Maroons in North America
Marronage: Ongoing Escape
Enslaved individuals, including men, women, and children, who sought escape did not always aim for northern states or free countries for their freedom. Instead, they looked for refuge within the South itself, despite the entrenched power of slavery in those regions. They sought shelter in the swamps of Virginia or the bayous of Louisiana, taking risky shelter near their slave owners in nearby woods or even building hidden homes underground. Some disguised themselves as free workers in cities, earning wages to survive. Through these clandestine actions and the spaces of freedom they created, these runaways demonstrated how fluid the boundaries between slavery and freedom truly were. They made strategic use of the people and landscape around them, whether by isolating themselves completely or blending in with their surroundings, pushing the limits of their freedom as far as possible.
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The concept of maroons and marronage refers to individuals and groups engaged in an ongoing process of escape, and this unit aims to shed light on how this practice manifested in the United States. Early research on marronage tended to focus on the large, isolated communities in the Caribbean and South America, such as the Palmares in Brazil, the Maroons of Jamaica, and the Saramacca Maroons in Suriname. These well-documented communities set the criteria for what was considered a maroon community: they were typically largely populated, isolated, and violently resistant to white authority. As a result, many scholars initially denied the existence of marronage in North America, referring to small North American communities simply as runaways or outlaws in early research.
This maroon settlement in Jamaica totaled to almost 500 people and was eventually recognized as a free community by colonial officials in the mid-1700s.
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"Trelawney Town, the Chief residence of the Maroons," [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library Digital Collections]
Recent studies on escape and resistance have shed light on the existence of marronage in North America, challenging the previous notion of its absence. In fact, marronage was more widespread than previously thought, although the practice took on a distinct form in the United States. Historians who have examined marronage in the United States place it within the larger context of resistance in North America, proposing a different framework to understand the maroon experience. Pioneers in this field, such as Sylviane Diouf, have described marronage in North America as taking place on a "maroon landscape," where escapees navigated between the boundaries of slavery and freedom. They utilized fluid “space[s] of interdependence, networks, and exchange,” highlighting the complex and dynamic nature of the maroon experience in the United States.
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The maroon landscape encompasses a diverse range of locations where maroons sought refuge, from the outskirts of plantations and cities to the remote woods, mountains, and swamps. Within bustling Southern cities, maroons made use of their connections with other slaves, free Blacks, whites, employers, authorities, and others to resist their enslavement in various ways. In the borderlands, including surrounding woods, swamps, and bayous, maroons could escape and interact with other enslaved individuals from neighboring plantations. Some maroons ingeniously hid in carved-out trees or dug-out holes for years without being detected, often receiving food, shelter, and intelligence from allies.
Other maroons established communities in the hinterlands, far removed from plantation borders. These communities were scattered throughout the southern landscape, such as the Belleisle and Bear Creek maroons who resided along the rivers of Georgia and South Carolina, or the Great Dismal Swamp maroons who found refuge deep within the swamps of Virginia and North Carolina. In these hinterland communities, maroons lived in seclusion for generations, engaging in farming, raising animals, trading, and constructing permanent shelters to sustain themselves.
Maroons created communities in the swamps and wetlands to hide from slave owners. “Negroes hiding in the swamps of Louisiana,” Harper’s Weekly, May 10, 1873. [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library Digital Collections]
Urban spaces, in particular, offered numerous opportunities for maroons to hide in plain sight, especially if they possessed the skills to survive on their own. During the early to mid-1800s, as cities rapidly expanded and construction projects fueled the establishment of urban infrastructure, a massive workforce was needed to keep up with the pace. Employers, often complicit with maroon activity, would hire maroons illegally without asking questions. For example, an anonymous fugitive in his account, "Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave," recalled his experiences of the ease of finding work in Charleston's shipyards:
“The next day I went down to the stevedore's stand and waited there with the rest of the hands to get work. By and by a stevedore came along and asked if I wanted work. I told him yes. He said come along, and I followed him on to the wharf, and worked with a good many others in stowing away cotton in a vessel.”
Additionally, the diverse population of southern cities facilitated maroons' ability to blend into the urban landscape. Hired slaves, free Blacks, and fugitives populated the cities, providing maroons with opportunities to blend in while taking advantage of strong networks of racial solidarity. Underground communities offered assistance to those in need by creating or passing on forged manumission papers, slave passes, or free certificates, allowing maroons to pose as free or legally enslaved individuals. Urban maroons employed similar methods and networks as rural maroons to evade their enslavers within the South.
Despite the entrenched power of slavery in the South, some enslaved people saw the region more promising in maintaining their freedom compared to the North. Although maroons inhabited different landscapes, they used the same strategies to stretch their freedom. Opportunities for these individuals meant interacting with their surroundings and relying on others to remain invisible. Their efforts to reject their enslavement are absent from official records and accounts, and for good reason. They wanted to blend in, to be unknown, to erase their enslaved identity. Overall, this unit hopes to explore these underground stories, shedding light on these overlooked individuals and reshaping our understanding of slavery and escape in North America.
Notes
Sylviane Diouf, Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons (New York: New York University Press, 2014), 6, 9.
“Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave Concluded: Escape from Slavery,” The Emancipator, October 21, 1838.