Free black people in Jamaica

Free black people in Jamaica fell into two categories. Some secured their freedom officially, and lived within the slave communities of the Colony of Jamaica. Others ran away from slavery, and formed independent communities in the forested mountains of the interior. This latter group included the Jamaican Maroons, and subsequent fugitives from the sugar and coffee plantations of coastal Jamaica.^{[citation needed]}

In 1838, all black people in Jamaica were emancipated, but in post-slavery Jamaica they continued to be excluded from the reins of power. A number of free black Jamaicans campaigned for political, social, educational and economic rights, until they succeeded in securing independence for the island in 1962.^{[citation needed]}