Coromantee, Coromantins, Coromanti or Kormantine (derived from the name of the Ghanaian slave fort Fort Kormantine in the Ghanaian town of Kormantse, Central Ghana) is an English-language term for enslaved people from the Akan ethnic group, taken from the Gold Coast region in modern-day Ghana.

The name Coromantee, Kromantyn or Kromanti, in both Jamaica and Suriname, is derived from the Fanti town of their imprisonment known as Kormantse.

Their fierce and rebellious nature became so notorious among European slave traders in the 18th century that an Act was proposed to ban the importation of Akan people from the Gold Coast despite their reputation as strong workers.

Long also describes the incident where an enslaver was overpowered by a group of Coromantees who, after killing him, cut off his head and turned his skull into a drinking bowl.

However, the "drinking of blood" is more than likely anti-African propaganda, though Coromantee and especially Asante war tactics were known to use fear in their opponents.

[5] On the night of 6 April 1712, a group of more than twenty black enslaved people, the majority of whom were believed to be Coromantee, set fire to a building on Maiden Lane near Broadway.

They intended to resume crop production under their own authority and use Africans of other tribes as slave labor.

The colonial militia continued to hunt down maroons and finally declared the rebellion at an end in late August 1734.

[8] In 1736, on the island of Antigua, an enslaved African known as Prince Klaas (whose real name was thought to be Court or Kwaku Takyi) planned an uprising in which whites would be massacred.

[10] In 1741, a supposed plot of arson in the Province of New York was allegedly conducted by three enslaved men, Cuffee, Prince, and Caesar.

However, they were ultimately betrayed by an enslaved man named Yankee, whom Long describes as wanting to defend his master's house and "assist the white men".

[12] In 1763, a slave rebellion in Berbice, in present-day Guyana, was led by a Coromantin man named Cuffy or Kofi and his deputy Akra or Akara.

Coromantee leaders Blackwell and Quamin (Kwame) ambushed and killed a group of colonial militiamen at a fort near Port Maria, Jamaica, as well as other whites in the area.

Edward Long, an anti-Coromantee writer, states: Such a bill, if passed into law would have struck at very root of evil.

No more Coromantins would have been brought to infest this country, but instead of their savage race, the island would have been supplied with Blacks of a more docile tractable disposition and better inclined to peace and agriculture.

He is considered a national hero in Guyana, and there are streets named after him in Georgetown and the village of Beterverwagting on the East Coast Demerara.

[23] On Monday, 18 August 1823, Quamina and Jack Gladstone, both enslaved on Success plantation – who had adopted the surname of their master by convention – led their peers to revolt against the harsh conditions and maltreatment.

[27] Following the arrival of news from Britain that measures aimed at improving the treatment of enslaved people in the colonies had been passed, Jack had heard a rumour that their masters had received instructions to set them free but were refusing to do so.

When he knew the rebellion was imminent, he urged restraint and made his fellow slaves promise a peaceful strike.

[35] Before becoming enslaved, Coromantins were usually part of highly organized and stratified Akan groups such as the Asante Empire and the Fante Confederacy.

Akan deities referred to as Abosom in the Twi and Fante dialects were documented, and enslaved Akans would praise Nyankopong (erroneously written by the British as Accompong); libations would be poured to Asase Yaa (erroneously written as "Assarci") and Bosom Epo the sea god.

This resulted in the Ahanta, Nzima and Asante warriors becoming captives of the Fante and being taken to Jamaica as prisoners of war, numbering some 20,000 men.

Evidence of this is seen in the names of several rebellion organizers such as Cuffy (Kofi), Cudjoe (Kojo), or Nanny (Nana) Bump.

Coromantees (enslaved and runaway Maroons) and their Akan, imported from Ghana (the Gold Coast), ultimately influenced most of the black Jamaican culture: language, architecture, and food.

After the British abolition of slavery in 1833, their influence and reputation began to wane as Coromantins were fully integrated into the larger British-influenced Jamaican society.

Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a relatively short work of prose fiction by Aphra Behn (1640–1689),[41] published in 1688, concerning the love of its hero, an enslaved African in Surinam in the 1660s, and the author's own experiences in the new South American colony.

After unwillingly spending time in the king's harem (the Otan), Imoinda and Oroonoko plan a tryst with the help of the sympathetic Onahal and Aboan.

Later, after winning another tribal war, Oroonoko is betrayed and captured by an English captain who plans to enslave him and his men.

The two lovers are reunited there, under the new Christian names of Caesar and Clemene, even though Imoinda's beauty has attracted the unwanted desires of other enslaved people and the Cornish gentleman, Trefry.

The enslaved people are hunted down by the military forces and compelled to surrender on Deputy Governor Byam's promise of amnesty.