The scene shows a group of about thirty Maroons hiding among trees as a troop of British soldiers approaches on a road. The maroons carry rifles and one blows a horn. This illustration of an apparent ambush against a British military detachment by a group of Maroons seems to be a depiction of an incident in July 1795, which ignited the Second Maroon War. Or, it may be intended to depict one of many ambushes, the Maroon's most common military tactic, during this approximately five-month war. The dedication reads "To the Hon[ora]ble Gen[eral] Walpole, this plate is with permission respectfully dedicated by his obliged and obedient servant, Rob[ert] Cribb. George Walpole was the commanding field officer of the British military forces. See Clinton V. Black, The Story of Jamaica (London, 1965), pp. 124-127. For a discussion of this engraving, see also T. Barringer, G. Forrester, B. Martinez-Ruiz, et al., Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and his Worlds (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art in association with Yale University Press, 2007), p. 289.

J. Bourgoin and J. Merigot, The Maroons in Ambush on the Dromilly Estate in the Parish of Trelawney, Jamaica" (London: J. Cribb, 1801). A very large (50.5 x 70cm), separately published, colored engraving; copy in British Library.

J. Bourgoin and J. Merigot

English

Image is in the public domain. Metadata is available under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

BRLIB-2

Caribbean--Jamaica

"The Maroons in Ambush on the Dromilly Estate in the Parish of Trelawney, Jamaica", Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, accessed June 6, 2023, http://slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/2994