Cockpit Country
region, Jamaica
Cockpit Country, an approximately 500-square-mile (1,300-square-kilometre) region in the interior of Jamaica, southeast of Montego Bay. It is part of the great White Limestone plateau and has typical karst topography, with innumerable conical and hemispherical hills covered with dense scrubby trees, rising hundreds of feet above depressions and sinkholes with sharp, precipitous sides—the cockpits. This difficult and inhospitable terrain, also known as "The Land of Look Behind," provided refuge for cimarrones (Spanish: "runaway slaves"), called Maroons by the English, who bolted when the English conquered Jamaica in 1665 and waged relentless guerrilla warfare. The descendants of these unsubdued slaves, who intermarried with freed slaves and Arawak Indians in the area, today number about 5,000 and still inhabit the Cockpit Country, where they maintain a large measure of freedom from government interference. Social organization is based on the whole community, not the family, and all land belongs to the community. They pay no taxes, and the central government may interfere only in the rare case of a capital crime. Their main settlement is Accompong, which can be visited.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Maren Goldberg, Assistant Editor.
Jamaica: Relief
…the Dry Harbour Mountains, and Cockpit Country, a region covering 500 square miles (1,300 square km) in western Jamaica. The Don Figuerero, Santa Cruz, and May Day mountains are major landforms in the southwest. Coastal plains largely encircle the island, and the largest alluvial plains are located in the south.…
Jamaica, island country of the West Indies. It is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea, after Cuba and Hispaniola. Jamaica is about 146 miles (235 km) long and varies from 22 to 51 miles (35 to 82 km) wide. It is situated some 100 miles (160 km) west of Haiti, 90 miles (150 km) south of…
More About Cockpit Country
feature of Jamaica
In Jamaica: Relief
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