When the Maroons of Dominica challenged the British Empire 200 years ago, they were captured and put on trial. Here, for the first time, you can read their evidence and, unusually, hear their voices — in resistance and defeat.

Your Time Is Done Now tells the story of Dominica’s Maroons through the transcripts of trials held in 1813 and 1814 at the end of the Second Maroon War. Using the evidence to explain how the Maroons waged war against slave society, the book reveals fascinating details about how they survived in the forest and of their relationships with their allies, the enslaved on the plantations. It also, again through the historical record, examines the key role of the British governor, George Ainslie, who succeeded in suppressing the Maroons, and how the Colonial Office in London reacted to his punitive conduct.

By Polly Pattullo