She led a community of formerly-enslaved escapees, the majority of them West African in descent, called the Windward Maroons, along with their children and families.

[3] The treaty stopped the hostilities, provided state-sanctioned freedom for the Maroons, and granted 500 acres (202 ha) of land to Nanny and her followers.

Modern members of Moore Town celebrate 20 April 1740 as a holiday, known informally in places today as "4/20" or "four-twenty".

The notion that there are several versions of her early story stems from the fact that Maroons, like most Africans, deify their ancestors and use them as characters in folk tales.

In one Maroon story, Nanny came to Jamaica as a slave but then escaped, perhaps even jumping off of the ship while it was offshore, while her sister Sekesu was enslaved.

Oral tradition states that Ro eventually became anglicized as Rowe, though many Maroons of the late 18th century changed their African names for European ones, as they converted to Christianity.

However, at least half of the enslaved African people in Jamaica during the early English colonisation of the island were also Asante in origin, as shown in maternal genetics, linguistics and cultural evidence.

People who escaped from slavery joined these Maroon communities in the mountains of eastern Jamaica, or the Cockpit Country in the west of the island.

They state that Queen Nanny's Maroons date back to the Tainos fleeing to the Blue Mountains when the Spaniards first arrived in Jamaica.

[15] The Windward Maroons fought the British on the east side of the island from their villages in the Blue Mountains of Portland.

It was later given the name Nanny Town, and it had a strategic location overlooking Stony River via a 900-foot (270 m) ridge, making a surprise attack by the British very difficult.

While the British captured Nanny Town on more than one occasion, they were unable to hold on to it, in the wake of numerous guerrilla attacks from the Maroons.

[17] In 1734, a Captain Stoddart attacked the remnants of Nanny Town, "situated on one of the highest mountains in the island", via "the only path" available: "He found it steep, rocky, and difficult, and not wide enough to admit the passage of two persons abreast.

"[18] In addition to the use of the ravine, resembling what Jamaicans call a "cockpit", the Maroons also used decoys to trick the British into ambushes.

According to planter Bryan Edwards, who wrote his narrative half a century later, Captain Stoddart "found the huts in which the negroes were asleep", and "fired upon them so briskly, that many were slain in their habitations".

[18] However, recent evidence shows that the number of Windward Maroons killed by Stoddart in his attack on Nanny Town was in single digits.

The soldiers were so proficient at disguising their location that the British would circulate tales of trees in the forest becoming alive and cutting one's head off.

Representatives of the British governor in Jamaica signed a treaty with the Windward Maroons in 1740, between the colonial authorities and Quao, who later became one of the leaders of Crawford's Town.

[3] This treaty between the colonial authorities and Quao's Maroons made no mention of how much land would be allocated to Crawford's Town.

[23] The New Nanny Town Maroons, like those of Cudjoe and Quao, agreed not to harbour new runaway slaves, but to help catch them for bounties.

[15] Obeah is an African-derived religion that is still practised in Suriname, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, Belize and other Caribbean countries.

In some Caribbean nations, aspects of Obeah have survived through synthesis with Christian symbolism and practice introduced by European colonials and slave owners.

According to Maroon oral history, Nanny's success in defending her people against the colonial forces was often attributed to her mysterious supernatural powers.

[1] Another Maroon legend claims that if any straight haired, white man, goes to the original Nanny Town, he is immediately struck dead.

[3] In the Journal of the Assembly of Jamaica, 29–30 March 1733, is a citation for "resolution, bravery and fidelity" awarded to "loyal slaves ... under the command of Captain Sambo", namely William Cuffee, who was rewarded for having fought the Maroons in the First Maroon War and who is called "a very good party Negro, having killed Nanny, the rebels old obeah woman".