Old Nanny Town was a village in the Blue Mountains of Portland Parish, north-eastern Jamaica, used as a stronghold of Jamaican Maroons (escaped slaves). They were led in the early 18th century by an Ashanti escaped slave known as Granny Nanny, or Queen Nanny. The town held out against repeated attacks from the colonial militia before being abandoned in 1734. Origins One story is that Granny Nanny was born in what is now Ghana, West Africa, as a member of the Ashanti nation, part of the Akan people. Allegedly, she was enslaved, along with her five "brothers-in-arms", and brought to eastern Jamaica. She and her five "brothers", Cudjoe, Accompong, Johnny, Cuffy and Quao, quickly decided to flee the oppressive conditions of the sugar cane plantations to join the autonomous African communities of Maroons which had developed in the mountains. These communities of Free black people in Jamaica originated from people formerly enslaved by the Spanish, who had refused to submit to British control. The Maroons of Nanny Town claim descent from escaped African slaves and Taino men and women. The Maroon communities grew as many more slaves escaped the plantations and joined them. Angered by continued raiding of plantations and armed confrontations, the colonial government mounted the First Maroon War of the 1730s in an effort to defeat and capture the runaway slaves. One story is that Nanny and her "brothers" split up in order to continue the resistance to the plantation slave economy across Jamaica. Cudjoe went to Clarendon, where he was soon joined by about a hundred Maroons from Cottawood; while Accompong went to St. Elizabeth, where a Maroon community was later named for him. Nanny and Quao made their way to Portland and the Blue Mountains. A more likely origin for the Leeward Maroons occurred in 1690, when there was a Coromantee rebellion on Sutton's estate in western Jamaica, and most of these slaves ran away to form the Leeward Maroons. Cudjoe is probably the son of one of the leaders of this revolt. While Cudjoe emerged as the leader of the Leeward Maroons of the west, Nanny came to prominence as one of the main leaders of the Windward Maroons of the east. First Maroon War By 1720, Nanny and Quao had organized and were leading the settlement of Windward Maroons; it was known as Nanny Town. Nanny Town was organized similarly to a typical Ashanti