In 1875, a group of more than five hundred men, women and children arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were the Maroons. Deported from Jamaica, they were forced to leave the land where they had fought for freedom from English slavery for a hundred and fifty years.

After five long, cold years in Halifax, these refugees won their petition to be transferred to Sierra Leone in West Africa.

In West Africa the Maroons were near the land of their ancestors, but far from Jamaica which had long been their home. They settled there among other freed slaves, passing on stories of their Jamaican homeland and of the leaders of their long struggle in that country.

Names like Cudjoe and Nanny were invoked with pride and reverence.