The maroon leader known as Marcus King of the Woods or Marcus of the Woods is unique from both a national and regional perspective for the following reasons.

Unlike other maroon leaders, whose resistance activities occurred in the Pre-Emancipation period (before 1834), Marcus’ activities spanned both the Pre and Post-Emancipation periods.  In fact his activities intensified after Emancipation. This suggests that Marcus was fully cognizant of the fact that the struggle for liberation did not end with the passage of the Emancipation Act but was an ongoing one to dismantle the power structures of plantation society that favoured a European elite exploiting the labour of a disenfranchised and largely landless African majority.

Marcus played an important leadership role in the protests by the black population against the Apprenticeship System, a ploy to extract eight more years of enslaved labour from Africans after the granting of their “freedom” in the Emancipation Act of 1834.  The withdrawal of estate workers en masse from the estates in 1834 was the first island-wide mass protest action Post-Emancipation on St. Kitts, predating the Buckley’s Revolt by a century.  Marcus, who had been a fugitive defying the plantocracy and the military since before Emancipation, was obviously a powerful inspirational figure to the masses.  For the same reason he was also a clearly recognized threat by the authorities.

Unlike other maroon leaders in the region, Marcus’ campaign of resistance did not end with him negotiating a treaty with the authorities, being captured, or being killed.  He disappeared mysteriously into the annals of history, further elevating his stature as a legendary figure to the people he led and generations of their descendants.

St. Kitts and Nevis remains the only Caribbean country to NOT have a maroon leader or leader of an uprising against oppression included in its pantheon of National Heroes.