When the English invaded Jamaica in 1655, most Spanish colonists fled. Many of their slaves escaped and, together with free blacks and mulattoes, former slaves, and some native Taíno,Sivapragasam, Michael (2018), After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842 , PhD Dissertation, African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica library (Southampton: Southampton University), pp. 23–24.Agorsah, E. Kofi (1994), "Archaeology of Maroon Settlements in Jamaica", Maroon Heritage: Archaeological, Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives, ed. E. Kofi Agorsah (Kingston: University of the West Indies Canoe Press), pp. 180–81. coalesced into a number of ethnically diverse groups in the Jamaican interior.
