Quao was the Windward Maroon leader most closely associated with the 1739 treaty settlement in Jamaica.
Campbell treats him as probably creole, with an Akan name suggesting a Thursday-born male child. He appears most clearly as the signatory of the Windward treaty and as the figure through whom the British formalized peace after the Windward wars. His treaty differed in tone and substance from Cudjoe's Leeward settlement, suggesting a distinct bargaining position, and the Windward organization Quao represented was more federated and less centralized than the Leeward structure. He succeeded Nanny as the primary Windward treaty figure, and his note keeps the Jamaica maroon history from collapsing into a Cudjoe-only narrative.
In the ScholarshipHow historians have read this figure.
How historians and scholars have interpreted this figure across different analytical traditions.
Campbell's The Maroons of Jamaica situates Quao as the principal leader of the Windward Maroons after Nanny's period — the figure who negotiated and signed the 1739 treaty with the British colonial government that ended the First Maroon War. Campbell documents Quao's military leadership and his role in the treaty negotiations, situating him within the complex politics of the Windward Maroon community where different factions had different views on accommodation with British colonial authority. His treaty, like Cudjoe's Leeward Maroon treaty, has been the subject of historical debate about the terms under which maroon communities purchased their autonomy — including provisions for returning escaped slaves that have divided assessments of the treaty's legacy.
Quao's 1739 treaty with the British ended the First Maroon War — like Cudjoe's Leeward treaty, it secured maroon autonomy at the cost of provisions for returning escaped slaves that have divided assessments of its legacy.
Gonzalez's Maroon Nation situates Quao within the comparative framework of maroon diplomacy across the Atlantic world — reading his treaty negotiations as one instance of the structural dilemma that all maroon leaders faced in dealing with colonial powers that would never fully accept maroon autonomy. Gonzalez's comparative methodology contextualizes the controversial slave-return clauses of the Windward Maroon treaty within the broader pattern of maroon diplomatic negotiations, suggesting that Quao was making the best available accommodation within structural constraints that no maroon leader could fully escape. Her framework resists the simple condemnation of treaty maroons while acknowledging the real costs that accommodation imposed on those outside the treaty's protection.
Quao's treaty represents the structural dilemma all maroon leaders faced — Gonzalez's comparative framework contextualizes the controversial slave-return clauses as accommodation within constraints no maroon leader could fully escape, resisting simple condemnation.
TimelineAcross the historical record.
- 1739
Windward Maroon Treaty Signatory
Represented the Windward Maroons in negotiations with the British; signed the 1739 Windward treaty that formalized the end of the Windward Maroon wars.
RelationshipsPeople connected to this life.
- Related toAntoine Chanlatte
Antoine Chanlatte
- Related toLambert
- Related toBauvais
- Related toNanny
- Related toCudjoe