Cudjoe is believed (according to Maroon oral tradition) to have been the son of Quateng, a chief or omanhene in Asanteman(the land of the Asante-Akan people) or Coromantee(out dated term for "Akan") people from what is present-day Ghana.
Quateng was taken captive and sold into slavery in Spanish Jamaica in the 1640s but he initiated a revolt and led his tribesmen into the mountainous interior of the island, establishing the first community of Maroons.
The two main Maroon groups in the 18th century were the Leeward and the Windward tribes, the former led by Cudjoe in Trelawny Town and the latter led by Queen Nanny (and later by Quao).
Captain Cudjoe had endless energy and was greatly motivated to stay a free man. He was strong, courageous, and relentless. Cudjoe was also a very skillful, tactical field commander and a remarkable leader.
Not only did Cudjoe successfully defend his communities, but also, similar to what Harriet Tubman would do in the nineteenth century, he freed many captives by raiding Britain’s plantations. Sometimes his raids were non-confrontational, but most times they were vicious, bloody encounters.
Before he attacked a plantation, Cudjoe would send spies among the captives to gather information from them at the markets and on the plantations.[citation needed] Once his spies collected sufficient evidence of the slave-owners’ plans, they sent them to Cudjoe.
Then he determined the time and place of his attacks. During his strikes, Cudjoe and his men burned down mansions, destroyed cane fields and killed many whites along with faithful slaves who refused to help him.
Cudjoe’s attacks were so devastating that many of the early English settlers abandoned their plantations and returned to England. In an attempt to capture Cudjoe and the Maroons, British leaders built forts near Maroon communities. In addition, they formed an army of more than 1,050 soldiers to fight Cudjoe’s weapon-deficient military.
However, even with Miskito tracking specialists and a formidable army, the British were outmaneuvered by Cudjoe. As the British soldiers marched into the valley, Cudjoe’s four-sectioned forces watched them from behind the natural boundaries. When Cudjoe’s men attacked the soldiers from all sides, the crossfire surprised and debilitated them. The British soldiers fled the area and left behind guns and supplies.
Marcus Cassius Scaeva is probably the toughest Roman ever. He was a decorated centurion In Caesar’s army, who in his spare time, according to legend, put his life at risk training with professional gladiators. During the Battle of Dyrrhachium, fought between Julius Caesar and the army led by Gnaeus Pompey, with the backing of the majority of the Roman Senate, Scaeva was fighting in the front ranks as usual when he was shot in the eye. The injury was severe, and would leave him permanently blind. However Scaeva took it well. He just roared, removed the arrow, and kept on fighting and killing even more intensely. During the same battle, he was struck by two more arrows (sources differ, but it is believed that one pierced his throat and the other his knee), while hundreds of arrows bristled from his shield. Scaeva managed even under these conditions to hold the line and keep fighting.
Xiahou Dun was not only a badass, but also a psycho of the highest degree. This military general, who offered his services to warlord Cao Cao in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, became a legend when, during a battle in the late 190s, he was hit by a stray arrow and lost his left eye. In front of his amazed soldiers and his enemies alike, he pulled out the arrow and swallowed his own eyeball. No one had ever seen anything like this ever before, and, fairly enough, Dun was thereafter considered to be the ultimate badass of China. Following this incident, enemy armies were afflicted with fear of “Blind Xiahou, The One-Eyed Warrior.” His legend is retold in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong.
Varvakis, (known in Russia as Ivan Andreevich Varvatsi), even though one of the richest men who ever lived and one of the most badass pirates ever, is largely unknown outside of his nation of birth. Born on a tiny Greek island to an impoverished family, Varvakis determined early in life to be destined for bigger and better things. As a wild young man with a free spirit, he couldn’t live in the Ottoman-occupied Greece of his day, and decided to become a sailor. By the age of seventeen, he had already terrorized Ottoman commercial sea-routes with his small ship, the St. Andrew. He spent every penny he made as a pirate to equip the ship and arm it with cannons and it was at the Battle of Chesma that he made history. He used a technique that was not seen again for almost two centuries, when it was used by the Japanese Air Forces. After packing his ship with combustibles and explosives such as dynamite and armed cannons, he set it on fire and steered it into the large Turkish fleet. The destruction he caused was so huge that he became a legend throughout Europe for his bravery and novel technique. He later immigrated to Russia, and under the wing of Catherine the Great, he became one of the richest men in Europe and the one who introduced caviar to the Western World.
Count Roland is the unarguable response to all the nonsense about French men not being courageous or capable fighters. The man was literally unstoppable. He was the best and first among the Twelve Peers of Charlemagne. As we already know, Charlemagne was one of the greatest generals of all time, and he picked the very best to surround him. That alone made Roland a badass, but it pales in comparison to his deeds in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. His heroism and incredible warrior skills during the fighting in the Pyrenees in August of 778 made Roland an ultimate legend. Like a second King Leonidas, Roland fought against thousands, having by his side at one point only 300 of his men. Even though Roland and every single one of his Frankish warriors were finally killed, defeated by the Basques, his last stand was so incredibly heroic that it was celebrated in the 11th century by one of the earliest surviving works of French literature, the epic poem The Song of Roland.