Editing Underground Railroad (section)

====Merikens====

The [[Merikin]]s were formerly enslaved Black Americans that escaped slavery and joined the British military's all-Black unit of [[corps of Colonial Marines|Colonial Marines]] during the War of 1812. When the war ended, they were taken to numerous British colonies to live as free people. About 700 Colonial Marines were taken to [[Trinidad]] in the Caribbean. Although slavery was legal in Trinidad, they were guaranteed protection under commander Robert Mitchell. The formerly Black Americans called themselves Merikens, "an abbreviated word for 'Americans'" and started new lives in Trinidad in six Company Villages in the southern part of the island.<ref>{{cite web |title=Celebrating the Merikins |url=https://natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/pdfs/Celebrating-the-Merikins.pdf |website=National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref> The Trinidadian government provided the Merikens with food, rations, clothing, and tools needed to build their homes, and they grew their own food of corn, pumpkin, plantain, and rice.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Merikins |url=https://www.nps.gov/stsp/learn/historyculture/merikins.htm |website=Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fergus |first1=Claudius |title=Revolutionary Emancipation Slavery and Abolitionism in the British West Indies |date=2013 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=9780807149898 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kUrRM-RVRJ4C&dq=merikins+slavery&pg=PA115}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Guide to the Merikin Collection |url=https://www.natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/images/NATT%20Merikin%20Collection%20GuideREV2021.pdf |website=National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>