Maroons were African refugees that escaped slavery in the Americas and formed independent
settlements. The term can also be applied to their descendants. The same root word also
gives us the English verb "to maroon".
History In the New World, as early as 1512, black
slaves had escaped from Spanish and Portuguese captors and either joined indigenous peoples
or eked out a living on their own. Sir Francis Drake enlisted several cimarrónes during
his raids on the Spanish. As early as 1655, runaway slaves had formed their own communities
in inland Jamaica, and by the 18th century, Nanny Town and other villages began to fight
for independent recognition. When runaway slaves banded together and subsisted
independently they were called Maroons. On the Caribbean islands, runaway slaves formed
bands and on some islands formed armed camps. Maroon communities faced great odds to survive
against white attackers, obtain food for subsistence living, and to reproduce and increase their
numbers. As the planters took over more land for crops, the Maroons began to vanish on
the small islands. Only on some of the larger islands were organized Maroon communities
able to thrive by growing crops and hunting. Here they grew in number as more slaves escaped
from plantations and joined their bands. Seeking to separate themselves from whites, the Maroons
gained in power and amid increasing hostilities, they raided and pillaged plantations and harassed
planters until the planters began to fear a massive slave revolt.
The early Maroon communities were usually displaced. By 1700, Maroons had disappeared
from the smaller islands. Survival was always difficult as the Maroons had to fight off
attackers as well as attempt to grow food. One of the most influential Maroons was François
Mackandal, a houngan, or voodoo priest, who led a six-year rebellion against the white
plantation owners in Haiti that preceded the Haitian Revolution.
In Cuba, there were maroon communities in the mountains, where African refugees who
escaped the brutality of slavery and joined refugee Taínos. Before roads were built into
the mountains of Puerto Rico, heavy brush kept many escaped maroons hidden in the southwestern
hills where many also intermarried with the natives. Escaped Africans sought refuge away
from the coastal plantations of Ponce Remnants of these communities remain to this day for
example in Viñales, Cuba, and Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.
Maroon communities emerged in many places in the Caribbean, but none were seen as such
a great threat to the British as the Jamaican Maroons. A British governor signed a treaty
promising them 2,500 acres in two locations, because they presented a threat to the British.
Also, some Maroons kept their freedom by agreeing to capture runaway slaves. They were paid
two dollars for each slave returned. Beginning in the late 17th century, Jamaican
Maroons fought British colonists to a draw and eventually signed treaties in the 18th
century that effectively freed them over 50 years before the abolition of the slave trade
in 1807. To this day, the Jamaican Maroons are to a significant extent autonomous and
separate from Jamaican society. The physical isolation used to their advantage by their
ancestors has today led to their communities remaining among the most inaccessible on the
island. In their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, the Leeward
Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered
to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6 to commemorate the signing
of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War.
In Suriname, which the Dutch took over in 1667, runaway slaves revolted and started
to build their own villages from the end of the 17th century. As most of the plantations
existed in the eastern part of the country, near the Commewijne River and Marowijne River,
the Marronage took place along the river borders and sometimes across the borders of French
Guiana. By 1740 the Maroons had formed clans and felt strong enough to challenge the Dutch
colonists, forcing them to sign peace treaties. On October 10, 1760, the Ndyuka signed such
a treaty forged by Adyáko Benti Basiton of Boston, a former Jamaican slave who had learned
to read and write and knew about the Jamaican treaty. The treaty is still important, as
it defines the territorial rights of the Maroons in the gold-rich inlands of Suriname.
Culture
Slaves escaped frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and
often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion. African
traditions include such things as the use of medicinal herbs together with special drums
and dances when the herbs are administered to a sick person. Other African healing traditions
and rites have survived through the centuries. The jungles around the Caribbean Sea offered
food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. Maroons survived by growing vegetables
and hunting. They also originally raided plantations. During these attacks, the maroons would burn
crops, steal livestock and tools, kill slavemasters, and invite other slaves to join their communities.
Individual groups of Maroons often allied themselves with the local indigenous tribes
and occasionally assimilated into these populations. Maroons played an important role in the histories
of Brazil, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica.
There is much variety among Maroon cultural groups because of differences in history,
geography, African nationality, and the culture of indigenous people throughout the Western
hemisphere. Maroon settlements often possessed a clannish,
outsider identity. They sometimes developed Creole languages by mixing European tongues
with their original African languages. One such Maroon Creole language, in Suriname,
is Saramaccan. Other times the Maroons would adopt the local European language as a common
tongue, for members of the community frequently spoke a variety of mother tongues.
The Maroons created their own independent communities which in some cases have survived
for centuries and until recently remained separate from mainstream society. In the 19th
and 20th centuries, Maroon communities began to disappear as forests were razed, although
some countries, such as Guyana and Suriname, still have large Maroon populations living
in the forests. Recently, many of them moved to cities and towns as the process of urbanization
accelerates. Geographical distribution
North America Florida
The Black Seminoles who allied with Seminole Indians in Florida, were one of the largest
and most successful Maroon communities in the United States.
Louisiana Until the mid-1760s, Maroon colonies lined
the shores of Lake Borgne, just downriver of New Orleans, Louisiana. These fugitive
slaves controlled many of the canals and back-country passages from Lake Pontchartrain to the Gulf,
including the Rigolets. These colonies were finally eradicated by militia from Spanish-controlled
New Orleans led by Francisco Bouligny. Free people of color aided in the capture of these
fugitives. North Carolina and Virginia
A large settlement of the Great Dismal Swamp maroons lived in oppressive conditions in
the marshlands of today's North Carolina and Virginia.
Nova Scotia
From 1796 to 1800, 550 maroons, who had been deported from Jamaica after the Second Maroon
War, lived in Nova Scotia. In 1800, they were sent to Sierra Leone.
Mexico See Gaspar Yanga, Afro-Latin, Afro-Mexican.
Asian Maroon communities were formed among the Afro
Asians that resisted slavery. These communities of maroons still inhabit the South Asian countries.
Central America Panama
A recently arrived slave, Bayano, led a rebellion in 1552 against the Spanish in Panama, and
he and his followers escaped to found villages in the lowlands. Later these people, known
as cimarrons, assisted Sir Francis Drake against the Spanish.
Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua The Gulf of Honduras produced several types
of maroon societies. Some of these were found in the interior of modern-day Honduras along
the trade routes by which silver mined in the Pacific side of the isthmus was carried
down to coastal towns such as Trujillo or Puerto Caballos to be shipped to Europe. The
English bishop of Guatemala, Thomas Gage, reported active bands of maroons numbering
in the hundreds along these routes in 1648. A second group that could be classified as
maroons were the Miskito Sambu, who formed from revolted slaves on a Portuguese ship
around 1640 who wrecked the vessel on the coast of Honduras-Nicaragua and blended in
with the indigenous people over the next half century. They eventually rose to leadership
of the Mosquito Coast, and led extensive slave raids against Spanish-held territories in
the first half of the 18th century. A third group were the Garifuna, who were
actually maroons on the island of Saint Vincent deported to the coast of Honduras in 1797.
From their original landing place in Roatan Island, the Garifuna moved on to Trujillo,
and then groups of them spread south into the Mosquito Kingdom and north into Belize.
Caribbean islands Jamaica
Escaped slaves during the Spanish occupation of the island of Jamaica fled to the interior
and joined the Taínos living there. Additional numbers fled during the confusion surrounding
the 1655 British invasion. Runaway slaves continued to join them until the abolition
of slavery. The main British complaint was that they occasionally raided plantations,
and made expansion into the interior more difficult. These conflicts led to the First
Maroon War in 1731 and the Second Maroon War in 1795. After which, approximately 600 maroons
were deported to Nova Scotia, and later in 1800 removed to Sierra Leone. The only maroon
settlement that remained after the Second Maroon War was Accompong, which had abided
by its 1739 treaty with the British. Haïti
See Mawon. Dominican Republic
See History of the Dominican Republic. St. Vincent and Dominica
Similar Maroon communities emerged elsewhere in the Caribbean, such as St. Vincent and
Dominica. See Garifuna. Cuba
In Cuba, there were maroon communities in the mountains, where escaped slaves had joined
refugee Taínos. Remnants of these communities remain to this day for example in Viñales.
Puerto Rico In Puerto Rico, Taíno families from neighboring
Utuado were found living in the southwestern mountain ranges, along with the escaped Africans
who intermarried with the Taíno. DNA evidence shows that many Africans fled up the Camino
Real into the mountains to escape the sugar plantations of Ponce. The Mandinka, Wolof,
and Fulani mtDNA African haplotype, L1b, is present here. Taíno haplogroups A and C can
also be found in this area. South America
French Guiana and Suriname
Escaped slaves in French Guiana and Suriname fled to the interior and joined with indigenous
peoples and created several independent tribes, among them the Saramaka, the Paramaka, the
Ndyuka, the Kwinti, the Aluku, and the Matawai. By the 1980s the maroons in Suriname had begun
to fight for their land rights. Brazil
One of the best-known quilombos in Brazil was Palmares which was founded in the early
17th century. At its height, it had a population of over 30,000 free people and was ruled by
king Zumbi. Palmares maintained its independent existence for almost a hundred years until
it was conquered by the Portuguese in 1694. Colombia
Escaped slaves established independent communities along the remote Pacific coast, outside of
the reach of the colonial administration. In Colombia the Caribbean coast still sees
maroon communities like San Basilio de Palenque, where the creole Palenquero language is spoken.
Ecuador In addition to escaped slaves, survivors from
shipwrecks formed independent communities along rivers of the northern coast and mingled
with indigenous communities in areas beyond the reach of the colonial administration.
Separate communities can be distinguished form the cantones Limones, Esmeraldas, Cojimies
y Tababuela. See also
Afro-Latin American Black Indians
Black Seminoles Capoeira
Cimarron people First Maroon War
Gaspar Yanga Marie-Elena John
Maroon music Ndyuka
Quilombo Saramaka
Second Maroon War Sranan Tongo
Zambo Notes
References Daughters of the Dust, film by Julie Dash
taking place in 1902 off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. It shows how, on an
isolated island, a group of people manages to hold on to their Ibo customs and traditions.
ISBN 0-525-94109-6 Ganga Zumba, film by Carlos Diegues
Quilombo, film by Carlos Diegues about Palmares, ASIN B0009WIE8E
Hoogbergen, Wim S. M. Brill, The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname, Academic Publishers. ISBN
90-04-09303-6 Corzo, Gabino La Rosa, Runaway Slave Settlements
in Cuba: Resistance and Repression, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
ISBN 0-8078-2803-3 De Granada, Germán, Cimarronismo, palenques
y Hablas “Criollas” en Hispanoamérica Instituto Caro y Cuero, Santa Fe
de Bogotá, Colombia, OCLC 37821053 van Velzen, H.U.E. Thoden and van Wetering,
Wilhelmina, In the Shadow of the Oracle: Religion as Politics in a Suriname Maroon Society,
Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press. ISBN 1-57766-323-3
Price, Richard, Maroon Societies: rebel slave communities in the Americas, Garden City,
N.Y.: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-06508-6 Honychurch, Lennox, The Dominica Story, London:
Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-62776-8 Thompson, Alvin O., Flight to Freedom: African
runaways and maroons in the Americas University of West Indies Press, Kingston, Jamaica, ISBN
976-640-180-2 Learning, Hugo Prosper, Hidden Americans:
Maroons of Virginia and the Carolinas Garland Publishing, New York, ISBN 0-8153-1543-0
Campbell, Mavis Christine, The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655–1796: a history of resistance,
collaboration & betrayal, Granby, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 0-89789-148-1
Dallas, R. C. The History of the Maroons, from Their Origin to the Establishment of
Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone. 2 vols. London: Longman. 1803.
Sergey Slepchenko, Nations of Latin America, Phoenix, Rostov-on-Don, ISBm 92-86-36414-2
Diouf, Sylviane A., Slavery's Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons, New York: NYU
Press, ISBN 978-0814724378 Further reading
Cheney, Glenn Alan, Quilombo dos Palmares: Brazil's Lost Nation of Fugitive Slaves, Hanover,
CT: New London Librarium, 2014 ISBN 978-0-9905899-0-7 Johnson, Brian D. "The Land of Look Behind",
Equinox Magazine, September–October 1983, pp. 49–65. A detailed article with many
superb photos. External links
Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas
A good short history of the "Bush Negroes" of Suriname
The Maroons, Hindustanis and others of Surinam "The Maroon Culture of Endurance by Helen
Reidell". A history of Jamaican Maroons. Also available in Américas Magazine, Vol. 42,
January–February 1990, pp. 46–49. Articles on Suriname Maroons and their culture
in Dutch and English Music from Aluku: Maroon Sounds of Struggle,
Solace, and Survival