In 1694, the 17th Council of Toledo made all Spanish Jews slaves. They were shipped to the Island of Jamaica and Hispaniola.
Others went to Sao Tome, Cabo Verde, and Mauritius. Many of them escaped the Spanish jurisdiction and began independent communes in the hinterlands or the mountains. The Spanish word "Marroons” is a play on their Spanish ethnic designation the “Marranos” (rather than “cimarron” root the conventionally accepted root). Marranos (means Moorish Jews in Spanish) were the black Jews of Spain who ruled that country for 700 years with the black Muslims of Morocco, Senegal and Nigeria