on St. Lucia.
The 1794 abolition was reversed by Napoleon Bonaparte, who reintroduced slavery in Guadeloupe on 16 July 1802. Saint-Domingue resisted and became independent Haiti in 1804. The second, definitive French abolition did not come until 1848
The “Brigand War” (1795–1797)
After the French Revolution declared an end to slavery in 1794, the British quickly retook St. Lucia and reinstated the brutal system. In response, many emancipated Africans fled to the island’s rugged interior, forming a fighting force known as the “Brigands” to the British. They called themselves “l’Armée Française dans les Bois” (The French Army of the Forest).
Guerrilla Tactics: These Neg Mawon, joined by French revolutionaries, used the mountainous terrain to harass British forces. They were highly effective, even defeating the British in June 1795 and temporarily banning slavery on the island .
The Fight for Freedom
The Maroons formed an army they called “l’Armée Française dans les Bois” (The French Army in the Woods), which also included French republican soldiers and deserters. They used their intimate knowledge of the rugged terrain to ambush British forces, turning the island’s geography into a powerful weapon.
They fought so fiercely that they defeated the British Army in June 1795, temporarily securing their freedom. It took the British until late 1797, using scorched-earth tactics to destroy the rebels’ food supplies, to finally crush the resistance. Many survivors were captured and shipped to prison camps in Britain, with some perishing in the wreck of the ship London off the Devonshire coast.
Flore Bois Gaillard
The most legendary figure to emerge was Flore Bois Gaillard, a formerly enslaved woman who became a central leader. After escaping a plantation, she joined the Maroons and led them to several key victories. During the Battle of Rabot in 1795, her forces overran British troops and destroyed plantations. She is remembered as a national hero, with Piton Flore, a mountain in St. Lucia, named in her honor.
Their resistance was so effective that by mid-1795, the Maroons had effectively liberated the island. However, the British returned with overwhelming force and reconquered St. Lucia in 1797.
The End of the Revolt
The British eventually crushed the resistance by systematically destroying the rebels’ “provision grounds” (their food supply), leading to famine and a conditional surrender.
The surrender terms were harsh: to avoid being returned to slavery, roughly 2,000 surviving Maroons were formed into a British regiment and shipped to West Africa, effectively exiled from their homeland. Their legacy endures as a powerful symbol of the fight against oppression.
A Tragic Connection to Britain
A haunting piece of this history lies in North Devon, England. In 1796, a ship named the London wrecked at Raparee Cove while transporting 146 captured St. Lucian Neg Mawon to be sold. The ship was carrying these freedom fighters who had been recaptured after the British regained control. Their bones still lie off the English coast, and there have been ongoing efforts by St. Lucians to reclaim and honor them
The Ship and Its “Cargo”
The London was a transport ship that wrecked on 9 or 10 October 1796 in a violent storm. It was part of a convoy carrying prisoners of war from the Caribbean, specifically from St. Lucia and other islands, to prison depots in Britain .
The exact identity of the prisoners is the crux of the ongoing dispute:
- The Official Record: Military documents list the dead as “31 black soldiers (prisoners)” alongside British soldiers and crew . They were captured French soldiers—many of them formerly enslaved men who had fought for the French Republic against the British .
- The Local Legend: The oral history and early newspaper reports described the victims as “blacks (French prisoners)” or slaves, creating a persistent belief that they were enslaved Africans being transported for sale .
The Bones and the “Quiet Struggle”
In 1997, a landslide exposed human remains at the cove. For nearly three decades, these bones have been at the center of a bitter, unresolved struggle .
- The Mystery: It is widely agreed the bones belong to victims of the London, but their exact ancestry—French soldiers, free St. Lucian freedom fighters, or enslaved Africans—remains scientifically disputed. DNA analysis was reportedly inconclusive or results were never fully published .
- The Custody Battle: St. Lucia and African groups have called for the repatriation of the remains, viewing them as heroes or ancestors who died far from home. Currently, the bones are locked in a safe at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon, awaiting a resolution
The “Coombe Sharks”
The wreck also spawned a darker local legend. It was rumored that the ship was deliberately lured onto the rocks by locals known as the “Coombe Sharks” to plunder its rumored cargo of gold doubloons and dollars. While officially attributed to a storm, the presence of coins on the beach for years fueled this smuggling myth.
This story represents a tragic collision of the Caribbean revolution and British maritime history, with the fate of those lost still literally and figuratively unresolved.
