ABSTRACT
In March 1736, as the First Maroon War raged in Jamaica, a proposal intending to bring about the defeat of “those rebellious negroes” was put forward to the House of Assembly. Bloody battles with the Maroons had plagued the colonists, and every attempt to resolve the conflict had so far failed. The colonial government knew that it would be unable to establish the type of colony that it desired while still at war with the Maroons. Moreover, the vast expense of such warfare was crippling the Jamaican economy. With the signing of the peace treaties, a great deal changed, and yet much remained on the same path since the 1730s. Tracts of land were opened up to cultivation, but it was for cultivation that would consolidate the trade in Africans and their use as slave labour, rather than as antithesis to slavery. As the Creek confederacy grew, so too did the European presence in what is now south-eastern United States.
