Juan de Bolas

Juan de Bolas (b. 1604?, d. 1664) (his African name was Lubolo) was a 17th-century warrior and political thinker

He was one of the first leaders of the Jamaican Maroons.

He helped his people transition from Spanish to English rule after the English captured Jamaica in 1655.

Juan de Bolas and his Maroon community was based primarily around the town of Lluidas Vale. The Spanish attempted to retake the Colony of Jamaica, and to this end Don Christobal de Ysasi relied on his alliance with the Spanish Maroons to secure this victory.

However, Governor Edward D'Oyley succeeded in persuading one of the leaders of the Spanish Maroons, Juan de Bolas, to switch sides and join the English along with his Maroon warriors. In 1660, when Ysasi realised that de Bolas had joined the English, he admitted that the Spanish no longer had a chance of recapturing the island, since de Bolas and his men knew the mountainous interior better than the Spanish and the English. Ysasi gave up on his dreams, and fled to Cuba.

There was at least one other group of Spanish Maroons who did not agree to terms with the English authorities, led by a Maroon named Juan de Serras. The English called this group the Karmahaly Maroons, because they came from Los Vermejales. The English colonial authorities then used de Bolas and his "Black Militia" to hunt de Serras and his Maroons.

De Bolas was killed in an ambush by an unaligned palenque in 1664.

Following the death of de Bolas, his group of Black Militia Maroons faded from history, while de Serras and his community continued to trouble the English authorities for years to come