The Maroons: Courageous, Resilient, Fearless: Dispelling the Myth of the Docile Slave in the American South

by Adelaide Gage

Most of the history written about slavery in the American south discusses two types of slaves- the field slaves and the house slaves. Very little, if any mention is made about the runaway slaves who rebelled against the slave system; if there is mention it's that these runaways were quickly captured, severely punished and/or killed. There's very little discussion about the runaways who successfully escaped slavery and survived living a life of freedom in the woods and swamps. Some historians have denied the reality of marronage in the United States and have reserved the term 'maroons' for the people of Jamaica, Suriname and Brazil, with their large colonies and maroon wars, while the in the United States were called outliers, or runaways and bandits. They never called maroon settlements in the American South by their names, or gave them any name at all, in effect negating their existence at all.

73 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 17, 2018